Postdoctoral Fellowship
Post-Doctoral/Post-Residency Fellowship for Psychologists and Psychiatrists
Silver Hill Hospital offers full-time postdoctoral fellowships to recent graduates in the field of Clinical or Counseling Psychology who have completed their pre-doctoral internship. In addition to serving in clinical roles throughout the hospital, fellows study with the pioneers of leading evidence-based psychotherapies, gaining mastery towards certification. They learn from a community of patient-centered professionals who are dedicated to building ideal treatments for their patients from across the spectrum of proven modalities.
Psychiatry residents interested in extending their learning experience can also apply for a fellowship position following completion of their residency training program.
Training Opportunities
Silver Hill Hospital offers 1-2 full-time postdoctoral Fellowships to recent graduates in the field of Clinical or Counseling Psychology who have completed their pre-doctoral internship. In addition to serving in clinical roles throughout the hospital, fellows study with the pioneers of leading evidence-based psychotherapies, gaining mastery towards certification. They learn from a community of patient-centered professionals who are dedicated to building ideal treatments for their patients from across the spectrum of proven modalities.
Fellows receive training in leading treatments, including but not limited to:
Transference Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) – a twice-weekly structured psychodynamic treatment derived from an object relations orientation which has been initially validated for treatment of borderline spectrum personality pathology. Fellows are instructed and supervised by TFP pioneer Dr. Frank Yeomans on a weekly basis.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) – a behavioral treatment developed for treatment of personality and anxiety/affective pathology. Fellows take the foundational course offered by premier DBT educators Behavioral Tech and are supervised by Silver Hill’s highly trained and experienced clinicians from the hospital’s DBT-immersion residential and outpatient programs.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) – a time-limited cognitive behavioral treatment for the management of trauma. Fellows receive remote training and supervision on both group and individual work with their residential patients.
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) – fellows are exposed to the evidenced-based paradigm of short-term dynamic psychotherapy and can utilize this model in working with individual patients. Skills development in this area involves group didactics, role playing, and supervision of cases.
Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT) – fellows participate in didactic learning, guided reading, and supervision with the possibility of leading groups using a mentalization model for patients in individual and group settings. Those interested may be able to participate in external trainings as well.
Psychodrama – Fellows have the opportunity to observe the psychodrama model in the residential setting and can begin learning these general techniques during the fellowship year.
Family Systems – Didactic time will be spent understanding Bowen family systems and its applications to families, organizations, and society. Fellows will be encouraged to use genograms when working with their patients with ample supervision available as well to guide the development of systems thinking.
These therapies are an integral part of the culture of healing at Silver Hill, so Fellows engage daily with the hospital’s expert clinicians to explore the leading edge of multimodal treatment. Fellows work within a closely supervised multidisciplinary team, treating patients holistically across Silver Hill’s unique continuum of care that includes inpatient, residential and outpatient settings.
As a destination treatment center for patients from across the United States seeking a higher level of care – and, in complex cases, requiring novel treatment approaches – Silver Hill affords Fellows the opportunity to work with a varied array of psychopathologies.
Fellows also develop an individualized plan of training, study and scholarship to accommodate licensure and career goals, which may involve personal or institution-related research, teaching, work with special populations and/or participation in program development.
Other Fellowship responsibilities/opportunities include attendance at Grand Rounds; participation in case conferences; and participation in a short lecture series on topics ranging from therapeutic community principles to psychodynamic approaches to short term therapy, taught by visiting and on-sight instructors.
“The Silver Hill Fellowship,” says Dr. Andrew J. Gerber, Silver Hill’s President and Medical Director, “provides recent graduates the opportunity to work with complex psychiatric patients in a true continuum of care, and to learn evidence-based approaches from experts in the field. This experience has become more and more difficult to come by in traditional training programs and prepares our fellows for working with the types of patients that are typically underserved in other systems.”
Critical to this training is an experience of education in a community of learners from multiple disciplines to facilitate the development of relationships that are often important for later professional practice. This group has the opportunity as well to meet weekly in a community group to build relationships with other trainees.
To learn more about the Fellowship program and current openings, please contact Dr. Jeffrey Katzman, Director of Education