The Psychology Department of the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital, located in Hartford, CT. is seeking applications for it's APA-accredited postdoctoral training positions. The following are one-year training positions beginning in September 2012 that focus on the development of advanced practice competencies in the following areas of emphasis: (1) Pediatric Consultation / Liason, (2)Schizophrenia-spectrum Disorders Treatment and Assessment.
(3) School-based Child and Adolescent Outpatient Treatment and Assessment, (4) Child and Adolescent Inpatient Treatment, (5) Adult Inpatient Treatment. In addition, we are offering two-year training positions in two areas, Clinical Neuropsychology and the treatment of Anxiety Disorders. Currently, the first year of these positions is part of our APA-accredited program.
The positions are outlined as follows:
Pediatric Consultation/Liason Psychology; The primary placement is at Connecticut Children's Medical Center(CCMC), adjacent to The Institute of Living and Hartford Hospital, (CCMC), an acute-care children’s hospital. The resident works closely with an experienced pediatric psychologist and two child & adolescent psychiatrists with specialty practice in consultation/liaison. Advanced training is provided in the understanding of major pediatric illnesses and the comorbidity of psychiatric problems in the medical population. The resident participates in all clinical assessments and the management of recommendations for hospitalized patients. The resident is encouraged and supported to take a leadership role with other trainees, including psychology interns, general psychiatry residents, and medical students. The resident participates in establishing and revising treatment plans. Skills in the role of consultant and managing systems needs are emphasized. In addition, the resident will assume the responsibility of providing individual and/or family psychotherapy to a select number of outpatients referred from the various medical departments at CCMC.
Treatment of Schizophrenia-spectrum illness ; focuses on the treatment of persistent mental illness, particularly schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The resident will spend twelve months concurrently serving as the primary clinician for up to two outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder being treated in the Schizophrenia Rehabilitation Program (SRP). In addition, the resident will carry a caseload of two patients on one of our four adult inpatient units that admits and treats patients with persistent mental illness. Primary inpatient responsibilities include individual and group psychotherapies, family therapy when needed, group therapies that are designed to address cognitive impairments, and case management. The resident will serve as a liaison to the Schizophrenia Rehabilitation program, and will take primary responsibility for treating those patients in the SRP who require inpatient hospitalization.
Primary responsibilities within their role at the SRP include: providing cognitive rehabilitation sessions, co-leading treatment groups, providing individual and family therapy, and performing clinical case management. The postdoctoral resident will supervise practicum students or interns on rotation in the program. Under the supervision of program psychologists and neuropsychologists, the postdoctoral resident will also complete a project related to program development of the SRP, or participate in ongoing clinical research related to clinical services provided at the SRP.
Child and Adolescent Inpatient treatment; Training will focus on the inpatient assessment and treatment of children and
adolescents admitted to our acute inpatient service. Residents will receive advanced training in individual, group,
and family therapies with a focus on integrating contemporary psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral and
skills-based approaches. Supervision of pre-doctoral interns rotating through the unit will also be part of the
training year. Elective opportunities in outpatient treatment and psychological assessment are also
available.
School-based Child/Adolescent Outpatient Treatment and Assessment: The resident will be primarily based in
the Grace Webb School, our on-grounds school where residents will assume individual and group therapy responsibilities and
provide comprehensive psychological assessments to both children and adolescents enrolled in the school. There
are also opportunities to gain experience in treating pediatric outpatients at Connecticut Children's Medical Center.
Adult Inpatient Psychiatry: The Resident's training will focus on the delivery of integrated,
psychodynamically informed, brief intensive treatment of severely emotionally disturbed patients admitted to our general
adult inpatient psychiatric unit. Each resident will serve as a primary therapist for up to three patients and provide conjunctive family/marital therapy when indicated. In addition, each fellow will be responsible for coordinating the daily group psychotherapy program on the unit.
Clinical Neuropsychology: Clinical training in Neuropsychology involves training both at the IOL inpatient units and Hartford Hospital medical services involving integrated experiences both within psychiatric and general medical settings. In keeping with the goals of the broader training program, the Clinical Neuropsychology area of emphasis will develop professionals with the advanced competency training necessary to accurately diagnose, effectively assess, and offer effective interventions to a broad age range of individuals with various neuro-cognitive and neurobehavioral impairments who also have psychiatric disorders. This area of emphasis will also prepare the residents to work effectively with interdisciplinary staff in the evaluation and treatment of patients with complex neuropsychiatric disorders and/or head injury or systemic CNS problems. Professional development in educating/supervising is also a component of training. Involvement in clinical research and psychotherapeutic interventions also ensures the breadth and depth of advanced professional competence.
