Universal Psychology Postdoctoral Directory

At Access Institute you are taught and supervised by contemporary thinkers who have evolved psychoanalytic practice in meaningful ways. This intensive program trains 13 postgraduate fellows over a 12 month period, during which time fellows provide clinical services and receive training and supervision from some of the Bay Area’s top clinicians. Our fellowship provides over 10 hours of intensive training each week, including didactic training, in-depth supervision, theoretical instruction, technical development, and specialized training seminars. Fellows spend 25 hours per week providing direct clinical services to children, adolescents, adults and seniors. All fellows provide psychotherapy services to adults and couples at the Hayes Valley community clinic. Individuals, couples, and children, and families are served in our Hayes Valley community clinic. The psychoanalytic approach allows for more intensive treatments and many patients are seen at the clinic two or three times per week. Most fellows also work off-site providing services at one of our partner programs.Fellows receive 2,000 hours toward licensure. Fellows are placed in one of four tracks: Assessment, Intake, Elder, or School-Based. Fellows in the Assessment Track conduct comprehensive psychological assessment batteries of children, adolescents, and adults, in addition to providing individual and couples therapy at the Hayes Valley Community Clinic. Fellows gain specialized training and experience in addressing complex diagnostic referral questions around areas of personality / emotional functioning; neuropsychological & executive functioning; intelligence; cognitive functioning; and achievement. Fellows also gain experience conducting intakes for prospective psychological assessment referral clients, and providing psycho-education on the testing process and outcomes. During the training year fellows also gain skills researching and presenting on a specialized area of their assessment interests, as well as have the opportunity to present their work through assessment case presentations. In addition to receiving individual weekly supervision for each assessment case, fellows receive weekly didactic training to gain skills in the following areas: • Rorschach Performance System (RPAS) administration, coding, and interpretation • Evidenced based practices for assessment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children, adolescents, and adults • Evidenced based practices in the assessment of learning disorders • Differential diagnosis of emotional disturbance and ADHD or other neurocognitive issues • Structured professional judgement (SPG) approaches to the assessment of violence risk • Assessment of malingering or feigning symptoms • Cultural considerations as they relate to limitations of test validity • Therapeutic assessment and social justice based approaches to psychological assessment • Skills in providing psychoeducation to clients about test results and improved report writing • Considerations in the development of an assessment private practice In all areas of assessment work, fellows are trained to employ a multicultural, social justice approach to psychological assessment. This approach supports fellows in accounting for cultural differences in the interpretation of measures and validity of test outcomes, as well as consider the current and historical cultural factors that impact their evaluations. Fellows on the Intake Track are integrally involved with the flow of patient referrals to the clinic. Intake fellows each have two weekly Intake shifts where they answer telephone and email inquiries about the Hayes Valley clinic and services offered here. They also attend a weekly Intake Team meeting, where the week's intakes are discussed, and the team works together to make determinations about patient appropriateness and case assignments. These Fellows are often the first contact a potential patient makes with the clinic, thus they work to develop the skills to complete a thorough, though brief, intake evaluation, while also being respectful of patient safety, privacy, and emotional concerns. Intake Fellows develop a knowledge base about Bay Area Mental Health referrals, along with an expert sense of a potential patient's appropriateness for services with Access or elsewhere in the community. Elder Track fellows compliment their clinic hours with work either at the Bayview Hunters Point Adult Day Health Center where they offer individual, group and milieu therapy to primarily African-American seniors or at Openhouse where they offer individual and group therapy to LGBT seniors. Fellows collaborate with the professional staff at both agencies (including nurses, social workers & physical therapists), and provide staff consultation and training, in order to facilitate an integrated approach to elder care. There is additional individual and group supervision for fellows in this track focusing on clinical geropsychology, consultation and person-centered dementia care. Fellows in the School-Based Track provide care for children at school and by doing that become part of the school environment. We talk to teachers, social workers and principals. We walk the halls, visit the cafeteria, and encounter our clients’ classmates and peers. Our impact on our clients is not simply during the clinical hour, but throughout our time on campus. This requires thoughtful consideration of our multiple roles at the school, and the development of an internal frame that supports our clinical thinking.Fellows in the school-based track receive training focused on developing a flexible internal frame. They will receive training in consultation and collaboration, as well as in psychodynamic play therapy. This training is in the form of three weekly individual supervisions, a clinical case conference, and a group supervision focused on school-based work. In addition to working at a school, fellows will also provide therapy to adults, couples, children, adolescents, and families at our Hayes Valley Community Clinic. Please visit our website for more information.

http://accessinst.org