Child Clinical Fellowships available, Virginia Treatment Center for Children

The Virginia Treatment Center for Children(VTCC) is the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Department of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University Health System. VTCC provides acute psychiatric inpatient treatment and outpatient services for children, adolescents and their families. VTCC is well known within the field for its ability to successfully treat complex emotional and behavioral disorders in children and adolescents. Services are multidisciplinary, evidence-based, and trauma-informed.

In addition to an APA-approved predoctoral internship, postdoctoral fellowships have been in place at VTCC for several  decades. There are currently two fully funded fellowship positions. Each fellowship position is a one-year experience designed to promote the professional development of child clinical psychologists. The training year provides fellows with intensive clinical and supervisory experiences across the continuum of mental health services for children, adolescents and families.   A second-year position may be negotiated.

Fellows receive two hours of individual supervision from psychology faculty members each week focused on the direct work of the fellow with children, adolescents and their families, as well as on ‘supervision of supervision’ issues and professional identity and development. Fellows provide two hours of supervision to pre-doctoral interns or practicum students in clinical psychology – usually one hour of assessment supervision and one hour of therapy supervision. 

Specific responsibilities for the postdoctoral fellowship include the following:

·         Provide therapeutic services to children and adolescents in the acute services program, including individual therapy, family therapy, case management, and participation in weekly team meetings.Responsibilities also include conducting psychological evaluations of youth referred to the hospital for brief inpatient psychiatric evaluations. 

-    Serve as treatment study clinician providing CBT for adolescents with depression.  More intensive involvement with this research is available.

·         Provide outpatient services through VTCC Outpatient Clinic, seeing 4 patients per week.

·         Coordinate psychological assessment services. This involves assigning assessment cases to psychology trainees, completing psychological assessments when needed, and managing and ordering testing materials.

·         Provide weekend therapy coverage (approximately 5 weekends per year).

·         Provide supervision to psychology interns   or practicum students for therapy cases and psychological assessments.

·         Receive two hours of weekly supervision from faculty members.

·         Participate in one elective clinical experience for at least 6 months of the year.

·         Develop and participates in one scholarly activity during the year (e.g. evaluation of a clinical intervention;participation in one of the ongoing projects within VTCC; extension of dissertation; literature review and presentation of results; training for hospital staff, etc.)

·         Attend Psychiatry Department Grand Rounds.

·         Participate in weekly Psychology faculty meetings.

Postdoctoral Fellows receive an annual stipend of $40,000 and supervision hours toward licensure. Benefits include generous leave time and options for health and dental insurance.   Start date is negotiable (July through September), although July 1 is preferred.  Inpatient experience with children and adolescents, or equivalent, is preferred. 

Please send a 1-2 page letter of interest, three letters of reference, and Curriculum Vitae to:  

Julie Linker, PhD., Chief Psychologist,  via e-mail at jalinker@vcu.edu.

     Note: VTCC’s internship brochure at www.vcuhealth.org/vtcc

 

  offers more information about the Virginia Treatment Center for Children, the psychology training program, and the psychology faculty.