Montefiore Einstein Postdoctoral Residency Program in Health Service Psychology

The Addiction Psychology post-doctoral residency will span Montefiore’s extensive network of addiction treatment programs to provide training and experience in the assessment and treatment of substance use disorders. With a focus on harm reduction and patient centered-care, the Resident will support Montefiore’s Substance Abuse Treatment Program (SATP) and Wakefield Recovery Center (WRC), which together provide care to over 1,200 individuals with substance use disorders throughout the Bronx.

These programs include Opioid Treatment Programs and Intensive Outpatient Programs, offering integrated counseling, addiction medicine, primary care, and psychiatric services to a racially, ethnically, and socially diverse population. The Resident will work closely with our dedicated team of addiction professionals to assist patients in developing the skills they need to reach their recovery goals. Our addiction treatment programs offer evidence-based care, integrating addiction medications such as methadone and buprenorphine, with empirically-supported behavioral interventions.

The resident will receive training and experience in harm reduction approaches and group and individual therapy utilizing Motivational Interviewing, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for substance use and relapse prevention, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT). The resident will also learn to conduct comprehensive substance use-focused evaluations and risk assessments.

Opportunities exist for research, program development and supported supervision of clinical psychology externs. Residents will spend approximately 60% of their time in the provision of direct clinical care and will engage in weekly individual and group supervision as well as weekly educational lectures.

The EDPM/DBT-A fellow provides care across inpatient and outpatient levels of care across three specialty programs: the Eating Disorders Program at Montefiore (EDPM; 50% of clinical time), the DBT for adolescents (DBT-A; 25% of clinical time) program, and the Anxiety and Mood Program (AMP; 25% of clinical time). Outpatient services are provided through the Moses Child /Adolescent Outpatient Psychiatry Department (COPD).

Across these three services, fellows provide inpatient consultation and individual, caregiver only, family, and group therapy. Fellows also participate in supervision of psychology externs and service-specific multidisciplinary rounds, case conferences, and consultation team.

Eating disorders and/or DBT experience is recommended but not required.

The Eating Disorders Program at Montefiore (EDPM) is a collection of multidisciplinary providers at Montefiore Medical Center with specialized training in the treatment of youth with eating disorders. EDPM spans both inpatient medical and outpatient levels of care.

Inpatient medical stabilization care is provided at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiore. Psychology provides regular consultation to adolescent medicine attendings for EDPM patients, including diagnostic assessment; individual, caregiver, and family therapy; and meal coaching / training. Opportunities for program development and medical staff support and training are available.

Outpatient psychotherapy services are provided at the Multidisciplinary Recovery Center (MRC) at EDPM. MRC is an integrated, outpatient multidisciplinary care center where patients are evaluated and followed by a comprehensive team of specialists that includes adolescent medicine, psychology, social work, nutrition, and psychiatry. All patients are actively engaged in intensive psychotherapy for eating disorders at the Moses COPD. MRC treats youth ages 4 to 21 for a variety of eating/feeding disorders using empirically supported treatments and evidenced based practice (e.g., FBT, CBT-E, MED-DBT, CBT-AR, SPACE-ARFID). Committed to health equity, MRC at EDPM is the only Joint Commission accredited youth outpatient eating disorders center in the NYC region that accepts Medicaid.

The Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A) Program serves adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 and their caregiver(s). DBT is an evidence-based psychotherapy that blends standard cognitive-behavioral therapy with the eastern philosophy of mindfulness practice and targets multi-problem adolescents who engage in suicidal, self-injurious, and high-risk behaviors. DBT has been shown to help keep multi-problem teens in outpatient care, decrease inpatient hospitalizations, and reduce depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder symptoms, and suicidal thoughts. We also provide pre-treatment orientation sessions to elicit caregiver commitment and provide caregivers with pre- treatment skills to support their interactions with adolescents and give them skills to reduce crises and conflict at home.

Our treatment program includes:

• Individual psychotherapy
• Multi-family skills group Training
• 24/7 telephone skills coaching
• Therapist consultation team
• Pre-treatment parent coaching sessions
• Family therapy as needed

The Psychosomatic Medicine postdoctoral residency program encompasses training experiences across a variety of inpatient and outpatient medical services.

The fellow will work alongside three licensed psychologists and a psychiatrist embedded within the Montefiore Einstein Center for Transplantation, where they will provide inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy and pre-surgical psychological assessments to transplant patients, transplant candidates, and living kidney/liver donors. The Montefiore Einstein Center for Transplantation is recognized as a Center for Excellence and has some of the best outcomes for transplant rates and survival after transplantation in the nation. We have a strong commitment to serving the Bronx and neighboring communities and reducing disparities in access to transplantation through a thorough interdisciplinary approach to evaluation and care. Notably, our Montefiore Einstein Transplant Recovery Integrated Care clinic provides multidisciplinary care for liver transplant recipients with an underlying alcohol-related liver disease and is considered a model program nationally.

