Psychotherapy Mentorships

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety

CBT for Anxiety is a skills-based and active treatment.  It focuses on addressing anxious thoughts and worries, as well as avoidance behaviors.  The main components of CBT for anxiety are cognitive restructuring and exposure exercises.  The mentorship covers evidence-based CBT approaches for anxiety, stress, and OCD spectrum disorders.  We also briefly discuss the use of complementary treatments (mindfulness, ACT) in conjunction with CBT to manage symptoms.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression

The CBT for Depression mentorship is designed to equip participants with knowledge about what principles of CBT for Depression which centers around the assumption that debilitative emotions such as depression, anxiety, and shame result from core beliefs and negative automatic thoughts that arise from these beliefs. The book Feeling Good by David Burns M.D. is the main text for this mentorship along a variety of other readings. The goals for the mentorship are that resident participants will learn how to apply CBT in brief medication visits or in separate therapy sessions. For those who are already using CBT the goal is to help them enhance the skills they already have. The emphasis is on learning to apply CBT to their own challenges that arise in their professional and personal lives. Unconditional self-acceptance and self-compassion, and humor are emphasized throughout the mentorship.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi)

This mentorship provides in-depth education on the assessment and treatment of insomnia disorder. Trainees will learn the basics of sleep regulation, become familiar with common sleep disorders, and how to deliver each session of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. Trainees will also be provided with readings, handouts, and other tools to help them independently manage sleep disturbance in their patients. Each trainee carries at least 1 case that is discussed in group supervision. The mentorship meets weekly for three months and trainees must attend at least 70% of classes.

Couples and Family Therapy

The mentorship provides didactics and group supervision to compliment individual supervision provided by faculty for each case. Attendees acquire skills about interviewing, handling conflict and the evaluation process. They become acquainted with major therapeutic modalities. Attendees identify patients from their new evaluations and caseloads to bring to seminar for discussion and occasionally to interview live. 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

During the mentorship trainees will learn the skills taught in each of the 4 modules (Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness and Distress Tolerance) and will be expected to complete weekly homework assignment to practice these skills. Trainees will also pick up a DBT therapy case to meet with weekly to practice teaching and using the skills learned and will present a case formulation at the end of the mentorship.

Interpersonal therapy (IPT)

IPT is a time-limited psychotherapy that focuses on interpersonal issues, which are understood to be a factor in the genesis and maintenance of psychological distress.  The targets of IPT are symptom resolution, improved interpersonal functioning, and increased social support.  Typical courses of IPT range from 6-20 sessions with provision for maintenance treatment as necessary.

Motivational Interviewing (MI)

Class consists primarily of exercises, role plays, demonstrations, videos, and a modicum of didactic instruction. Each student will be expected to demonstrate proficiency in MI at the end of the class by recording a 20-minute excerpt of a real MI session with a client or colleague. 

Adolescent Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)/Family Focused Therapy (FFT)

This clinic provides both didactics and observation via a one-way mirror for its trainees. The trainees deliver Interpersonal Psychotherapy for adolescent patients and Family Focused Therapy for families. All visits are observed by the clinic supervisor as well as other participants in the clinic. Interpersonal Psychotherapy focuses on interpersonal issues which are understood to be a factor in the triggers and maintenance of psychological distress. The targets of IPT are symptom resolution, improved interpersonal functioning and increased social support. This treatment is recommended for adolescents with a diagnosis of depression. Family Focused Psychotherapy is a psychosocial treatment for youth, consisting of family education, communication enhancement training and problem-solving skills training. This treatment is typically most appropriate for adolescents recently diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder or continued externalizing disorders such as ADHD.

Child Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This clinic provides both didactics and observation via a one-way mirror for its trainees.  The first hour is devoted to didactics and case discussions.  During the following two hours, the trainees deliver CBT for patient return visits.  All visits are observed by the clinic supervisor as well as other participants in the clinic.

Child Trauma and Grief Clinic (TAG) 

For the TAG Intervention clinic, fellows would deliver Trauma-Focused CBT and/or Trauma and Grief Component Therapy (training provided) to two patients presenting with trauma/grief as the chief problem. This includes group supervision followed by patient care and all experiences are live observed.