Psychological Assessment Service

The Psychological Assessment placement within Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) allows the fellow to strengthen and advance comprehensive clinical training in psychological assessment, diagnostic consultation, and measurement-based care (inpatient focus). This placement is a new offering in the 2023-2024 training year and is accepting applications for the November 1st, 2022, deadline. The placement is designed to facilitate learning around evidence-based patient data collection relative to psychological functioning, application of empirical findings to case conceptualization and integrated report writing, and enhanced understanding of neurocognitive assessments. Fellows participating in this track will be prepared to pursue a professional career in psychological assessment with acute patient populations, including inpatient and intensive outpatient levels of care. Additionally, fellows support clinical program development efforts within the Psychological Assessment Service, including outreach, education, and broader initiatives throughout the hospital. Fellows within this placement have the opportunity to engage in a range of clinical activities that are similar to those of a staff psychologist within the same setting. Opportunities are also available to supervise advanced psychology graduate students.

Fellows also have the opportunity to consult on stress screening assessments with the Yale Executive Health Program and participate in several research projects that include psychological assessment components. Mentored research on scale and measure development and general psychometric inquiries may also be pursued based on interest.

Beyond core training activities, fellows have the option to receive individual psychodynamically-informed psychotherapy training, on an elective basis, through the hospital's Long-Term Care Clinic.

One doctoral fellow will be selected for the Psychological Assessment Service placement for the 2023-2024 academic year.

The Psychological Assessment Service (PAS) at Yale-New Haven Hospital has a mission of clinical service, scholarship, education, and training. Primary clinical responsibilities entail providing evidence-based practice in psychological assessment, including brief and comprehensive psychological evaluations and psychiatric diagnostic consultations for patients admitted to Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital’s inpatient and outpatient programs. The Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital is a 114-bed acute care psychiatric facility comprising six main inpatient programs and several specialized step-down intensive outpatient/outpatient programs serving adolescents and adults across YNHH’s two campus locations.

Doctoral interns train within multidisciplinary teams of psychologists, psychiatrists, advanced practice psychiatric nurses, nurses, social workers, and occupational therapists while gaining valuable experience in providing evidence-based psychological assessment across a broad range of psychiatric diagnoses and settings. The intern will conduct a variety of brief and comprehensive psychological and neurocognitive diagnostic testing protocols during their time on the service. Assessments will involve administering and interpreting a variety of instruments, participating in individual supervision, consulting with treatment teams about the implications of test results for a patient’s course of treatment, providing feedback to patients in consultation with the treatment teams, and integrated report writing. Doctoral interns may conduct structured diagnostic interviews, personality assessments, symptom screenings, neurodevelopmental evaluations, executive function, attention evaluations, and neurocognitive screening and testing.

All Yale-New Haven Hospital doctoral fellows can also receive weekly supervised individual psychotherapy training within the Long-Term Care Clinic (LTCC). This is an outpatient psychotherapy training clinic operated by the Department of Psychiatry and YNHH. Individual patients are referred to this clinic by Yale University Health Services. They are typically University community members seeking insight-oriented psychotherapy for various issues, most commonly related to developmental, relationship, mood, and anxiety concerns.

The Psychological Assessment Service uses an evidence-based practice approach in all of its work. Evidence-based practices entail evaluating the construct validity of a broad array of psychological assessment tools, constructing appropriate assessment batteries to address specific referral questions, administering and scoring individual measures that yield valid, reliable, and useful information, interpreting results of individual assessment instruments, integrating data from different instruments in the broader context of referral questions and understanding psychological processes engaged by each instrument, communicating effectively assessment findings to patients and collaterals accurately and helpfully, and accounting for cultural background and other critical variables that could impact the assessment process or the individual’s understanding of the psychological assessment and its implications.

Diversity and inclusion are important values within the Psychological Assessment Service and the broader hospital. Yale New Haven Hospital is committed to providing an environment of inclusion that supports diversity among its patients, visitors, employees, business partners, and communities. Yale New Haven Hospital admits a diverse population of patients, both diagnostically and demographically, serving the Greater New Haven area and surrounding Southern New England region. Racially, approximately 65 percent of patients admitted to the hospital are Caucasian, 15 percent Black, 15 percent Hispanic, and 5 percent Asian. Nearly 60 percent of patient hospital costs are covered through Medicare or Medicaid. The hospital is committed to providing the highest standard of care to all patients regardless of socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, geography, disability, and age.

