Wright-Patterson Medical Center
(Click on picture for program brochure)
Our internship has been providing broad-based clinical psychology training since 1978 and has been APA accredited since 1979. Core clinical rotations include the Outpatient Mental Health Clinic, Clinical Health Psychology Service/Primary Care Clinic, and Neuropsychology Service. These are supplemented by experiences in Aeromedical Consultation Service, Deployment Psychology, and Crisis and Assessment.
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In addition to a select active duty and civilian core faculty, we also enjoy the support of other Wright-Patterson Medical Center and Dayton-area health professionals in psychology, psychiatry, social work, psychiatric nursing, neurology, pediatrics, primary care, and many others who teach our didactics programs or interact with our interns in various roles. Our interns attend combined didactics with, University of Dayton, Dayton Veteran’s Administration Hospital, and Wright State University Psychiatry and Psychology residents.
We strive to prepare Air Force psychologists to deliver high quality, effective psychological services both within a community-based health care model and in support of wartime and peacetime military operations at home and in a deployed environment. We do this through a combination of supervised clinical experience, didactic training, clinical case conferences and “journal club.” The strength of this program and its key to success has been the long standing cooperative, professional, and mutually enriching relationships among the various mental health disciplines. We are proud of the mutual respect evident among the psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and mental health nurses and technicians at Wright-Patterson and the positive training environment it provides for our interns.
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Training Director
Maj (Dr.) Aaron M. Esche
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Maj Esche, Ph.D., earned his doctorate in counseling psychology at Ball State University and completed his internship at Wright Patterson Medical Center. He was a military spouse for eight years before starting active duty service himself in 2016. He has served a wide range of leadership roles, to include ADAPT program manager, Mental Health Element Leader, and Director of Psychological Health. Since 2020, he has served on faculty for the Pre-Doctoral Psychology Internship at Wright-Patterson, and he was interim director for much of the 2022-2023 internship class. He has dedicated his career to clinical work and teaching, mentoring numerous students and enlisted technicians. He has also deployed twice, serving an Afghan refugee mission as well as military missions in Africa. He has a passion for evidenced based clinical intervention, with particular interests in the delivery of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and transdiagnostic & transtheoretical approaches.
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Education and Training
2009 Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
2012 Master of Science in Counseling Psychology, Louisiana State University Shreveport
2017 Doctorate in Counseling Psychology, Ball State University
2017 Clinical Psychology Residency, Wright-Patterson Medical Center
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