Clinical Experiences

I Ola Lāhui’s (IOL) aim is to provide training to interns in effective, culturally-minded interventions for use in Hawai`i’s rural and medically underserved communities. To enhance the diversity of training experiences available to our interns, IOL maintains the core curriculum and standards for four required clinical experiences across a diverse group of clinical settings in Hawai`i (adult, child and family, primary care psychology and integrated behavioral health, and behavioral medicine and health psychology). Throughout the year, three days per week are dedicated to clinical experiences and two days per week are dedicated to other training activities such as didactic trainings, program development and evaluation/research, and grant-related as well as community outreach projects. Interns acquire experience and training in the four clinical experiences during their scheduled three clinical days per week. The amount and depth of clinical experience each intern receives across the four clinical experiences will vary based on which training site(s) they are placed at.

Site Placement:

After applicants successfully match with IOL, they are asked to rank site preference based on experience, interest, and growth areas. Interns are then placed in one or more training sites to ensure training in all four required clinical experiences. The assigned training site(s) are set for the full duration of the internship year. Availability of sites may change from year to year. Currently, there are 3 clinical training sites within our internship program: IOL Behavioral Health Services (IOL BHS), which includes 7 training sub-sites, Waimānalo Health Center (WHC), and Big Island Substance Abuse Council (BISAC). The 7 training sub-sites under IOL BHS include Ala Moana Clinic, HOME Project, Project Vision, Hawai`i Keiki (HI-KEIKI), Hanu Moloka`i, Hui No Ke Ola Pono (HNKOP), and Pūlama Ka Heke (PKH).

IOL Behavioral Health Services (IOL BHS) offers integrative behavioral health services to Native Hawaiians and other medically underserved groups. Individuals, couples, and family services are available to address health behavior change, chronic disease management, as well as traditional mental health concerns using culturally-minded evidence-based treatment strategies designed to minimize stigma and improve fit with these populations. IOL BHS works within a patient centered health care home model in conjunction with primary care providers and other health professionals to provide quality, coordinated care. The following training sub-sites have been developed by IOL and are run under the umbrella of IOL BHS. All sub-sites are clinical supervised by IOL BHS doctoral level licensed psychologists.

Ala Moana Clinic: IOL integrates with other community and/or hospital based medical providers, including neurologists, endocrinologists, and geriatric specialists, by way of referrals and maintaining communication with these providers on shared patients to review patient progress and treatment plans. Interns gain experience providing individual, couples, family, and group therapy services across the lifespan to address health behavior change, chronic disease management, as well as traditional mental health concerns. They provide culturally-minded evidence-based treatment strategies designed to minimize stigma and improve fit with these populations.

Hawai`i Keiki (HI-KEIKI): Hawai`i Keiki: Healthy and Ready to Learn Program is a nurse-led school-based health program launched in 2014. The HI-KEIKI program is a partnership between UH Mānoa Department of Nursing and the Hawai`i Department of Education that focuses on enhancing and building school-based primary care services that screen for treatable health conditions, provide referral to primary health care and patient centered medical home services, prevent and control communicable diseases and other health problems, and provide emergency care for illness or injury. Interns at HI-KEIKI receive training in primary care psychology and integrated behavioral health. They learn how to provide concise, accurate assessment and brief interventions as part of an interdisciplinary team consisting of APRNs, Medical Assistants, School Health Aids, School Counselors, and Dental Hygienists. Services are provided to middle school students at a school located in a medically underserved area.

HOME Project: The Hawai`i Homeless Outreach and Medical Education Project (HOME Project) is a free primary care clinic whose mission is to improve quality access to health care for Hawai`i’s houseless population which includes many families with children, while increasing interns and physician awareness and understanding of their health care needs. The HOME Project provides free medical services including medical care for acute and chronic medical problems, preventative care, health education, dental and vision screening, minor procedures, resource management, labs and vaccines, and medications for the uninsured. Interns at HOME Project. Interns are HOME Project will provide brief BH interventions on site with social work students and medical students to meet the BH needs of the community.

Project Vision: Project Vision is a mobile health and social services provider that specializes in providing essential care to underserved communities. Interns provide behavioral health services at Project Vision’s Windward Kauhale, located on the East side of O`ahu. Aligned with the Pu`uhonua o Nēnē initiative, the Windward Kauhale provides housing, health and social services, food, and care management services for people in the community who are houseless.

