For graduate students interested in participating in a 12-week internship in New York City
Who We Are. The East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy is an international research and training center for developing and promoting cultural and performatory approaches to psychology, psychotherapy, teaching, learning, and community building. The Institute offers a variety of training programs in social therapeutics, a postmodern methodology that relates to people of all ages as social performers and creators of their lives, of what they, their communities and the world are becoming.
What is Social Therapy? Social Therapy is a group psychotherapy in which clients work together with therapists to create a therapeutically helpful environment—meaning an environment for social-emotional growth. Created in the 1970s by therapist and philosopher Fred Newman, Social Therapy has been influenced by the sociocultural psychology of Lev Vygotsky and the language philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is a collaborative, philosophically oriented, non-medical model approach that is at the leading edge of the postmodern movement in psychology. Social Therapy is currently practiced at the Social Therapy Group (in Manhattan and Brooklyn), seven other Social Therapy centers in the United States, and dozens of community clinics and health care settings nationally and internationally.
The Internship. Interns will be introduced to Social Therapy theory and practice, and to the programs and activities of the Institute. Each intern will meet regularly with a social therapist who will serve as mentor and advisor, and help conceptualize a final project that expresses the intern’s learning and contributes to the Institute.
Learning Activities
- Observe two different therapy groups comprised of adults, children, teens or families at the Social Therapy Group
- Attend supervision with a social therapist practicing at the Social Therapy Group.
- Attend Institute seminars and events
- Attend study groups on the social therapeutic approach
- Meet psychologists, therapists, educators and community activists from around the world who attend the Institute’s International Class
- Meet regularly with a social therapist who will serve as a mentor and advisor.
This is a twelve-week internship requiring approximately 10 hours per week, which can be spread over 2-3 days. Some evening and weekend hours will be required.
Applicants should email a cover letter and resume (no hard copies, please), indicating their interest in the Institute and in learning Social Therapy to:
Melissa Meyer, Programs Coordinator, East Side Institute: mmeyer@eastsideinstitute.org