The Clinical Health Psychology Track comprises four rotations, each lasting six months: Behavioral Cardiology, Pain and Mental Health, Transplant Psychology, and Women’s Behavioral Health. Interns are expected to spend 80 percent of their time engaged in clinical activities, with the remaining time devoted to lectures, seminars, journal club, department grand rounds and other training opportunities such as clinical or research electives.
Interns receive a minimum of two hours per week of individual supervision from their rotation supervisors. Interns also receive supervision in other settings such as clinical case conferences, patient rounds and elective experiences.
Below is an example of an intern's training schedule:
Rotations
In addition, interns will use behavioral interventions to facilitate the patient’s adherence to medical and dietary interventions aimed at promoting lifestyle change. Interns will observe various aspects of assessment and treatment of heart disease (e.g., interventional cardiology such as cardiac catheterization, ECG, treadmill testing) provided by faculty members from the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine.
In addition to clinical activities, interns can participate in lectures and meetings offered at the Ross Heart Hospital/Division of Cardiology. Interns receive a minimum of one hour per week of individual supervision.
During the six-month rotation in Pain and Mental Health, psychology interns will learn skills related to the epidemiology, assessment, diagnosis, conceptualization and treatment of chronic non-cancer pain and related psychiatric and substance use comorbidities. In the outpatient setting, interns will complete initial psycho-diagnostic assessments of psychological comorbidities within the context of chronic pain. Interns will also play a role in integrating brief psychotherapy, relaxation and behavior modification into patients’ pain management with the goal of restoring patient functioning in physical and social areas. Additionally, interns will have exposure to providing pre-surgical psychosocial evaluations for patients in consideration for intrathecal pain pumps as well as spinal cord stimulators. Service delivery will be provided primarily through individual psychotherapy; however, some group opportunities may be possible.
Interns can expect to work alongside a team that includes physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians, physical therapists, radiologists, neurologists and pain specialists/anesthesiologists. Trainees will play an essential role in helping patients navigate the different aspects of their pain management and, in particular, will work closely with patients needing to address challenges in pain medication management.
Common presenting problems include depression, anxiety, PTSD, difficulty managing physical health symptoms and treatment side effects, medical decision-making, and challenges in communication with medical teams and family. Interns will learn to adapt CBT and other manualized interventions to chronic pain setting.
During the six-month transplant psychology rotation, interns will learn to become proficient in pretransplant psychosocial assessments for transplant recipients and living kidney donors, and in treating post-transplant patients with appropriate psychological interventions. This rotation will be primarily an outpatient experience, but interns may have the opportunity to do inpatient evaluations and consults.
Interns can participate in weekly organ transplant patient selection meetings.
Women’s Behavioral Health is an interprofessional Academic Center of Excellence providing care to women experiencing stress or stress-related illness during life events that are unique to women. We provide state-of-the-art care for mood and anxiety disorders, sexual health and stress, with a special emphasis on pregnancy, the postpartum period, gynecologic and breast cancers, menopause and the menstrual cycle.
During this six-month rotation, interns are integral members of a treatment team that includes psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists. Emphasis is on enhancing skills in sexual health interventions, evidenced-based psychotherapies for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and intervention skills for managing grief, loss and infertility. Clinical experiences are primarily outpatient and include opportunities for group therapy.
Psychology interns are expected to participate in weekly group supervision and bimonthly team meetings for discussion of cases, clinical matters and research. Once an intern has successfully defended their dissertation, they are eligible to take part in ongoing research projects, work with existing datasets, or initiate new projects at the discretion of their supervisor.