Internship Assignment Guidelines at Rikers Island Mental Health Services

In collaboration with CSSW’s DBT Program, Director of Student Education at Rikers Island Mental Health Services assigns a pair of  students enrolled in the DBT Program to work on specific units as an intern for the academic year three days per week as agreed upon by the students and their supervisors. The academic year starts in early September and ends in late April.

The students’ primary assignment is to provide adapted Dialectical Behavior Therapy on Rikers Island in a correctional mental health setting. The student will participate in all modes of DBT, including individual DBT therapy, DBT Skills Training Group, intersession milieu coaching, and Consultation Team.
Individual DBT Therapy: At maximum capacity, the students will have no less than 2 and no more than 4 individual DBT therapy clients that s/he will see at least once weekly.
DBT Skills Training Group: The students will facilitate at least 2 DBT Skills Training Groups per week on their assigned unit. The students will alternate their roles as the teacher and the facilitator weekly.
Intersession Milieu Coaching: The students will be responsible for providing milieu coaching in between sessions with clients. The students’ supervisor will be providing additional support for intersession milieu coaching should the student not be available.

Consultation Team: The students will participate as an active member of the DBT Consultation Team, which is held weekly for 1 to 1.5 hours in duration. The student will be expected to both provide and receive consultation on cases discussed during Team, as well as share in the roles of Mindfulness Leader, Observer, Note Taker, and Meeting Leader.

Documentation: The students will be responsible all the documentations following individual therapy sessions and skills-training groups. The students’ supervisor will respectively review and sign off on the students’ documentation.