Universal Psychology Postdoctoral Directory Entry

Forensic/Inpatient Adult Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship

UTHealth Houston John S. Dunn Behavioral Sciences Center
Houston, Texas

Starts on Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Applications due Friday, December 5, 2025

This training experience is not an APPIC Member program and is not APA Accredited. Applicants should be aware that this training experience has not undergone a formal external quality review process.

Elements of quality clinically focused postdoctoral training

This training experience is a planned and programmed sequence of training that aims to ensure preparation for advanced practice rather than one that is focused on providing supervised hours for licensure. Yes

This training experience ensures that training takes precedence over service delivery regarding the nature, content, volume, and quality of the postdoc’s activities. Yes

This training experience ensures that postdocs receive at least two hours of individual supervision per week for the duration of the experience. Yes

This training experience is administered by a doctoral-level licensed psychologist who directs and organizes the training experience and its resources, is responsible for the selection of postdocs, and monitors and evaluates the goals and activities of the experience. Yes

This training experience has two or more doctoral-level licensed psychologists who have sufficient time to provide quality supervision and training.   Yes

This training experience includes regularly scheduled structured educational activities that help postdocs its defined goals. These activities may include didactics, seminars, case conferences, and/or research activities. Yes

This training experience has written Due Process and Grievance procedures. Yes

This training experience has the stable and necessary financial (e.g., stipend) and physical resources (e.g., computers, physical space) needed for effective training. Yes

The UTHealth John S. Dunn Behavioral Sciences Campus is the largest academic inpatient psychiatric hospital campus in the country, and is comprised of the Harris County Psychiatric Center (UTHealth-HCPC; 273 bed) and the Dunn Behavioral Sciences Center (BSC; 264 bed). Both neighboring psychiatric facilities are a training home for students, residents and fellows in medicine, psychiatry, social work, nursing, pharmacy and psychology. The mean length of stay for most patients is approximately 7 days on acute units, and up to 90 days in the sub-acute units. Patients served are diverse with regard to race/ethnicity, age, education, sociocultural background, and patients often present with serious mental illnesses, co-occurring conditions, suicidality, as well as intellectual and developmental disabilities, and personality disorders. The Psychology Service functions as a hospital-wide consultation service whereby electronic referrals are received from treatment teams/providers. Referral types include individual therapy, group therapy, and various types of assessments and screenings.

The Psychology Service is also actively involved with clinical research. In addition to track-specific responsibilities outlined below, each fellow will be involved in clinical research with 10% protected time for such. Additionally, fellows may assist in program development, provide supervision to psychology trainees and psychiatry residents, and/or facilitate and attend didactic presentations. The 2000-hour, 12-month postdoctoral fellowship training model is designed to prepare fellows for licensure and to function as competent professional psychologists. All training is on-site and all training opportunities are in-person Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm.

The fellowship and faculty follow a developmental training model whereby each fellow identifies their training objectives and are offered opportunities related to their goals. Initially, trainees are tasked with observing services conducted by faculty, then faculty observe fellows, and upon relevant developmental competence and confidence, fellows are permitted to facilitate services more independently. Typically, the initial training objective involves demonstrating mastery by the fellow in case conceptualization, brief intervention treatment planning, and administering brief interventions. This mastery is typically achieved by the first 6-12 weeks. Next, fellows are introduced to the Forensic track rotation.

General Objectives and Goals:

Deliver brief, evidence-based individual and group psychotherapies to adult patients with diverse clinical presentations, including serious mental illness (SMI) and co-occurring disorders.

Demonstrate advanced proficiency in psychological evaluations, including cognitive, personality, and response-style assessments to inform treatment planning and clinical decision-making.

Apply individualized responsive practices and adapt interventions to meet the needs of various patient populations.

Provide developmentally appropriate, tiered supervision and feedback to practicum students, predoctoral interns, and psychiatry residents, under the guidance of licensed psychologists.

