Universal Psychology Postdoctoral Directory

Please note that Behavioral Medicine at Cooper University Health Care offers a variety of postdoctoral fellowship tracks. You are reading the description for the addictions track. Please review our additional listings for further information on our positions in infectious disease, psych-oncology, and other specialties. 

About Cooper University Health Care 

About Cooper University Health Care (CUHC) is an academic medical center anchored in Camden, NJ and serving all of South Jersey. At the heart of the medical center, and just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, is Cooper University Hospital (CUH), South Jersey’s only level one trauma center and 635-bed public hospital. We are also a level two pediatric trauma center as well. In addition, CUHC operates over 100 ambulatory clinics, the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, 2 urgent care centers, and is affiliated with the Cooper Medical School at Rowan University. In total, Cooper’s nearly 9,000 team members, 700 physicians, 400 APP’s, 325 Physicians in residency and fellowship and our staff care for nearly 2 million patients each year, many of whom live in disadvantaged areas in Camden. 

Position Description 

The addictions post-doctoral fellow will provide psychological consultation and psychotherapeutic intervention for patients in both medical inpatient and outpatient settings. The successful candidate will provide evidence-based brief interventions including but not limited to CBT, ACT, and mindfulness-based approaches with demographically diverse patients presenting with substance use disorders and dual diagnoses, including adjustment, depression, anxiety, trauma, and serious mental illness. The fellow will work in collaboration with, and provide consultation to, a multidisciplinary medical team. It is also expected that the fellow will participate in daily operations of various clinics and mental health teams; collaboratively work to maximize disposition efficiency for patients with comorbid substance use and psychological diagnosis. The fellow will also contribute to ongoing Addiction Medicine research, both retrospective and prospective clinical cohort studies. 

Principal Duties and Responsibilities 

• Provides individual clinical care to patients with Addiction Medicine concerns including, but not limited to, adjustment to abstinence, identifying barriers to recovery and protective factors, managing chronic pain, adherence to treatment, and dual diagnosis support. 
• Engages in comprehensive assessment to confirm psychological diagnosis. 
• Faithful implementation of empirically supported interventions and strategies for addiction and dual diagnosis targets including, but not limited to CBT, ACT, MBSR, DBT, and Motivational Interviewing. 
• Case conceptualization skills will be highlighted during fellowship year. Expectations for applicants include a strong ability to conceptualize from the appropriate theoretical orientation, though all conceptualizations should relate back the interaction of individual factors with substance use conditions and environmental/sociocultural influences. These formulations should include etiological factors and maintaining factors, which should then transition naturally into your treatment plan and how you will address these factors to improve physical and psychological wellbeing. 
• The individual should be able to meaningfully and effectively build relationships with leadership and frontline physicians, nurses, residents and students. The candidate will engage in regular direct communication with all staff as well as patients and their families. 
• Provide patient risk assessment and recommendations. 
• Provide consultation as well as liaison services in a busy medical clinic. 
• Create group programming as appropriate for medical patients across a variety of clinics.

• Serves as a mental health liaison across various medical clinics. 
• Participate in on-going Addiction Medicine research; initiation of new projects, work toward procurement of internal and external grant-funding; participation in professional presentation at national conferences; work toward publication of Addiction Medicine research. 
• Represent Cooper locally, regionally, and nationally at conferences-presenting emergency. Work collaboratively with other institutions to share best practices and program strategies. Oversee data collection and maintain database. Submit publications to peer reviewed journals in collaboration with the Division of Behavioral Medicine 
• Provide secondary supervision for Behavioral Medicine externs and interns as applicable. 

Education, Experience, and Other Qualities 

• Mandatory Psy.D./Ph.D. in Clinical or Counseling Psychology 
• Must have completed an APA accredited Psychology Internship 
• Must have applied for or be prepared to apply for New Jersey permit (if necessary, this depends upon current number of supervision hours) 
• Must have experience treating patients with addiction or dual diagnosis 

Other Preferred Qualities 

• Health Psychology experience 
• Experience working in an acute hospital setting 
• Excellent oral and written communication skills 
• Experience with methods and statistical analysis in clinical psychology research 
• Ability to work independently and exercise sound clinical judgment 
• Ability to work in cooperation with multidisciplinary medical team Strong organizational and management skills