Four hours per week of protected time is provided to allow fellows the opportunity to design and conduct a scholarly project of their choice. Individual project objectives are coordinated with the primary advisor or another faculty member involved in an active program of research. Fellows may design a project with faculty within their primary training placement or request to be matched with other faculty in the Yale School of Medicine (Yale University, School of Public Health, etc.) based on their shared interests and faculty availability. The fellow's scholarly activity can take many forms and should be discussed in detail with the primary and research advisors. In consultation with the faculty advisor, the fellow may engage in an ongoing research project, evaluate clinical service or program, or help design and implement a new project that will benefit individuals receiving services within the Yale New Haven Hospital Health System.

David H. Klemanski, Psy.D., MPH, Primary Advisor

Sarah Barnes, Ph.D., Clinical Supervisor

Francisco Lopez, Ph.D., Voluntary Faculty Clinical Supervisor

A high priority is placed on the provision and practice of clinical supervision at YNHH. Doctoral fellows at YNHH receive a minimum of four hours of supervision per week. At least two to three of these hours are provided within the context of weekly individual supervision with psychology faculty members with specific interests and expertise within the fellow's primary training placement. In addition, fellows may also participate in scheduled weekly small group clinical and research supervision meetings with other psychology trainees and program staff.
Each fellow is assigned a Primary Advisor for weekly supervision. Primary advisors are full-time faculty working in the same clinical program as the fellow. In addition to formal weekly supervision, informal supervision is provided "in vivo" via faculty modeling, joint participation with the fellow in treatment team meetings, and brief case consultations.

Fellows are also assigned additional supervisors who provide weekly clinical supervision for the entire training year. Through intensive supervision, fellows address professional development issues and learn about the complexities of different roles within varied treatment settings.
A unique feature of the training at YNHH is that fellows may also be assigned the "peer supervisor” role to junior trainees within their primary clinical placement. Typically, junior trainees are third or fourth-year graduate students from regional doctoral psychology programs participating in clinical practicum placements at YNHH. As a "peer supervisor," fellows meet weekly with their supervisee and have the opportunity to develop basic skills as a clinical supervisor by processing this experience within the context of their own primary supervisory relationship.

The fellow will have weekly individual supervision with a primary advisor, a secondary advisor, and additional clinical supervisors. The fellow will also participate weekly in clinical consultation team meetings or rounds. Fellows may receive other individual supervision for optional clinical activities such as the Long-Term Care Clinic. Formal evaluations are completed and serve as opportunities to review progress on training goals and address progress toward achieving the required core competencies.

Assessment fellows attend and participate in the weekly core seminar held within the Department of Psychiatry and separate weekly hospital-based seminars for fellows and other psychology trainees at Yale-New Haven Hospital. In addition to the internship Core seminar and a hospital-based seminar with other YNHH fellows, additional didactic behavioral health-related case conferences, seminars, and grand rounds are offered through the Yale School of Medicine. Participation in these optional activities is at the discretion of the fellow and their primary advisor as schedules permit.

At YNHH, doctoral fellows within the Psychological Assessment Service placement can receive weekly supervised individual psychotherapy training within the Long-Term Care Clinic (LTCC). The LTCC is an outpatient psychotherapy training clinic operated by the Department of Psychiatry and YNHH. Individual patients are referred to this clinic by the Yale University Health Services and, as such, are typically members of the University community who seek insight-oriented psychotherapy for various identified issues, most commonly related to developmental, relationship, mood, and/or anxiety concerns.

Within the LTCC, individual weekly supervision from a psychodynamic perspective is provided to guide the fellow in conceptualizing and implementing treatment from an insight-oriented therapeutic modality most appropriate to the assigned cases. Typically, doctoral fellows see one individual therapy patient in once-a-week psychotherapy for the entire duration of their training year.

Strong applicants for this placement generally have prior experience in psychological assessment broadly defined. In addition, strong applicants will have experience with measurement-based care and an interest in program development. Fellows who match with this placement typically have vital interests in psychological assessment with acute populations and show promise for developing a leadership role in the field.

Applicants selected for this placement must successfully pass background checks conducted by Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

For more information about this placement, please email Dr. David Klemanksi.

8:00-11:30 - Research

1:00-4:00 - Assessment Service

4:00-5:00 - Group Supervision

8:00-11:00 - Psychotherapy Patients

11:00-12:00 - Psychotherapy Supervision

1:00-2:30 - Administrative Work Time

2:30-5:00 - Yale Internship Core Seminar

All day - Assessment Service and Supervision

9:00-1:00 - Assessment Service

1:00-2:00 - Assessment Supervision

2:00-4:00 - Assessment Service

4:00-5:00 YNHH Seminar

8:00-10:00 - Assessment Service

10:00-11:30 - Psychiatry Grand Rounds

1:30-5:00 - Assessment Service and Administrative Work