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Clinical Child Track

The Clinical-Child track extends and deepens the interns base of professional development and promotes a rich understanding of the intrapsychic, familial, school, social and community/systems aspects of child psychopathology and psychotherapy.

Toward these goals, the track provides intensive clinical and didactic experience in the range of activities that comprise the role of the clinical-child psychologist. Training is built around a core of experiences in treatment, assessment, and consultation with children, adolescents, parents, families, school and agencies. This training is integrated with a broad range of clinical seminars. Emphasis is on the development of those clinical skills and theoretical concepts that are essential for psychologists entering a variety of career activities in the child mental health area.

The tracks theoretical orientation reflects an integration of intrapsychic, developmental, family interactional, and cognitive-behavioral points of view.

Activities

  • The Child Track intern carries a caseload resulting in 10-12 outpatient hours per week. These cases are primarily drawn from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic and involve working with children, adolescents and families representing a wide range of ages, types of disorders and treatment techniques. Child Track interns may also take on an adult treatment case if they elect to do so (e.g., through the Student Counseling Service). One-to-one supervision is provided by different faculty at a minimum of 4 hours per week. There are also opportunities to collaborate with faculty in ongoing evaluations of treatment cases.
  • Each intern performs and observes psychological assessments of children and families referred by our own clinics, school-based programs, and the community. Interns receive (at least) weekly supervision of their assessments and work as part of an ongoing Child and Adolescent Assessment Team through which they complete 4 - 5 assessments per year. (Adult Track interns may not complete a child or adolescent assessment while on the Child Rotation, and the Child and Adolescent Assessment team is not a required part of the rotation.)
  • Each intern completes several diagnostic evaluations as part of the Child and Adolescent Diagnostic Team. For this team, interns (or residents or fellows) conduct an evaluation (which can include play, psychological assessment, diagnostic interview, family meeting, etc.) while the supervisor and team of other clinicians (interns, residents, and fellows) observe via video camera. The intern consults with the team during the initial diagnostic assessment session and then works closely with the supervisor for the remaining evaluation and feedback sessions (often 4 to 5 sessions in total). (Adult Track Interns on the Child rotation typically complete one Diagnostic Evaluation.)
  • Interns attend and present case formulations on a rotating basis during the weekly Child and Adolescent Clinic Staffing meeting. (Adult Track interns on the Child rotation typically present one case at staffing meetings).
  • Each child intern participates, on a 4 month rotation, in the weekly Child Psychiatry/Medical Follow up consultation appointments at the Dept. of Pediatric Surgery's Outpatient Pediatric Medical Trauma Clinic. This program adds a psychological screening/psycho-education component to the standard post-hospital-discharge pediatric medical follow up. Cases involve children who have experienced various medically traumatic injuries (falls, motor vehicle accidents, pedestrian/car/bike accidents, etc.), with pediatric patients ranging in age from a few weeks old to late adolescence. Interns have an opportunity to observe both the medical follow up appointment and the psychological screening interview and psycho-education geared specifically to normalizing certain reactions and providing resources to the family when/if they are needed. Over time, the intern will conduct some of these interview themselves, under supervision of the faculty member involved

Child Track Rotations

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders Program 

Kevin Antshel, Ph.D.

A nationally recognized center for the assessment and treatment of ADHD. Clients referred to this clinic for evaluation undergo a comprehensive protocol of rating scales, interviews, and psychological testing. ADHD Clinic Interns observe and/or participate in ADHD evaluations.

 

ENHANCE Excellence in Health Care for Abused and Neglected Children 

Ronald Saletsky, Ph.D.

A nationally recognized multidisciplinary (pediatrics, child psychiatry, developmental pediatrics, social work) clinic which provides comprehensive health care to children in foster care. An intern involved with the ENHANCE Clinic will gain experience in diagnostic interviewing, developmental evaluations, multidisciplinary consultation, and systemic issues. Interns work in a primary care setting to address mental health issues of foster care children. (All Child Track interns participate, 1 intern at a time for a period of 4 months)

 

Medical Trauma Service

Kathryn Hagen, Psy.D.

The medical trauma service consists of observations and direct clinical work with individuals presenting at the hospital for medically related traumas.  Interns will observe and engage in direct clinical care including brief assessments using evidence-based measures, brief interventions using cognitive behavioral therapy techniques (e.g., psychoeducation, importance of coping skills, learning additional coping skills), and assisting with establishing outpatient care for patients as needed.  Interns will also work as a key member of an interdisciplinary team, engage in case consultations as well as liaison work with medical staff, as well as assist with training/teaching of staff members if they are interested and as availability allows. 

 

Adolescent Intensive Outpatient Program

Jessica Costosa-Umina, Psy.D.

Provides comprehensive treatment to high acuity teens and their families. The program is created to provide treatment for teens that have suicide ideation, engage in self-harm, experience chronic emotion dysregulation and engage in problematic impulsive behaviors. The Child and Adolescent Outpatient program consists of two programs, 1) Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) which is a Dialectical Behavior Treatment (DBT) - informed, short-term (10 weeks) program for teens and family that present with a high level of acuity (i.e., recently discharged from inpatient psychiatric treatment, history of ED visits, high suicidality).