Function effectively as a consultant within multidisciplinary treatment teams by providing psychological expertise, treatment recommendations, and education to colleagues.

Consistent with the practitioner-scholar model, engage in clinical research and curate at least one scholarly product by year-end.

Apply APA Ethical Principles and state licensure laws, by engaging in ethical and professional behavior, accurately representing trainee status and supervisory relationships, and progressively developing autonomy and readiness for independent practice through reflective self-assessment, supervision integration, and professional growth.

Meet the postdoctoral requirement for licensure as a psychologist in Texas.

Forensic Track Objective and Goals:

Fellows will develop advanced proficiency in conducting post-restoration, court-ordered forensic evaluations of competency to stand trial, including clinical interviews, record review, collateral consultation, and the integration of data into clear, objective, and legally-relevant forensic reports that effectively address the psycholegal question.

Fellows will understand competency restoration interventions tailored to individuals with serious mental illness, and demonstrate skills in addressing functional impairments that interfere with restoration.

Fellows will demonstrate ethical and individualized responsive practice in forensic inpatient settings, integrating knowledge of relevant legal standards, managing dual agency roles, and addressing the intersection of mental illness, justice system involvement, and sociocultural factors impacting competency and restoration outcomes.

https://https://med.uth.edu/psychiatry/uthealth-houston-psychology-postdoctoral-program/

Additional Information

Agency Type: Medical School/Health Science Center
APPIC Membership: No
APA Accredited: No
Emphasis or focus area: Serious Mental Illness
Other Emphasis: Forensic; Inpatient Adults
Research Time: Less than 25%
Training Director: Elaheh Ashtari, PsyD
Contact Email: elaheh.ashtari@uth.tmc.edu
Contact Phone: 713-500-1599
Virtual Interviews: Strongly Preferred
Duration in Months: 12
Hours Per Week: 40
# of Licensed Supervisors: 12
Number of Positions: 1
Applications recieved last year: 3
Accepts Int'l Students: No
Stipend: $62,232
Will follow APPIC Selection Standards: Yes
Estimated offer date: Friday, February 13 2026
Created Date: Thursday, September 28 2023
Fringe Benefits: Medical benefits, vacation leave, sick leave, professional leave; optional dental and vision benefits available. Please note, per institutional policy, vacation and preventative leave are not able to be used during the first 6 months of employment.
Research opportunities: Psychology Services maintains an extensive data set from which fellows may identify research questions to investigate. Based on specific research interests, the fellow will work with a faculty research mentor to develop a mutually agreed-upon scholarly product during their fellowship.
Additional Comments: While this program is not APPIC/APA accredited, we have had 100% of our postdoctoral fellowship graduates obtain licensure as a psychologist in Texas and our program meets the postdoctoral training requirements. Some of our graduates have been retained as clinical faculty at UTHealth Houston, and many graduates have gone on to lead careers in private practice, inpatient hospitals, academia, and academic medicine. In October 2025, the program submitted an application for APPIC accreditation, and application review will occur in April 2026.
Application Instructions: Applicants must be graduates from a Counseling or Clinical Psychology Ph.D. or Psy.D. APA-Accredited program and have successfully completed an APA accredited psychology internship. Doctoral degree requirements must be completed before September 1, 2026. We will send interview invitations by January 9, 2026. Interviews will begin in January. We will adhere to the APPIC Postdoctoral Selection Standards and Common Hold Date (CHD) Guidelines. Virtual and in-person interviews will be available. The fellowship start date is September 1, 2026. This is a 12-month fellowship. If fellow accepts the fellowship offer, fellow may need to be available at least 2 months before the start date in order to complete background/drug screen, on-boarding form and hospital credentialing process, most of which can be completed remotely. Application should be submitted through APPA CAS. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please be sure to include a cover letter, updated CV, two redacted assessment report samples (forensic evaluations preferred), and three letters of recommendations. If you have any questions or concerns, please email the Psychology Services Coordinator, Ms. Meagan Massy (Meagan.massy@uth.tmc.edu).

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