SAPIC is an APA Accredited Internship Program

Liz Dampsey, Ph.D. is a Health Psychologist and the Training Director for the Southern Arizona Psychology Internship Center (SAPIC) at La Frontera Center.  She is a graduate of Fielding Graduate University and was a SAPIC predoctoral intern in 2016-2017.  She also completed a full-time postdoctoral fellowship at Sierra Tucson where she provided a variety of psychological test evaluations.  Liz‘s professional focus as a psychotherapist has included working with people facing various issues from a trauma-informed approach for the past 18 years.  Her life-long interest and passion in the mind/body connection and somatic modalities led to her training in Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Movement-Based Expressive Arts Therapy, and Adventure Therapy.  She worked at Sierra Tucson, an inpatient psychiatric hospital/behavioral health treatment facility from 2001 to 2016 and served in several positions including Coordinator of the Grief and Spirituality department where she supervised and trained staff in Gestalt techniques.  In addition, Liz served as an Equine-Assisted Psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and Movement-Based Expressive Arts Therapist; she also developed interventions that integrated Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing.  Liz served on the Diversity Committee, facilitated LGBTQ support groups, and was the LGBTQ staff advocate.  She seeks to provide a supportive learning environment for supervisees through a collaborative, developmental approach.

Roxana Samaniego, Ph.D. has been part of the Tucson psychology community for over 13 years.  She graduated from the Clinical Psychology Program at Arizona State University and did her predoctoral internship at The Southern Arizona Psychology Internship Consortium (SAPIC). She began her career in school psychology at the Tempe Elementary School District and taught for over 10 years for Northern Arizona Distance Programs in the areas of multicultural counseling and educational psychology.  Roxana has also been a board member of the Southern Arizona Psychological Association for a number of years and currently chairs the SAPA in the Community Committee.  She has been on several committees through AZPA, including the membership and leadership development committees. Currently, she works in private practice and at the University of Arizona’s Strategic Alternative Learning Technique Center (aka The SALT Center), which is a program designed for students with learning challenges. In her work with interns, she strives to bring a multicultural emphasis to further the intern’s understanding of the various ways in which culture and identity impact all aspects of our work.

Jessica Weeks, Ph.D. is a Licensed Psychologist in Arizona and Utah. She earned her Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of Utah in 2017. Prior to earning her doctorate, Dr. Weeks worked as a full-time school psychologist in title 1 schools in the Salt Lake valley. Her graduate training focused on autism assessment and intervention while her research interests led her to study early childhood trauma and therapeutic treatments. Dr. Weeks completed her APA internship at Morrison Child and Family services in Oregon where she provided individual, family, and group therapy for children and adolescents. She then completed her post-doctoral residency at MindSights Psychological Assessment Services in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Weeks specialized in psychological and best interest assessments for children involved in the child welfare system. She also served as the autism expert and supervised autism assessments clinic-wide. Dr. Weeks moved to Tucson, Arizona in 2019 and quickly fell in love with the Sonoran desert. She joined the Southern Arizona Psychology Internship Center (SAPIC) as the clinical supervisor for the Child and Family intern rotation. Dr. Weeks works from a developmental, attachment lens. Her work is neurodiversity- and trauma-informed to tailor evidence-based interventions to her clients‘ individual strengths and needs. When not working, Dr. Weeks loves to get outside and explore the desert with her partner and pup.

Marden Petrie, Psy.D., is a Clinical Psychologist who relocated from Minnesota to Arizona in 2011 and is currently a per diem supervising SAPIC interns in conducting assessments, and in private practice in the Tucson area. She returned to school in 2001 after a rewarding 25-year career as a marketing executive to obtain a doctorate in Clinical Psychology and has trained and practiced in a variety of multidisciplinary clinical settings, including Methodist Hospital-Eating Disorder Institute, Hazelden Center for Youth and Families, and St. Olaf University Counseling Center. In addition, she volunteered for two years as a part-time therapist at the Walk-in Counseling Center in Minneapolis, which is the last remaining privately funded, free, community mental health center in the nation. She completed her APA accredited Internship and full-time Fellowship, funded by the George Foundation, at the Hamm Memorial Psychiatric Clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has worked with individuals, couples, and groups with various presenting concerns to better understand strengths and vulnerabilities, restore stability, build resilience, and expand relational understanding and flexibility. She has supervised Interns and Postdocs in various residential and outpatient settings. Trained in several traditions including psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral, she has found attachment theory to be a useful tool for understanding and treating a variety of mental health challenges. Her style is warm, collaborative, and honest.

APA Commission on Accreditation contact information: