Career Opportunities

Each year, we select predoctoral interns as part of the Lifespan Health Elective (formerly called the Integrated Brain Health Elective). Interns receive multidisciplinary training in individual, dyadic, and group mind-body interventions on the continuum from health to illness and across the lifespan.

We believe a biopsychosocial approach is necessary for prevention and treatment of injury and illness. Through multidisciplinary and community partnerships, interns deliver brief, evidence-based interventions across inpatient and outpatient medical, psychiatric settings, and community clinics. Within the context of randomized clinical trials and clinical settings, they learn to flexibly deliver skills from a variety of mind-body therapeutic approaches to diverse populations (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, mindfulness based interventions, physical activity programs). Across settings, interns serve on multidisciplinary teams to enhance collaborations, team-based approaches, and healthcare delivery.

Interns received training in a variety of multidisciplinary, integrated clinical and research teams across inpatient (e.g., ICU), outpatient (e.g., psychiatry; rehabilitation; embedded clinics such as dementia, MS, ALS, chronic pain), and virtual (e.g., live video interventions) settings.

Interns gain experience:

1.    Delivering psychoeducation and technology-enhanced, evidence-based mind-body skills within patient, dyadic, and group interventions that aim to:

Preserve health and prevent chronic illness through lifestyle changes, such as mindfulness, exercise, social support, adaptive thoughts
Optimize the management of chronic illness
Promote recovery and prevent chronic illness after injury or surgery.

2.    Functioning on multidisciplinary, integrated, clinical and research teams in inpatient (e.g., Neuro-ICU, general ICU, medical-psychiatric unit) and outpatient (e.g., orthopedics, psychiatry, neurodegenerative) settings.

3.    Delivering integrated, manualized, in-person or virtual skills interventions to diverse populations (e.g., patients with chronic pain, stroke, brain injury, dementia/mild cognitive impairment, concussions, older adults) as part of federally funded clinical trials in hospital or community settings (e.g., Black churches, underserved community clinics).

This curriculum overlaps with the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Elective and Behavioral Medicine Elective, but the research interests of interns in this track should be primarily in technology-enhanced, mind-body intervention development, testing and implementation to promote health, well-being, and resilience over the continuum of health to illness and across the lifespan.

Required Internship Rotations

1. Psychiatric Inpatient Unit at Blake 11 (½ year)

Conduct brief, bedside, evidence-based interventions to patients with acute psychiatric and/or co-morbid medical concerns.
Co-lead groups for inpatient psychiatric patients.
Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, residents, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, case managers and other staff.
2. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (½ year)

Co-lead weekly DBT skills group for patients with borderline personality disorder and other psychiatric comorbidities.
Attend weekly DBT team meeting with clinicians and trainees.
3. Outpatient Psychiatry Department (1 year)

Provide outpatient individualized evidence-based care using cognitive-behavioral approaches (second and third wave) to patients with medical and/or psychological conditions.
4. Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Coaching (1 year)

Provide brief CBT-based coaching to patients with medical and psychological problems.