CHRISTUS Children's Child Life Internship

Program Information

The Child Life Department at CHRISTUS Children's offers a 15 week, 600 hour clinical child life internship designed to give an intern maximum experience in the hospital setting. The first week is an orientation to our hospital and the Child Life Department. We will also review Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) internship curriculum modules and complete all necessary onboarding requirements.

The remaining weeks are divided into clinical rotations giving the intern experience with all ages of children from infants to adolescents. One week will be designated for site visits to other child life programs, community resources and benevolent organizations that compliment child life services. Child life interns will also be exposed to a variety of medical settings and experiences designed to strengthen each intern's skill set.

Interns will work in various settings to gain experience in the following skill sets:

• Building rapport with patients and families,
• Utilizing growth, development, and family systems theories for assessment and intervention planning,
• Planning and facilitating developmentally appropriate play activities for hospitalized children both in playrooms/group settings and individual sessions,
• Providing child life therapeutic interventions,
• Conducting medical play sessions,
• Participating in preparation for and support during procedures and treatments,
• Conducting assessments, developmental observations and other assignments, all under the supervision of Certified Child Life Specialists.

Our internship provides two clinical rotations along with weekly roundtable learning experiences, reading assignments, journals and project work. Interns will have weekly meetings with their preceptor and the internship coordinators. Intern applicants should expect to work 40 hours per week with additional reading and project work to be done outside hospital hours. The internship is fully aligned with ACLP and utilizes the ACLP curriculum modules as the foundation of the intern's learning experience.

Required readings prior to the internship (these can be purchased through ACLP):

1. Gaynard, L., Wolfer, J., Goldberger, J., Thompson, R., Redburn, L., & Laidley, L. (1998). Psychosocial care of children in hospitals: A clinical practice manual from the ACCH Child Life Research Project. Child Life Council.
2. Rollins, J. A., Bolig, R., & Mahan, C. C. (Eds.). (2018). Meeting children's psychosocial needs across the health-care continuum (2nd ed.). PRO-ED, Inc.
3. Thompson, Richard. (Ed.). (2018). The Handbook of Child Life: A Guide for Pediatric Psychosocial Care (2nd ed.). Charles C. Thomas.

*Additional required readings from ACLP curriculum modules will be provided during the internship.

CHRISTUS Children's Child Life Internship Program accepts university-affiliated students and non-affiliated/independent students. Currently, our child life program has affiliations with several universities. However, if your university does not have an affiliation with our hospital, our corporate legal team and your university’s legal team will need to facilitate a contract. This is a time-sensitive issue and it may not be completed by the internship start date. If you have questions regarding your university’s affiliation, please email childlifeinternship@christushealth.org.

Interns not affiliated with a university are required to obtain liability insurance prior to the start of the internship at their own cost. Information on how to obtain liability insurance will be provided prior to the start date, if needed. University-affiliated interns will need to provide proof of liability insurance through their academic institution. Interns must provide proof of immunizations and TB test results prior to their start date. Interns will be responsible for obtaining a flu shot per hospital infection prevention guidelines.

Requirements to Apply

1. Applicants must be pursuing or have completed a bachelor's degree or master’s degree in child life, child development or a related field.
2. Applicants must complete the ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application.
3. Steps to complete the application include:
   1. Candidates provide demographic information as well as academic affiliation and degree information
   2. Candidates can describe up to six relevant experiences. Please see No. 4 below for updated practicum requirement.
   3. Candidates can demonstrate KSAs and depth of interactions with children and families in five written responses
   4. Upload Unofficial Transcripts
   5. Upload Eligibility Assessment Evaluation Report
4. CHRISTUS Children’s additional requirement: applicants must have completed a Child Life practicum/practicum under a child life specialist OR have 100 hours of a Child Life practicum completed by the time the application is due. This should be noted in your ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application in the Documentation of Experience section.

Once all tasks are complete, applicants can download the application or submit it to childlifeinternship@christushealth.org.

Application Deadlines

CHRISTUS Children’s Child Life Internship Program offers internships for the fall and spring semesters. We do not offer summer internships. We accept the first 80 completed applications that are received each application cycle. We will begin receiving applications five weeks prior to the application deadline. The dates are noted below:

• Fall 2026 internship application acceptance window begins February 16th with a March 13th deadline.

Completed applications require the following components:

• ACLP New Common Internship Readiness Application
• ACLP Eligibility Assessment Evaluation Report
• Unofficial academic transcript(s) verifying required academic coursework

We will close the application acceptance pool once we have received 80 completed applications or at the ACLP application deadline for each application cycle, whichever comes first. You will be notified by an automatic reply from the email inbox childlifeinternship@christushealth.org if your application is received and accepted, or if we have reached our capacity of applications.

Application Checklist

Please note we are not requesting anything additional outside of the ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application. Please email us at childlifeinternship@christushealth.org with any questions you may have throughout the internship application process.

Please return the completed application packet with the following included: ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application Form

Applications must be completed as one continuous Word document or continuous PDF form by ACLP deadlines and emailed to: childlifeinternship@christushealth.org

Application Review and Interview Information

The internship committee will review all completed and accepted applications after the application deadline has passed. We use a review process that includes a scoring matrix in each step of the application and interview process. We will then:

1. Identify our initial candidate pool from the applications. These candidates may be asked to participate in a brief phone interview for us to gain more information regarding the candidate’s education and experience.
2. Extend offers and conduct final interviews using the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format. Specific details regarding the MMI format will be communicated to candidates via email prior to the final interview.
3. Final interviews are typically held one to two weeks prior to the initial offer date.
   1. Interview dates will be pre-selected each semester and communicated to the candidates.
   2. All final interviews will be conducted virtually using Microsoft Teams.
   3. Applicants selected for the final interview will be asked to provide our interview team with a current resume. This request will be communicated to candidates with a timeline for submission prior to the final interview.

Please contact the Child Life Internship Coordinator via email at childlifeinternship@christushealth.org with any questions you may have about the application process or the internship program.

We wish you well on your journey to become a Certified Child Life Specialist!

Other Resources

The Southern Association of Child Life Professionals (SACLP) offers a child life student internship scholarship.