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 of Psychiatry actively works to sustain a welcoming and supportive environment for residents, acknowledging the challenges involved in training. The department aims to serve as a model for others through extensive recruitment efforts and community-building initiatives. Key engagement strategies include forming the SPARKS committee to promote resilience and support, outreach via social media, participating in events like the Heartland Pride Parade, mentorship programs, and professional development opportunities. 

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.