Residents work with a multidisciplinary staff typical on bed services and are exposed to the complexities of caring for head injured and neuropsychiatric patients by nurses, social workers, interns and residents and attending staff. Each of the services has conferences and rounds that pertain to the site specific rotation, e.g. Trauma clinic, head Injury, Stroke Clinic, Memory Disorders Clinic, Geriatric Service, Alzheimer’s Service, Cognitive Rehabilitation Service , Schizophrenia Clinic, etc. Residents conduct evaluations (brief and complex) and also engage in the psychotherapeutic treatment of patients and their families during the recovery process of CNS injuries or illness.
Anxiety Disorders: This area of training prepares residents for advanced practice competence in the delivery of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and preparation for practice in adult and pediatric anxiety disorders, with a focus on the following diagnostic groups: Obsessive-compulsive disorder and obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders, Panic disorder, Agoraphobia, Generalized anxiety disorder, Social anxiety disorder, and Posttraumatic stress disorder. In addition, residents receive advanced training in structured diagnostic interviewing and cognitive-behavioral case conceptualization. Residents will receive some training in research analysis and the application of scientific findings to clinical practice and will develop familiarity with the administration of a research project. Methods of treatment involve behavioral and cognitive behavioral therapies in individual and group treatment. Residents will have the opportunity to work both with adults and children presenting with Anxiety and hoarding behaviors. The program is research based and also uses manualized training models.
The goals of the program are:
1. To prepare psychologists to become highly skilled at consuming new research and applied findings and integrating them into practice. Using individual and group mentorship programs (supervision), residents will read, discuss, and evaluate practice-relevant research and applied articles; develop treatment plans that consider the best empirical evidence (derived from experience, observation and experimentation as opposed to being based solely on theory); and discuss the therapeutic, ethical, and legal aspects of best practices and newer findings in evidence based research.
2. To prepare psychologists to become highly skilled at evaluating their own interventions using critical thinking and the application of scholarly findings into their clinical work with patients. Residents will be encouraged to use clinical research methods at the individual and systemic levels. All residents will be required to conduct a scholarly project as part of their Residency year. This project can vary from participating in an ongoing research project of their supervisor to evaluating the efficacy of their treatments and/or to develop and refine programs, to name but a few possibilities.
3. To prepare psychologists to be capable of integrating new scholarly and scientific findings that would contribute to patient care. All residents will have the opportunity to also participate in the broad range of basic and applied research conducted at the IOL, including psychotherapy research, pharmacotherapy clinical trials, programmatic development, neuro-imaging research, and more.
The overall education and training goal of the Residency program is to train professional psychologists for primary practitioner roles in clinical services, particularly in the public sector, though some of the Residents may chose to focus on teaching and research and more scholarly pursuits.
The Institute of Living is a rich community of clinicians, libraries, teaching and training resources, with unique opportunities to treat a wide variety of patients using diverse methods of interventions. The opportunity to supervise psychology interns is provided, and research possibilities are available. Salary is $35,000 per year, in addition to health benefits and three weeks vacation.
Application materials are available on our website, at www.instituteofliving.org or upon request. Inquiries regarding the training program can be directed to our administrative assistant Jennifer Prentice at jprenti@harthosp.org., or by phone at 860-545-7167 . Completion of all doctoral requirements prior to September, 2012 is required. Applicants are required to have completed their degree and pre-doctoral internship from APA-accredited institutions. Completed applications should be mailed by January 15, 2012.
James DeGiovanni, Ph.D.
Director of Psychology Training
The Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital
200 Retreat Avenue
Hartford, CT. 06106
860-545-7896
Fax: 860-545-7222
Pager: 860-520-0827
James DeGiovanni, Ph.D.
Director of Psychology Training
The Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital
200 Retreat Avenue
Hartford, CT. 06106
860-545-7896
Fax: 860-545-7222
Pager: 860-520-0827
