YOC’s Doctoral Internship Program

The Youth Opportunity Center’s (YOC) American Psychological Association (APA) APA-accredited Doctoral Internship in Psychology Program enables doctoral interns to be exposed to a variety of mental and behavioral health services for youth and families. The YOC’s residential treatment programs offer multiple treatment programs for a wide variety of childhood disorders. The interns are part of a multi-disciplinary team of professionals that provide mental and behavioral health services including individual, family and group therapy, as well as conducting comprehensive psychological testing. Doctoral Interns are exposed to numerous training opportunities provided by psychology faculty (on-campus), psychologists and professionals from the community. Interns are encouraged to develop their abilities to provide individual, group and family therapy, create behavior plans for the residents and staff, and learn to work within a cohesive multi-disciplinary team. Doctoral Interns will develop their problem solving skills, crisis intervention skills, and psychological assessment and report writing skills. The intern will engaged professionally with juvenile probation officers, family case managers from the Department of Child Services (DCS), educators, special education professionals and committees, and parents involved within the juvenile justice system. Additionally, doctoral interns will gain experience in the judicial system as they attend and testify in court.  Please feel free to contact Dr. Gisselle McKell-Jeffers with any questions at 765-289-5437.

Youth Opportunity Center Clients and Services YOC is located on a 75-acre campus which includes nine residential cottages that are home to four individualized treatment programs, an on-grounds school, recreation facilities, support buildings, and nature areas. The YOC campus also includes emergency shelter care programs, a private secure treatment program for adolescents (Treatment for Adolescents in Secure Care), a juvenile detention center and an outpatient counseling clinic. Doctoral interns have the ability to work in a variety of settings with diverse populations of clients. The children and families served by the YOC are typically “multi-crisis families”. These families often struggle with substance abuse, poverty, disabilities, homelessness, physical and sexual abuse (generational), trauma, violence, and mental illness. Working with this challenging and diverse population requires the doctoral interns to be open to working systematically with complex family issues and working collegially with other professionals in an organized manner. Linking families to other agencies and resources, providing home-based therapy when needed, and maintaining a solution-focused approach is necessary to provide a supportive environment for residents as they transition back into the home. This doctoral internship program challenges the doctoral intern to find solutions to complex problems with the support of the court system, and to meet the needs of the youth and the entire family.

Supervisory Staff

Gisselle McKell-Jeffers
Ph.D., HSPP

Chief Clinical Officer

Dr. McKell-Jeffers was born and raised in the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago.  She finished her undergraduate studies at Coppin State University located in Baltimore, Maryland.  In Baltimore her passion for psychology and the Baltimore Ravens were ignited.  During that time, Dr. McKell-Jeffers completed the Howard Hughes Summer Research Fellowship in the spatial cognition lab of the Psychology and Brain Sciences Department of Johns Hopkins University (JHU).  Dr. McKell-Jeffers gained more research experience working in the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at JHU before entering the Doctoral degree program in Clinical Psychology at Howard University located in Washington, D.C.  During Dr. McKell-Jeffers’ doctoral training she received practical experiences working with children, adolescents and families at the Kennedy Krieger Institute,  Children’s National Medical Center, D.C. Superior Courts, and several public schools.  Dr. McKell-Jeffers completed her internship and postdoctoral training at the Youth Opportunity Center located in Muncie, IN where she continues to practice.  She supervises practicum and doctoral students at the YOC.  Dr. McKell-Jeffers utilizes elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy, behavioral therapy and family systems with her clients.  She also conducts psychological and brief neuropsychological assessments of children and adolescents.  Dr. McKell-Jeffers’ research interests are in the affective, cognitive and physiological impacts of emotional and physical trauma on youth. Additionally, she is a member of the APA Division 35, section 351 (Society for the Psychology of Women—Section of Black Women).

Dr. Jessica Simpson, PsyD, HSPP

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Director of Internship and Diagnostic Services

Dr. Jessica Simpson was born and raised in the Indianapolis-area. She attended Indiana University- Purdue University- Indianapolis (IUPUI) to earn her undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Spanish. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked with individuals with autism for a couple of years, and volunteered in a research lab. Dr. Simpson then attended University of Indianapolis (UIndy), where she gained practicum experience working in both private practice and detention. She completed her dissertation on an evaluation of a life skills program in South Africa. Dr. Simpson spent her final graduate school practicum and her pre-doctoral internship at Youth Opportunity Center. During her post-doctoral internship, she gained further experience in private practice, school, residential, and detention settings. After she obtained her license, she worked in a combined residential and community mental health center, before returning to the Youth Opportunity Center as the Director of Internship and Diagnostic Services. Dr. Simpson is a licensed clinical psychologist who is passionate about working with and advocating for underserved youth in the criminal justice and child services systems. She utilizes a trauma-informed and strength-based lens when conceptualizing psychodiagnostic assessment and therapy clients. Dr. Simpson implements multiple forms of treatment interventions in working with clients, including Motivational Interviewing (MI), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) techniques.

Dr. Hatfield

Psychologist

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Dr. Bobby Boyd Hatfield, Jr. is a proud, life-long resident of Muncie, Indiana. He has been supporting the Muncie Community as a licensed psychologist for approximately 30 years. One of the many things that sets Dr. Hatfield apart from others is his diverse work experiences in the mental health field. His greatest passion is working with families and children in the community and facilitating programs supporting social and emotional development. Dr. Hatfield is a positive force in any setting and he leads with his tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. With Dr. Hatfield, the mindset of “We before me” is always a focal point. Dr. Hatfield is inspired daily by the resilience and brave children he works with, his wife of 26 years, their 6 children and 4 amazing granddaughters. In his free time, Dr. Hatfield enjoys directing youth sports programs and working on his far.

Dr. Sander

Adjunct Research Faculty

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Adjunct Psychologist Dr. Sander has had a collaborative relationship with the YOC in the role of (volunteer) adjunct research faculty since fall 2012. As part of her role she provides didactic training for the interns (roughly 10 trainings per year), topical seminars to the community at large and facility stakeholders, and consultations about program evaluation and using data to make decisions about client care. She is a licensed psychologist and an associate professor in Educational Psychology and teaches in the School Psychology (APA accredited) training program at Ball State University. She has expertise in research and in practice with juvenile justice populations, including addressing academic, emotional, and behavioral challenges. She has collected data using archival psychological assessment records at YOC, which she has made available to interns if they are interested in collaborating or conducting research at YOC. Recently she received a 3-year criminal justice researcher-practitioner partnership grant with YOC from the National Institute of Justice to offer a randomized control trial reading intervention to youth who are eligible, and this reflects her ongoing commitment to and partnership with YOC. She also serves as the Delaware County Data Work Group Chair for the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, which is a nationwide effort to incorporate data to guide policies and decisions in order to address racial/ethnic/gender disparity in use of detention for juveniles.