The fellow will work with the Consultation Liaison Psychiatry team to provide bedside therapy and assessment of medical inpatients throughout the hospital. They will work alongside psychiatrists, a social worker, and a psychologist along with trainees of each discipline in providing care for patients presenting with varying psychiatric/psychological conditions impacting their medical treatment including substance use, delirium/cognitive concerns, severe mental illness, and eating disorders. Fellows will become adept in doing capacity evaluations, supporting patient in adjustments to medical illnesses, and interdisciplinary communications with primary teams. Every effort is made to assign cases to fellows based on their particular interests to support long-term career goals.

Research and program development experiences are welcome across all of the rotations. A minimum of 1 hour of individual and 1 hour of group supervision will be available. Fellows also have a range of opportunities to provide mentorship, supervision, and teaching to psychology interns and interdisciplinary trainees. They will become comfortable in working both independently and with teams with the goal of being able to start an independent practice within an interdisciplinary/integrated medical setting.

The THRIVE clinical program is a transdiagnostic, specialty program that offers principle driven, flexibly delivered, evidence-based psychotherapy for patients ages 18-64 seeking treatment for trauma related distress, inclusive of PTSD, Complex PTSD, racism-related stress and trauma, and trauma related to marginalization based on gender expression.

The fellow will receive training in and have opportunities to utilize several evidence-based therapies for trauma including Skills Training for Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Written Exposure Therapy (WET), and Prolonged Exposure (PE).

THRIVE is also dedicated to providing gender affirming care to transgender and gender diverse patients that are at high-risk for trauma exposure and face systemic challenges accessing gender affirming and evidence-based psychotherapy. The fellow will conduct pre-surgical evaluations for individuals seeking gender affirming surgery, and offer gender affirming, trauma-informed therapy for those interested. The fellow will also co-lead psychotherapy groups within the THRIVE program.

Our program is committed to excellence in training postdoctoral fellows interested in social justice, cultural humility, developing therapeutic skills to effectively disseminate evidence-based trauma treatments in a principle driven, flexible manner, as well as serving a racially, ethnically, and socially diverse population many of whom might have extensive trauma histories and complex psychosocial needs.

This fellowship will follow a scientist-practitioner model, providing a balance of clinical, training, and research activities. The fellow will receive weekly individual and group supervision on clinical interventions and a research project/program development. There will also be opportunities for developing supervisory and teaching skills. Fellows will spend approximately 60% of their time in the provision of direct clinical service, with the remaining time comprised of administration, research, training, and supervision.

This is a one-year post-doctoral fellowship that will work within the intersections of Women’s Mental Health, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, and Ambulatory Perinatal Mental Health at Montefiore Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Montefiore Medical Center’s Division of Women’s Mental Health offers targeted mental healthcare to patients across the female reproductive lifecycle with an emphasis on the perinatal period which confers increased risk for incident and recurrent psychiatric illness. The Reproductive Psychology postdoctoral fellow will also learn to provide evidenced-based care to women experiencing psychiatric disorders exacerbated by menses (e.g., Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder and Major Depression), those experiencing fertility concerns, and those in the menopausal transition experiencing mood symptoms.

The Reproductive Psychology postdoctoral fellowship provides the fellow with the opportunity to become an integral member of multidisciplinary teams across the Moses and Weiler campuses at Montefiore. The fellow will receive training in delivering evidence-based treatment and conducting brief assessments with female patients navigating complex reproductive mood and trauma-related presentations. The fellow will also gain experience co-facilitating an inpatient antepartum support group. The fellow will work directly with the Division of Women’s Mental Health leadership to develop a data-driven triage process for post-ICU and fourth trimester patients to help increase access to expedited, yet quality perinatal mental health services.

Over the course of the year, the fellow will attend a track-specific lecture series and acquire certification as a perinatal mental health specialist. The fellow will also continue to cultivate clinical expertise on the multidisciplinary inpatient medical Consultation & Liaison teams at both campuses (i.e., providing brief bedside psychotherapeutic interventions, differential diagnoses, rapid disposition, etc.). In addition, the fellow will work collaboratively with the Ambulatory Consults Urgent Treatment & Evaluations (ACUTE) team to offer short-term therapeutic interventions to patients seeking bridge care services. The fellow will further engage in program development, research initiatives, and the supervision of pre-doctoral interns/medical students to enhance their training experience.

This Reproductive Psychology postdoctoral fellowship allows early career professionals to acquire specialized training in health psychology and perinatal mental health at a major academic medical center while also offering culturally responsive clinical care to patients during a medically and psychologically vulnerable time in their lives. Completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center provides a unique opportunity to consider the multitude of intersectional factors and systemic barriers to equitable care impacting the mental health of patients from historically marginalized communities.