 

Group Therapy

Robin Dean, Psy.D.

Group is an elective rotation offered to interns on the child track.  During the 4-month elective, participants commit 3-4 hours per week to facilitating/cofacilitating a therapy group, supervision, and administrative and case management tasks. Interns will learn about group conceptualization and formation and theories of group development and leadership while facilitating a group within the child and adolescent outpatient clinic.

 

Child Consultation-Liaison Elective

Jennifer Rapke, Psy.D.

Interns rotate on a child inpatient psychiatric consultation-liaison team in Golisano Children's Hospital, where they interact with a variety of patients and teams from across the spectrum of the medical professions.

 

Pediatric Health Psychology Elective

Anne Reagen, Psy.D.

"Health psychology elective offers an opportunity to utilize foundational therapy techniques and assessment skills in a medical setting. This elective differs from the inpatient child consult rotation in that patients are recovering from acute and chronic physical ailments and related medical diagnoses. Diagnostic assessment is emphasized to clarify the role of psychological and medical symptoms in effort to contribute to the medical conceptualization and treatment plan of a patient. Supervisors are all fellowship trained pediatric psychologists. Interns would spend 2-3 hours, one day a week with this elective. Patient populations include endocrinology, neurology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, hematology/oncology, burn, child abuse, and general medicine. This elective allows interns a unique learning experience where the ultimate overlay of physical and mental health come together in an effort to promote integrative wellness.”

 

 

Psychological and Developmental Assessment Clinic

This specialty clinic uses psychological testing to enhance understanding of particularly challenging cases and generate useful recommendations. Batteries often include completing a review of records, a clinical interview, collaboration with referring or other providers, as well as completing a range of psychological measures. Interns will be observed by staff to assist with proper administration via live feed video. Interns will also have the opportunity to observe staff conduct psychological tests. Batteries can include, depending on the clinical question, a general cognitive measure (i.e. WISC – V); an academic measure (i.e. WIAT – III); collateral report measures (i.e. BASC 3); developmental measures (i.e. ADOS – 2); objective personality measures (i.e. Millon Preadolescent Clinical Inventory) and projective measures (i.e. Rorschach Inkblots R-PAS scoring system; storytelling tasks , i.e., Roberts, TAT/CAT). (All child track interns participate)

 

The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Intake/Consultation Service

The gateway to the overall array of services in our Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic. Whenever parents call the clinic for an appointment, a consultation is scheduled with a clinical child psychologist. The goal of the consultation is to provide the family with some direction and to determine the need for further services. Psychology interns have the opportunity to be involved in this process by observing and/or actively participating in the consultations. (This is a required activity for Adult Track interns on the Child Rotation.)

 

Child Track Seminars

Child Track interns participate in didactic experiences that are specific to Child and Adolescent Treatment. Each week interns attend Child Rounds during which research and/or clinical material is presented and discussed by professionals from various disciplines. They also attend the following seminars:

 

Child Psychotherapy

Drs. Saletsky and Goodman

is a weekly seminar, co-led by Drs Ron Saletsky and Nancy Goodman, which focuses on developing and maintaining therapeutic relationships with children and their parents from early childhood through adolescence.  Topics include, but are not limited to: therapy process, the centrality of the therapeutic relationship, initial contacts, unique aspects of beginning, middle and end phases of treatment, identifying defenses and how to work with them, awareness of transference/countertransference and making it therapeutic, making collateral contacts useful, consultation to other disciplines, working with special populations and conditions, play therapy and symbolic play, parent-child dyadic therapy and cognitive-behavioral approaches to anxiety.  

 

Child Trauma

Kathryn Hagen, Psy.D.

The Trauma Seminar is held weekly.  The goals of our time together are to review the prevalence rates, types, and impacts of childhood trauma exposure on both children and adults.  Students will also learn how to assess and discuss individuals’ trauma histories within a therapeutic context as well as explore trauma informed therapies, evidence-based trauma therapies, and trauma informed systems.  We will also have 2-3 colleagues from social work who may join us if schedules allow.  There will be weekly readings to assist with accomplishing these goals.  We typically have trainees (aside from our child interns) rotate through this seminar. 

 

Treatment for High Acuity Youth

Jessica Costosa-Umina, Psy.D.

This seminar provides didactics, readings and interactive discussion related to working with High Acuity Youth. Topics that will be covered will include overview of recent trends in suicide and self-harm behaviors in teens, Impact of social media on teen mental health, Borderline Personality Disorder in adolescents, assessing for suicide risk, and an overview of Dialectical Behavior Therapy.  

 

Child Assessment

Allison Canfield, Psy.D.

This seminar focuses on using psychological and developmental testing to enhance understanding of children and adolescents. This seminar meets weekly for the majority of the training year. Interns will review and discuss general assessment principles, such as how to generate appropriate referral questions and thoughtful assessment report writing. Interns will learn about and practice the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2, primarily Modules 3 and 4) and measures of adaptive functioning. They will also have opportunities to learn about the use of projective and personality measures in the child and adolescent populations. Opportunities for supervised administration of testing, report writing, and providing families with assessment feedback may be available on different rotations (e.g., outpatient clinic, IOP, inpatient). Opportunities for shadowing multi-disciplinary developmental evaluations will also be available.

 

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