Harbor-UCLA Psychology Division

The Psychology Division’s clinical psychology training program has been designed to require an emphasis for each fellow in the clinical psychology fellowship. Fellows are recruited for each emphasis, including (depending on funding) Adult Psychiatry (inpatient, ambulatory and emergency settings), Child and Adolescent Psychology, Adoption, HIV Mental Health (a subspecialty of Health Psychology/ Behavioral Medicine), Forensic Mental Health, and Cross-Cultural Mental Health.

Clinical Neuropsychology is a 2-year APA-accredited fellowship and a member of the Association of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology (APPCN)

Typical funding from the Department of Psychiatry includes three fellows (one each, Adult, Child/Adolescent, Neuropsychology). Other fellowship positions are underwritten with external funds.

The Harbor-UCLA Psychology Postdoctoral Training Program is designed to prepare psychologists for advanced practice in within a public sector medical setting. Fellows are expected to refine existing clinical skills and develop new ones in assessment, therapeutic interventions, consultation and program management or development. They work in a variety of treatment settings and work with a diversity of patient populations. In addition, fellows are expected to learn to function effectively in interdisciplinary settings, performing the unique duties of clinical psychologists a well as participating as psychologist members of interdisciplinary teams.

The program recognizes that successful practitioners and academic leaders in clinical psychology need more than a general overview of psychological practice areas and more than a narrow focus on a specific clinical population. The program is therefore committed both to broadening each fellow’s knowledge of current issues regarding diverse clinical populations through exposure to presentations from and interaction with all of the other specialty areas offered through the Psychology Division, and to enhancing each fellow’s own focused specialty expertise. We expect our graduates to be better prepared than most psychologists for clinical, administrative, and academic jobs in clinical and medical psychology, particularly in public institutions.

Former fellows have gone on to psychology positions that include academic and medical school departments, public agency administration and clinical practice, managed care administration, clinical research and teaching. While many fellows remain in Southern California, others have moved to other venues such as Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas, and Washington in the United States, as well as placements in Canada, Israel, and Britain.

The Psychology faculty includes 12 psychologists with specialties in rehabilitation of adult seriously mentally ill populations, child and pediatric psychology, neuropsychology, and behavioral medicine. In addition, the Division utilizes 14 outside volunteer clinical faculty psychologists for training and supervision. Additional training is provided by 23 faculty psychiatrists. Their roles in training range from direct supervision to medication consultation to didactic presentations.

Psychology faculty share their individual research, clinical, and administrative expertise with fellows in one-on-one mentorships, formal coursework, and case consultation. In addition to supervised clinical experience in specific specialty areas, fellows are encouraged to become involved with faculty in their current research projects, which include malingering in neuropsychological assessment, substance abuse effects on adolescent mothers’ infants, forensic interviewing of children, foster care/adoption, infant mental health, vocational rehabilitation of people with HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS risk behavior, and effectiveness and efficiency of mental health service delivery to the severely mentally ill.

The Psychology Division of the Department of Psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center trains psychology practicum students as well as postdoctoral fellows. Currently, there are 8 full-time Post Doctoral Fellows in Clinical Psychology, one of whom ius in a two-year neuropsychology program, and 36 field-placement students.

All Harbor-UCLA Postdoctoral Fellows in Clinical Psychology receive a common core of training that embeds their particular specialty foci in a broader context. This overall context should serve fellows in their future endeavors as specialties in the marketplace wax and wane and as new applications are developed. We expect that Harbor graduates will become leaders in the psychological practice community, whether through expert individual work with patients, through academic and research institutions, as directors of clinics and agencies, as advocates of the severely mentally ill, the homeless, the incarcerated, or the not yet acculturated immigrants.

