Career Opportunities

Come join our one-year clinical postdoctoral fellowship that is designed to provide fellows with a comprehensive understanding of assessment and treatment approaches for people during reproductive age during their experiences navigating pregnancy, postpartum, and or loss. Fellows will have the opportunity to interact with patients, partners, families, care team members, and other learners in both outpatient and inpatient settings as well as embedded in specialty outpatient clinics. Fellows will develop skills in evidenced-based perinatal and reproductive psychology assessment, intervention, consultation, and advocacy. They will serve as integral members of our interprofessional inpatient and outpatient teams. This Fellow will also have the opportunity to work with the reproductive and perinatal mental health team on a scholarly project during their fellowship year.

Located in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico, the fellowship is situated at the largest Academic Medical Center for the state, the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH). UNMH is an outstanding public, safety-net, academic medical system affiliated with the University of New Mexico and UNM’s School of Medicine. UNMH provides medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, and vision services to our diverse, complex, underserved communities in Bernalillo County and surrounding areas. The community we serve is 49.8% Hispanic/Latino and 4.8% Native American with numerous other ethnic minority groups represented. Approximately 80% of our patients are covered by Medicaid. We have a strong tradition of interdisciplinary integrated care, which offers a unique opportunity to be trained as a generalist with sub-specialty areas. The multiple clinical sites within UNMH’s Behavioral Health Clinical Services line also support two APA-accredited predoctoral clinical psychology internships and post-doctoral fellowship programs providing fellows with a rich learning environment.

TRAINING STRUCTURE

Each fellow is accepted on an individual training plan tailored to the interests and career goals of the fellow. Training plans may include a mix of psychological and neuropsychological assessment, psychotherapeutic modalities such as individual, family, or group therapy, consultation, program development / improvement, teaching, supervision training, staff meetings, and didactics.

Fellows participate in 2 hours of formal training each week including a mental health didactic and Socratic seminar with their peers and other new employees, along with 2 hours of individual supervision. In reality, using a developmental approach, fellows receive much more supervision within the context of clinical work.  They present a professional topic during the clinic’s weekly didactic series and present patient cases during our Socratic seminar and clinic treatment team. Fellows assist with the supervision of at least one junior trainee (including cross disciplinary supervision) under the direction and oversight of their primary supervisor. Additionally, fellows complete a quality improvement or program development project.

Some of the evidence-based approaches that our training has had available during the training year includes but is not limited to:

·         Motivational Interviewing (MI) / Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET)

·         Behavioral Activation

·         Cognitive Behavioral Relapse Prevention

·         Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Pain

·         Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA) and Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training (CRAFT)

·         Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE) for PTSD

·         Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy

·         Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

·         CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I) and other Behavioral Sleep Medicine techniques

·         and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

SITE

We have one opening for the Reproductive and Perinatal Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow hired within UNMH. Fellows will have the unique opportunity to learn and implement evidence-based treatments and best practices through direct clinical service to pregnant and postpartum individuals in the OB/Gyn clinics. Fellows will gain experience providing assessment, intervention, and consultation to a wide array of comorbid psychological and medical conditions at UNMH. One unique component that the fellow will experience is working with the Journey’s program, an interdisciplinary program focused on providing care for pregnant and postpartum people with co-morbid psychiatric conditions in New Mexico. Fellows will provide psychological assessment and intervention to improve function as well as reduce the impact of psychiatric symptoms on pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postpartum care.

UNMH offers competitive salary and a generous benefits package. Other benefits include educational reimbursement, educational leave, sign-on bonus, and relocation funds. All fellows are admitted into the full-time training programs in August or September of the starting year through August of the next year. This is a full-time, in-person position and requires routine vaccinations, a health screen, and completion of all required trainings associated with employment at UNMH.

UNMH’s Postdoctoral Training Program fulfills the licensure requirements for postdoctoral supervision in the jurisdiction of the program (New Mexico). We are committed to recruit, support and retain a diverse staff and therefore we encourage women and minority applicants.

QUALIFICATIONS

·         Have received a Doctorate from an APA accredited graduate program in Clinical, Counseling, School, or Combined Psychology. Persons with a doctorate in another area of psychology who meet the APA criteria for re-specialization training in Clinical, Counseling, School, or Combined Psychology are also eligible.

·         Have completed an internship program accredited by the APA. The only exception regarding accreditation is for those who complete a new VA or other Federal internship that is not yet accredited. Please inquire if your internship falls into this category.

HOW TO APPLY / APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

Applicants wishing to apply should submit a letter of interest and curriculum vitae to Dr. Denise Rodríguez Esquivel, Psychologist Manager of Integrated Behavioral Health Clinical Services at DRodriguezEsquivel@salud.unm.edu. Notification for interview will be completed within 10 days of receipt of application materials. Candidates will be contacted by phone or email to set up a video conferencing interview with training and supervising psychologists involved in the fellowship training.

We look forward to your application and the many possibilities to expand your career!