Supervisors
Kyle Bersted, PhD; Janet Yarboi, PhD; Kristina Butler, PhD; Bridget Makol, PhD; Deidra Bibbs, PhD
Specific objectives
Training is dedicated to state-of-the-art delivery of psychological services for infants, children, adolescents, young adults, parents, and families. The goal is to produce competent clinical child/pediatric psychologists for applied and academic careers in pediatric care. The training philosophy is grounded in two guiding principles: one, that health care is best provided through multidisciplinary collaboration between medical and behavioral sciences; and two, that mental health is best understood from a developmental perspective. Residents gain competency in diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, new and innovative techniques, brief and long-term treatments, inpatient consultations, and specialized services.
Structure
Training is provided through the departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. Residents participate in most clinical services throughout the year, allowing for greater depth of learning and longer-term patient follow-up. Our primary clinical services can be seen in the following section. For residents with special interests, the program provides opportunities for elective experiences in particular clinical areas. These are arranged on a case-by-case basis and will only be considered after the first four months of the resident’s training year. Recent examples have included adult neuropsychology, endocrinology, and cystic fibrosis/pulmonology.
Clinical service description
Medical coping clinic (outpatient therapy)
This clinic focuses on the psychological evaluation and treatment of children, adolescents, and young adults presenting with comorbid medical conditions. Patients in this clinic are typically referred from within the medical center for support in managing the changes in emotion and behavior often accompanying acute and chronic illness. Residents will gain experience in tailoring evidence-based approaches to help patients and their families: adjust to a new or worsening medical condition; increase self-management and treatment adherence; prepare for a medical treatment or procedure; cope with psychosocial, illness-related stress; manage depression, anxiety, medical trauma, and/or other psychopathology interfering with medical care; manage grief related to the death of a sibling or caregiver, among other presenting problems. Individual supervision is provided on a weekly basis.
Supervisor: Janet Yarboi, PhD
PCIT clinic (outpatient therapy)
This clinic focuses on intervention with toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children with disruptive behaviors. Therapy focuses on providing caregivers with behavioral strategies to help manage their child’s behaviors and big emotions. Both short-term and longer-term empirically paid based approaches are taught. Residents can work towards certification in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and receive live supervision while providing services. Advanced training opportunities in PCIT adaptations are available, including PCIT for Toddlers and PCIT Adapted for Older Children.
Supervisor: Kristina Butler, PhD
Pediatric inpatient consultation-liaison (C/L)
Fundamentals of inpatient consultation-liaison on medical units are taught. Residents interact closely with multidisciplinary teams of health care providers. Consultations may include diagnostic evaluations, developmental and psychological assessments, behavior management, parent and family counseling, individual therapy, staff guidance, in-service presentations, and attendance of family/team meetings. The focus here is brief assessment and short-term intervention where the primary goal is providing other health care providers with clinical information and recommendations while supporting the psychosocial needs of medically hospitalized youth (general pediatrics; pediatric intensive care) and their caregivers (neonatal intensive care). Residents will gain experience in chart review and documentation for medically complex patients.
Supervisor: Janet Yarboi, PhD
Pediatric psychosocial oncology
An experience in collaborative work between psychologists and other health care professionals (e.g., oncologists, medical residents, nurses, child life specialists) is provided in a setting of chronic and life-threatening illness. Training focuses on treatment of the most common clinical symptoms found in child, adolescent, and young adult cancer patients. These include depression, anxiety, pain, nausea, adherence problems, and loss of quality of life. Training includes supportive work in death and dying.
Supervisor: Janet Yarboi, PhD
Neonatal behavioral assessment (NICU) and high-risk infant follow-up
This is an experience in developmental screening and evaluation of infants and young children. Fundamentals of early development and assessment of normal, abnormal, and high-risk populations is taught through use of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development.
Supervisor: Kristina Butler, PhD
Comprehensive psychological evaluation
This service provides residents with an opportunity to conduct comprehensive psychological evaluations of children and adolescents with attention deficit disorders, autism spectrum disorders, developmental delays, learning disabilities, internalizing/externalizing disorders, trauma-based disorders, as well as a variety of medical conditions. Most often these evaluations provide families/caregivers with diagnostic clarity. Training includes the use of empirically-supported measures to assess cognitive, language, adaptive, academic, attention, social, and behavioral/emotional functioning. Opportunities to utilize neuropsychological measures to assess executive functioning and memory are also available. Additional areas of training include conducting diagnostic interviews and feedback sessions, as well as report writing.
Supervisor: Kyle Bersted, PhD, Bridget Makol, PhD, Deidra Bibbs, PhD
Integrated primary care
This experience allows residents to provide short-term/targeted behavioral health treatment to children, adolescents, and their families within a primary care setting. Services are most often provided through a short-term therapy model (6-8 sessions) after families are referred by their pediatricians. Typical areas of clinical focus include behavioral problems, parent management training, anxiety, depression, academic issues, and sleep concerns.
Supervisor: Kyle Bersted, PhD
Rush therapeutic day school group therapy
Residents join the day school psychologist in co-leading group therapy sessions (two per week) with emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children within a therapeutic day school. Residents develop practical knowledge in childhood psychopathology, group dynamics, and group intervention. Opportunities for psycho-educational evaluations are also available through this school setting.
Supervisor: Deidra Bibbs, PhD
Seminars and supervision
Attendance at Pediatric and Psychiatry/Behavioral Sciences grand rounds is encouraged. Residents also attend seminars and teaching conferences designed for the entire residency class (nine residents across three training tracks). Supervision and training include direct observation and modeling, co-participation, didactic teaching, and a combination of individual and group supervision. Residents receive a minimum of four hours of individual and group supervision per week.