The program has a logical sequence both in its broad training and in each of the focused specialties. In September, all fellows are oriented to the setting: the medical center, California licensing laws, review of ethics, commitment and mandatory reporting laws. Each of the specialties reviews the fellow’s level of expertise, assigns supervisors, determines course work and monitors clinical cases. As the year progresses, technical skill level courses (Rorschach, child development, neuropsychology, clinical supervision), and other didactics on clinical experiences (psychopharmacology, cultural diversity issues) are offered to increase knowledge and clinical responsibilities (supervision of practicum students, clinically complicated cases). By year end, each fellow’s specialty will have completed training to meet its own exit criteria and all criteria for California licensure requirements (child abuse, substance abuse, human sexuality courses, spouse abuse, elder/dependent adult abuse, and any faculty identified remedial skills).

Fellows at Harbor-UCLA receive specialty training in one of several tracks, including Adult Psychiatry, Correctional/Forensic Psychology and Assertive Community Treatment and Rehabilitation, Behavioral Medicine/HIV Mental Health, Neuropsychology, Child and Adolescent Psychology, and Cross-cultural research. For full descriptions of these specialty areas, please click on the following links:

Although formal requirements for specific numbers of psychotherapy cases vary across tracks, fellows (outside of neuropsychology) carry outpatient individual, family, and/or group therapy cases throughout the year in their respective tracks. Neuropsychology fellows do not typically follow psychotherapy cases, but are required to perform a specified number of neuropsychological test batteries over the duration of their fellowships.

Assessment techniques vary across specialty tracks. Fellows at Harbor-UCLA are expected to become proficient in assessment methodologies emphasized in their respective specialty tracks. They have direct contact with patients with a wide range of psychological conditions and present to interdisciplinary teams of professionals as well as to the Psychology Division.

Each fellow is assigned one primary supervisor, plus additional therapy and assessment supervisors (Neuropsychology fellows are assigned only assessment supervisors). Supervisors are licensed psychologists or board certified psychiatrists from the Harbor Psychiatry Department Faculty or the attending staff. Additional supervision and consultation is provided by faculty and staff on the fellow's service. Group supervision and special courses on assessment are offered throughout the year by psychologists with expertise in particular areas of testing, and course work in cognitive and behavioral approaches to therapy are offered early each year. Supervision is designed to meet all requirements for licensing in California, as well as APPIC and APA guidelines for Postdoctoral Programs.

Each fellow is required to develop and conduct a program evaluation project over the course of his or her tenure at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. This may include conducting a needs assessment, process evaluation, or an outcome research project related to some aspect of the delivery or impact of mental health services. Program evaluation projects may be new projects or collaborations in ongoing projects. The program evaluation project may be completed on the fellow’s primary service track, within another part of the medical center, or in an outside community agency. Projects may be independently initiated, or conducted in collaboration with faculty sponsors or outside agency sponsors. Projects may make use of existing data, or may involve the prospective collection of quantitative and/or qualitative data. Meetings with the faculty coordinator are scheduled throughout the year to monitor and facilitate progress on fellows’ projects. Neuropsychology Fellows may substitute a research study for this requirement.

Required psychology conferences consist of presentations by faculty, postdoctoral fellows or invited speakers on clinical cases, research, and professional issues. Additional seminars and workshops are scheduled periodically to provide an opportunity for the psychology fellow to increase his/her clinical skills. Examples of topics covered held in recent years include hypnosis, cognitive treatment of anxiety disorders, cross-cultural treatments, managed care issues, advanced projective assessments, psychopharmacology and supervision. Courses required for California licensure in human sexuality, child abuse reporting, substance abuse, and spousal abuse, elder/dependent adult abuse, and aging and long-term care are available each year. Interdisciplinary conferences on the various services may also be required by the psychology trainee's program. Specialization-specific seminars and courses are also required on most tracks.

All psychology fellows are expected to be familiar with the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct prior to beginning work at Harbor-UCLA, and additional ethics training will occur during the fellowship. Ethical issues arise continuously at Harbor, and they should be actively discussed actively between fellows and supervisors.

