Track Overview
The Child and Adolescent track provides specialized clinical training with children, adolescents, and families. Postdoctoral Fellows provide supervised care of children and adolescents who are experiencing a broad range of psychological disturbances—from adjustment disorders to psychotic disturbances.
The training program emphasizes understanding children, adolescents and families from a developmental and systems perspective. Fellows receive intensive clinical training in a wide range of diagnostic skills and treatment modalities, such as individual, group, family, sibling, parent, and parent group interventions.
All fellows have the opportunity to integrate both clinical and scholarly dimensions of the field and participate in a scholarly project consistent with their interests.
After having a great internship year here at URMC, I knew that I wanted to stay on for a postdoctoral fellowship because of the focus on training, the collegial environment, and the variety of opportunities for clinical experience. It was important for me that my last training year include a diverse array of clinical training experiences, as well as focus on gaining administrative experience, supervising others, and strengthening my consultation skills.
- Kayla Hunt, PsyD, Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow--Child and Adolescent Track
Training Goals
The fundamental goals of the program are to enhance the fellow's knowledge base and clinical skills in acute psychopathology, assessment, consultation, treatment planning and implementation. In addition, the fellowship aims to enhance the fellow's program development, supervision, teaching and/or scholarship competencies.
The fellow will take on increasing responsibility in a) patient care, b) training of interns and other mental health professionals, and c) program development and evaluation.
Training Experiences
The combination of clinical and didactic work provides the in-depth biopsychosocial knowledge necessary to understand and treat child and adolescent psychopathology, considering both internal (cognitive, affective, dynamic and biologic) and external (familial, school, peers, community) factors. Intensive supervision is provided for the fellow's clinical work, including a minimum of two hours of weekly individual supervision from licensed clinical psychologists plus group supervision as appropriate.
An individualized learning plan is developed early in the fellowship to address each fellow’s interests and professional career plans. Fellows may be involved with one or more projects based on their interests. Fellows may also move into a teaching/supervisory role with trainees during the program. These teaching experiences are supervised by the Child and Adolescent training faculty and may include: diagnostic evaluations, psychological testing, individual and group psychotherapy, and parent consultation.
Primary focus areas:
- Outpatient Care (Emphasis on areas include Early Childhood, youth identifying as LGBTQ+, and youth with ASD)
- Pediatric Psychology Outpatient Care (Emphasis on either specialty care of primary care)
- Expanded School Mental Health
- Psychiatric Inpatient Care
Select Core Clinical Experiences
All fellows on this track participate in Pediatric Behavioral Health & Wellness (PBH&W) Outpatient Services; caring for children from infancy through age 18 with a variety of mental health difficulties.
PBH&W accepts a wide range of insurances, but a sliding fee schedule exists to enable families with no insurance, or limited financial resources, to access our services.
The service has approximately 60,000 patient visits per year. Referrals for assessment and treatment are received from families, pediatricians, schools, and medical specialists within Golisano Children's Hospital.
Services are designed to meet the needs of families from diverse backgrounds. Therapy rooms are equipped with built-in, state-of-the-art AV equipment (B-Line Medical) for recording trainees' clinical contacts to enable intensive clinical supervision.
Pediatric Specialties Center on East River Road
Golisano Pediatric Behavioral Health & Wellness on South Avenue
Fellows can elect to receive training in multiple medical settings, with various populations in the Department of Pediatrics. Fellows are supervised on-site and in a pediatric group supervision format by a faculty member. Fellows work collaboratively with medical providers in different specialty and/or primary care settings to provide integrated health and mental health care to children and adolescents with medical stressors.
There are opportunities for the fellow to work in several outpatient pediatric specialty clinics, depending on the fellow's areas of interest and current clinical needs of the medical clinic.
The General Pediatrics Clinic is one of the largest primary care practices in Monroe County, serving about 14,000 patients annually.
Golisano Children’s Hospital Pediatric Practice
Fellows provide a consultation-focused service, which includes an initial evaluation, treatment recommendations, short-term treatment, crisis management and consultation with medical providers
Patients range in age from birth to 21 years and come from diverse backgrounds, with a focus on underserved populations.
The goal of the Expanded School Mental Health (ESMH) initiatives at UR Medicine is to build schools' capacity to respond to children's complex social and emotional needs through prevention programming, consultation, and direct clinical care in a school-based setting. This framework provides the opportunity for schools to expand their behavioral health capacity through enhanced staffing, training, resources, skills, and knowledge through school-community partnerships. Clinical training opportunities provide the fellow with experience in behavioral health prevention and promotion for youth.
This includes classroom presentations, teacher in-services, consultation with educators and school staff, and individual, group, and family therapy for youth and families within a school-based setting. Professional and research opportunities include specialized training in program development and evaluation, evidence-based practice implementation, prevention and intervention programming in schools, mental health workforce development initiatives for school staff and school mental health clinicians, systems of care, and family engagement.
Fellows in this emphasis area provide clinical care primarily on the Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatient Unit, including the Rapid Stabilization Pathway - a 3-day, ACT focused intervention for children and adolescents admitted with acute suicide risk.
Fellows may also provide care within the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP), a regional psychiatric emergency service. The fellow will work closely with a multidisciplinary team consisting of psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and mental health therapists in fast-paced acute environments.
The roles of the fellow include 1) providing intensive treatment to children and families with the goal of crisis stabilization, and 2) program development and evaluation.
Fellows also have the option of a Pediatric Consultation/Liaison Elective in which they work as part of an interdisciplinary team to provide psychiatric consultation and short-term treatment for pediatric patients on the Golisano Children's Hospital medical inpatient units.
URMC Psychiatry Dept
New URMC Emergency deaprtment rendering
Scholarship Opportunities
Child and Adolescent Fellows conduct a scholarly project. Past scholarly projects have included an evaluation of iMATTER (Improve Mindful Attention Enhance Relaxation) for inpatient adolescents, evaluation of an evidence-based components approach to assessment and treatment, and a project to educate teachers and school personnel about managing students in crisis. Fellows are also able to collaborate with faculty on existing research projects and can develop their own lines of scholarly inquiry in the context of those projects. See our Scholarly Activities page to view all the projects.
Contact Us
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us for more information:
Email: Yasmin Coley
Phone: 585-274-0243
Psychology Training Program Coordinator
Mailing Address:
University of Rochester Medical Center
300 Crittenden Boulevard, Box Psych
Rochester, NY 14642
Psychology Training Director: Jennifer West, Ph.D.
Fellowship Child & Adolescent Track Director:
Linda Alpert-Gillis, Ph.D.
Psychology Training Program Administrator: Linda Brown