Hui No Ke Ola Pono (HNKOP): HNKOP is a non-profit community-based health care center and is the Native Hawaiian Health Care System for Maui. HNKOP provides services to Maui at its offices in Wailuku and Hana. Services provided include primary care, hearth health, fitness, dental, traditional healing, wellness and outreach, and the Ornish Weight Management Program. Interns at HNKOP collaborate with and are available for warm handoffs with primary care providers. Interns also provide more traditional behavioral health services including individual, family, and couples therapy for patients across the lifespan.

Hanu Moloka`i: IOL’s tobacco cessation program, Hanu Moloka`i, focuses its area of interest on servicing the island of Moloka`i. Participants served range from childhood (predominantly middle school/high school) to kūpuna of all genders. Interns placed at Hanu Moloka`i participate in brief screening for tobacco use, community outreach events, engage in program development, lead tobacco cessation education groups, and provide individual tobacco cessation sessions.

Pūlama Ka Heke (PKH): PKH is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization established in 2024 whose mission is to partner with health provider to overcome Moloka`i’s physical, mental, and social health challenges. The vision of PKH is to build a place with access to resources that creates a healthy community that supports the well-being of Moloka`i’s residents. PKH focuses on integrated culturally sensitive, aina-based care with accessible behavioral health services that are vital for addressing the alarming rates of morbidity and mortality related to mental health, chronic disease, and substance use in Moloka`i’s rural landscape. Interns placed at PKH engage in outreach and long-term behavioral health services that support the community of Moloka'`i. Services are predominantly focused on the more vulnerable populations such as kūpuna and those are risk for behavioral health concerns.

Waimānalo Health Center:

The Waimānalo Health Center (WHC) is a private, community-based, non-profit corporation that provides health services to a Medically Underserved Area (MUA) in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA). Interns at WHC will work three days per week with a focus on primary care psychology, concise accurate assessment, integrative treatment planning including psychopharmacology, evidence-based interventions, and cultural competency. Interns will receive training and experience in all four core clinical experiences.

Big Island Substance Abuse Council:

The Big Island Substance Abuse Council (BISAC) has been providing substance treatment services across the state of Hawai`i since 1964. BISAC provides a continuum of substance use services that are culturally minded and include intensive outpatient, therapeutic living, adolescent school-based services, adult mental health, and vocational program. The Hawai`i Island Health and Wellness Center (HIHWC) is a division of BISAC, established in 2014, that provide general outpatient behavioral health services to all members of the community, regardless of substance use history. Interns at BISAC will fly to Hawai`i Island on a weekly basis and provide clinical services in both the substance use programs and at HIHWC.

IOL Partnership Training Faculty

Our program has a diverse faculty with a wide range of expertise and interests as clinicians and  researchers.  Members of our faculty and board have joint affiliations with the Hawai`i Psychological Association,  Waimānalo Health Center, Hawai‘i Island Family Health Center, BISAC, the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa Clinical Studies Doctoral Program, and the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology. The program faculty and supervisors  have been training, supervising, and delivering services in Hawai`i for the past 17 years as part of  the Rural Hawai'i Behavioral Health Program and Tripler Army Medical Center.  

Faculty members participate in intern training in a variety of ways.  Clinical supervisors provide  supervision to interns for all of the direct services they provide.  Interns will be scheduled for a minimum of 2 hours of individual clinical supervision and 2 hours of group supervision on an ongoing weekly basis. All supervision is provided by doctoral level licensed psychologists. Additional information on IOL faculty and providers can be found here.

Sid Hermosura, Psy.D.

Licensed Clinical Supervisor 

Dr. Hermosura received his Psy.D. in clinical psychology from Argosy University, Honolulu campus in 2010. He completed a pre-doctoral internship and a postdoctoral fellowship at I Ola Lāhui.  He is currently the Director of Behavioral Health at Waimānalo Health Center, where he serves as a Clinical Supervisor for I Ola Lāhui.  His interests include primary care behavioral health integration, the prevention and treatment of chronic health conditions to the medically underserved, utilization of evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence, and positive psychology.

Hannah Preston-Pita, Psy.D., CSAC

Licensed Clinical Supervisor

Dr. Preston-Pita is the CEO of the Big Island Substance Abuse Council on the island of Hawaii. She earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Argosy University, Honolulu and is currently a licensed clinical psychologist and certified substance abuse counselor. She currently serves on the board for Mental Health Of America, is a member of the South Hilo Rotary Club, a graduate of the Weinberg Fellowship program, and also has a doctorate in Education with a specialty in Transformational Leadership. She is a mother of five children and enjoys spending time with her family.