A 6-hour course in clinical supervision is offered at the beginning of the year as a prelude to provision of supervision to field-placement students over the course the fellow’s tenure at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

1½ hours per week throughout the year, attended by all fellows, and as an elective for other trainees, faculty and professional staff in the Psychiatry Department. This conference serves as a venue for administrative announcements and formal presentations of cases by faculty or fellows, topical faculty presentations, professional and research presentations by outside guest speakers and Psychiatry Department faculty, and professional development discussion. Each fellow is mandated to present the assessment and treatment of a Harbor case within the context of the specialty in which they work.

A series of modules is also presented over the course of the year during the conference time. These include:

Required Experiences by all fellows, and applied in the specialty areas include:

Elective experiences are negotiated between individual fellows and their track supervisors to expand exposure to psychology training in different settings.

This clinic trains physicians for a Family Medicine specialty and is an elective training opportunity for fellows training on the HIV Mental Health Service. Many patients have psychological disorders in addition to their medical problems. Postdoctoral fellows may act as preceptor/consultants to physicians in morning or afternoon clinics or see patients jointly with the physician. Opportunities also exist to facilitate therapy groups, provide individual therapy, or present lectures to the Behavioral Science seminars of the Family Practice Residents.

This is an elective service for psychology fellows. Patients from medical clinics throughout the hospital are referred to Psychiatry for their acute psychiatric symptoms or behavioral management issues. Consultation responsibility for selected patients is given to the psychology fellow, sometimes in conjunction with a psychiatric resident on the service. The psychology fellow may also participate in Consultation-Liaison rounds.

The Psychiatric Emergency Unit is an elective for fellows who are not on the Adult Psychiatry Track. It has a 24-hour consultation and evaluation service. Most patients arrive directly, brought by police, parents, or self referral. Sometimes, during a patient's evaluation by another hospital service, it is determined that the patient should have a psychiatric evaluation and referral is made by the physician to the Psychiatric Emergency Service.

In the ER, fellows learn to assess the degree and type of pathology manifested by a wide variety of patients who come for help. They work with physicians, nurses, and social workers to diagnose and make immediate dispositions for further treatment. ER rounds are held every morning at 8:00 to discuss patients seen the previous day.

Research projects generally are underway at any time within the Division of Psychology and/or the Department of Psychiatry. Postdoctoral Fellows may participate either as research assistants, or co-investigators. For the 2005-2006 year, active projects in which psychologists are involved include:

Fellows are issued library cards for the Harbor-UCLA Parlow Medical Library. Services include free document delivery service from UCLA Biomedical Library in Westwood, free MEDLINE and other on-line literature searches, and free photocopying. The library also has word processors and copiers available for individual use. Fellows also have library privileges at the Biomedical Library in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (including access to online searches and electronic journals) on completion of appropriate application procedures.

All fellows have computers with Internet access in their offices. Fellows are encouraged to obtain Bruin Online from UCLA to facilitate literature searches, article reprints, access to information regarding UCLA activities, and other services.

HOME	The Setting	Division Specialties	Didactics	Faculty
Postdoctoral Fellowship	Externship	Contact Information	Links	FAQs

Track	Track Supervisor
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy	Lynn McFarr, Ph.D.
Correctional/Forensic Psychology and Assertive Community Treatment/Rehabilitation	Dorit Saberi, Ph.D.
Behavioral Medicine/HIV Services	David J. Martin, Ph.D. Astrid Reina-Patton, Ph.D.
Behavioral Medicine/Women's Health/Inpatient Psychiatry	Astrid Reina-Patton, Ph.D. Carol Edwards, Ph.D.
Cross-Cultural Mental Health Clinical Research	Freda Cheung, Ph.D.
Neuropsychology Services	Kyle Boone, Ph.D.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry	Michele Berk, Ph.D., Janine Shelby, Ph.D.
TIES for Adoption	Karen Rathburn, Ph.D.