ProCare Fresh Minds, New Zealand’s largest provider of primary mental health and wellbeing services, is delighted to announce the continuation of Health New Zealand’s Psychologist Intern Hub Services for 2025, alongside Tāmaki Health.
The Intern Hub is based at Fresh Minds’ busy central Auckland clinics, and at one of Tāmaki Health’s sites, and sees the interns working in various clinical settings across Tāmaki Makaurau.
The internships are available for students in any University in Aotearoa who are undertaking their final year of post-graduate training in either Clinical Psychology or Health Psychology. This year, Fresh Minds is hosting students from the University of Otago, University of Auckland, and Victoria University of Wellington.
Bindi Norwell, Group CEO at ProCare says: “The Psychologist Intern Hub is helping work towards Minister Doocey’s mental health targets to grow the mental health and addiction workforce. This programme supports the next generation of psychologists by providing an opportunity for hands-on training in diverse clinical settings. This internship provides students with workplace experience, supervision and mentorship, ensuring that the next generation of psychologists is well equipped in the workforce.
“To secure the future of mental health care in Aotearoa, we need a whole-of-system approach that addresses immediate workforce shortages while building long-term, sustainable solutions. Providing robust, well-supported internships like these help psychology students thrive during training and encourages them to stay in the profession – an area that ProCare Fresh Minds is pleased to be supporting,” states Norwell.
Dr Tania Wilson, General Manager at ProCare Fresh Minds says: “”Embedding psychology interns in primary care is a fantastic step for New Zealand’s mental health system. It helps make primary care a more viable and attractive career path for graduates, while also strengthening early intervention and bringing mental health support closer to where people live and work, normalising access and improving community wellbeing.
“Furthermore, the primary care setting of ProCare Fresh Minds provides interns a unique opportunity to develop real-world clinical skills in a fast-paced, culturally diverse environment. In Aotearoa, this means working holistically in a stepped model of care, delivering targeted, impactful interventions that make a real difference in everyday lives,” continues Dr Wilson.
“Looking ahead, we’re committed to scaling up our integrated primary mental health and addictions services. Training and preparing new psychologists for this vital work is a key step toward addressing New Zealand’s significant workforce shortage in mental health, particularly the shortage of psychologists. We’re confident the Psychologist Intern Hub will continue to create a strong pipeline of emerging psychologists, introducing them to meaningful career opportunities in the growing field of primary mental and behavioural health, particularly as we look to continue and scale up this work with Health New Zealand moving forward,” concludes Dr Wilson.
Fresh Minds is committed to grow its team of psychologists, nurses, and other allied health professionals, with experience in third wave talking therapies, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy. Additionally, the organisation is passionate about delivering targeted talking therapies and is flexible in meeting interns’ needs in their university programmes. There will also be opportunities for ongoing professional development relevant to the role of a psychologist working in our settings.
Notes:
Fresh Minds’ supervising Clinical Psychologist is Dr Amanda Willets, and Tāmaki Health’s supervising Health Psychologist is Pam Low.
About ProCare Fresh Minds
ProCare Fresh Minds is a leading provider of primary mental health and wellbeing support in Aotearoa New Zealand. Fresh Minds provides psychology support services for individuals in-person and online and in a variety of settings including Fresh Minds centres, schools, workplaces, the community, and in General Practice. Fresh Minds is supported by comprehensive clinical governance, expertise and rigorous systems to ensure the support is of the highest quality. www.freshminds.co.nz
