Parent Child Home Visiting (Minneapolis Campus)

AGENCY AND PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

St. David's Developmental & Therapeutic Services is a regional leader in child and family development. We offer therapeutic, educational, and support services, including mental health and pediatric therapies, autism treatment, home visiting, an inclusive preschool, and disability services. Over 8,000 children and families access these services at our three early intervention centers in Minneapolis and Minnetonka, more than 30 partner sites, and hundreds of homes across the community.

We provide a continuum of relationship-based mental health services for nearly 2,000 children ages birth to adolescence and their families, including those impacted by trauma and early adversity, engaging them at home, in the community, and in center-based treatment programs.

Our Parent Child Home Visiting Programs, located on our Minneapolis Campus and providing services throughout Hennepin County, provide relationship-based, trauma-informed support to families beginning in pregnancy and continuing through early childhood. Grounded in Infant Mental Health principles and Attachment Theory, our services focus on nurturing strong caregiver-child relationships, promoting healthy development, and supporting the overall wellbeing and stability of each family we serve. Across all programs, our home visitors provide ongoing developmental guidance, reflective support, and individualized resources within a trusting, culturally responsive relationship to strengthen family stability and resilience. Some of our home visitors provide services in Hmong or Spanish, and we may be able to support interns in obtaining clinical experience providing home visiting services in either of these languages.

We offer the following three evidence-based, strength-focused home visiting models designed to meet the unique needs of families. Interns will have the opportunity to gain insight into how each of these models are implemented and adapted to meet varying family needs.

1) Healthy Families America (HFA): Serving families from pregnancy through age four, HFA provides long-term home visiting services-often lasting 4 years-that focus on building secure parent-child attachment, supporting healthy development, and enhancing family functioning.

2) Parents as Teachers (PAT): Available from prenatal through the transition to kindergarten, PAT provides a two-year home visiting program designed to empower caregivers with knowledge, skills, and confidence to support their child's learning and development. Through its interconnected components-parent-child interaction, development centered parenting, and family wellbeing-PAT offers consistent, relationship-based guidance that strengthens caregiver capacity and promotes healthy development.

3) Sensitive Parenting Support Program (SPS): (SPS) is a specialized, home visiting service designed for families from pregnancy through age four who are parenting a young child while navigating significant mental health challenges. SPS offers intensive support focused on strengthening the caregiver-child relationship, enhancing emotional attunement, and promoting healthy coregulation. In this program, home visitors use the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) intervention to help caregivers respond sensitively to their child's cues, reduce frightening or intrusive behaviors, and build consistent, nurturing routines that support secure attachment. SPS is provided over a focused 6-9- month period, allowing families to receive intentional, relationship-based guidance that aligns with their mental health needs while fostering stability and resilience.

We love to hire our successful interns! St. David's has a long tradition of investing in the professional development of our mental health employees, starting with the interns we hire. All post-graduate clinical trainees receive free licensure supervision as part of our benefit package and evidence of our investment in professional development.

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES:

In our Parent Child Home Visiting Programs, there is 1 Fall-Spring/Academic Year placement cycle (approx. September - May) internship available for a Foundational Student.

Interns are required to be present on Tuesdays, with ideal hours on this day including 10am-2:30pm to allow for participation in team meetings. Fridays are not available for field hours.

Foundation Students will have the opportunity to:

- Gain understanding of how early relationships shape brain development, emotional regulation and long-term wellbeing.

- Observe and learn how secure attachment is supported through sensitive caregiving, co-regulation, and reflective practice with families.

- Learn how to engage families with safety, trust, and cultural humility while recognizing the impact of adversity, stress, and trauma.

- Explore approaches to serving families with diverse identities, cultural practices, and lived experiences in a respectful, inclusive way.

- Understand typical and atypical development and observe how home visitors coach caregivers to support positive parent-child interactions

- Develop skills in using affirming, empowering language to support caregiver confidence and capacity.

- Work with the team to thoughtfully strategize activities, interventions, and resource connections that can best support family wellbeing, stability, and growth.

- Learn how to connect families with concrete resources (housing, food, mental health supports, childcare etc.) to promote stability.

- Understand how home visiting teams collaborate with other providers and community agencies.

- Observe and practice writing strengths-focused documentation aligned with program requirements and ethical guidelines.

- Attend and co-facilitate home visiting sessions alongside experienced home visitors. Observe and actively participate in relationship-based, developmentally supportive work with families while learning how tenured home visiting staff model sensitive engagement, attunement, and reflective practice during visits.

- Observe and facilitate a range of assessments (e.g., parent health screens, developmental assessments, parent-child interactions).

- Attend and co-facilitate parent support groups with experienced staff. Build skills in creating safe, welcoming spaces for caregivers to connect, reflect, and share experiences and providing activities that encourage healthy, attuned parent-child interactions.

Multidisciplinary learning opportunities may also include:

- Observing occupational and speech therapy sessions.

- Observing outpatient mental health diagnostic assessments.

- Observing typical child development in our Early Childhood Education Program.

- Observing other mental health services in the agency (school-based mental health treatment, Family Place Preschool Mental Health Day Treatment, Autism Day Treatment, etc).

- Opportunity for DEI focused work, such as BIPOC reflective practice group participation, DEI panels and meetings, etc.

SUPERVISION AND TRAINING:

Students will receive individual reflective supervision every week. Students will participate in team reflective clinical consultations that explore each family's strengths and protective factors alongside their challenges and barriers. Through reflective supervision and consultation, students will experience reflective practice principles and learn to consider how one's own experiences, biases, and emotions influence work with families. For students who are interested in earning Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement, some reflective supervision / consultation hours may be counted toward endorsement. In addition, students will have the opportunity to participate in program and agency trainings on a wide variety of relevant topics. Students are encouraged to bring in and integrate readings and assignments from their academic courses.

STUDENT EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENT:

Master's Level:

- Must be enrolled in a Master's Degree Program for Social Work, Clinical Counseling, or Marriage and Family Therapy.

Bachelor's Level:

- Must be enrolled in a Bachelor's Degree Program in a related field.

STUDENT QUALITIES DESIRED FOR EFFECTIVE WORK IN THIS PROGRAM:

- Work or life experience with children.

- Ability to take direction and work as a team member.

- Strong communication and written skills.

- Ability to establish positive, respectful working relationships with a diverse population of adults and children.

- Flexibility, creativity, and the ability to think on your feet and problem solve.

PLACEMENT REQUIREMENTS FOR PARENT CHILD HOME VISITING PROGRAMS:

- Placement requirements: In Person

- Field hours availability: Daytime hours: Monday - Friday

- Specific hours or days: Interns are required to be present on Tuesdays, with ideal hours on this day including 10am-2:30pm to allow for participation in team meetings. Fridays are not available for field hours.

- Car required? Yes.

- Required orientation? All interns are required to attend a New Employee Orientation before beginning their internship. They are held 2x/month on Monday mornings from 8:45am-12:15pm on our Minneapolis Campus with free parking available; exact date will be determined based on student start date.

- Background check required? Yes. Agency will cover the cost.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

- Please send your cover letter and resume to: Paula Frisk MS, LMFT, IMH-E (pfrisk@stdavidsmn.org).

QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY, PLEASE CONTACT:

Paula Frisk, MS, LMFT, IMH-E (pfrisk@stdavidsmn.org)

FOR GENERAL QUESTIONS REGARDING MENTAL HEALTH INTERNSHIPS AT ST. DAVID'S, PLEASE CONTACT:

Sarah Ahlfs-Dunn, PhD, LP (sahlfs-dunn@stdavidsmn.org)