Clinical Training

We recognize the importance of wellness in the curriculum for trainees and the future care they provide patients. Interns start formal didactics with Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART), an evidence-based program from the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Several staff members and department faculty are SMART-certified. The department provides weekly lunches before didactics and quarterly opportunities for personal wellness activities. The program also sponsors mentoring meetings to foster professional development. Finally, the department provides financial support for social events to help foster belonging and community.

The department and leadership are committed to Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DEI). We recognize disparities in society and condemn racism and discrimination. The department supports efforts toward antiracism and the promotion of diversity. We recruit and encourage candidates with diverse backgrounds to apply to our program through social media and residency fair activities. A department DEI Committee meets regularly to create a conversational space and solutions. Its leaders participate in curriculum development and resident recruitment and help implement best practices. We invite a diverse slate of Grand Rounds speakers who often highlight diversity, inclusion, and equity issues. For 2021, Implicit Bias training is required to interview candidates. The residency core team works closely with stakeholders and University leadership to create a more welcoming and diverse training environment.

Residents will have ample opportunities to work with faculty with subspecialty expertise in Reproductive Psychiatry, Anxiety Disorders, Geriatric Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and other areas. Specialized clinics are led by several board-certified faculty members, most with fellowship training in areas of expertise. Residents will also have an immersive experience in Community and Rural Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, ECT, and numerous elective opportunities.

Residents in our program will have direct experience in the powerful and disease-changing properties of evidence-based psychotherapy. Beginning in the second year, trainees will enter a half-day Psychotherapy Clinic focused on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) in individual and group settings. Psychotherapy supervisors and psychotherapy course directors are experienced clinicians trained in their respective evidence-based modalities. Residents will have primary therapy patients in their caseload. Our trainees will receive individual and group supervision to ensure growth in skills and mastery in delivering high-quality psychotherapy. Residents will carry and begin new psychotherapy cases in their third- and four-year outpatient rotations to provide a richer, longitudinal experience.