Universal Psychology Postdoctoral Directory

Access Institute clinicians provide psychoanalytically-informed high-quality mental health services to those who would otherwise fall through the cracks. The Psychoanalytic Community Mental Health Postgraduate Fellowship accepts 9 postmasters and postdoctoral clinicians to train over a 12-month period. Each fellow will work at a community setting, providing pro-bono services to underserved populations through our Elder or School-Based Programs. In addition to work in the community, all fellows provide ongoing depth-oriented psychotherapy services to adults, couples, and children at the Hayes Valley Community Clinic. 

Our fellowship provides 9 hours of intensive training each week, including 3 hours of didactic trainings in contemporary psychoanalytic theories and technique and sociocultural theories of practice; 3 hours of individual supervision; 1.5 hours of program specific group supervision; and 1.5 hours of in-depth case conferences. Fellows spend 25 hours per week providing direct clinical services, through the clinic and community partnerships. Fellows receive up to 2,000 supervised hours toward licensure.

Charting and paperwork will be done through an electronic health record system. Our training activities and clinical services are done in person, with a few exceptions. We have included new classes that take up the challenge of tele-health work, and make space for those discussions in supervision and case conferences. 

Elder Program: Bringing culturally sensitive, psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy to marginalized communities is the hallmark of this program. Elder Program fellows compliment their clinic hours with work in senior-service agencies in Bayview-Hunters Point where they provide individual, group, and milieu therapy to primarily African-American seniors. This population is marginalized not only by virtue of race and socioeconomic status, but also by being elderly in a culture that devalues and disavows aging. Fellows examine how this ethos impacts their clients as well as their own work. Fellows participate in an elder focused group supervision and didactics on psychodynamic/person-centered elder care in addition to training on consultation and collaboration with agency staff (nurses, social workers, physical therapists, etc.). Trainees interested in cultivating an internal psychodynamic frame in tandem with creative and agile technique adapted to complex factors (culture, non-traditional setting, wide range of functional levels and capacities) are encouraged to apply to the Elder Program.

School-Based Program: Fellows in the School-Based Program provide care for children at 6 San Francisco public elementary schools where they become part of the school community. Clinicians talk to teachers, social workers, principals and caregivers frequently in order to support the children they see. 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 Program receive training focused on developing a flexible internal frame. In addition, they will receive training in consultation and collaboration, as well as didactic training in psychodynamic play therapy.