Doctoral Psychology Fellowship in Behavioral Medicine

The Psychological Medicine service serves as a placement site for the Department of Psychiatry's APA-accredited Doctoral Internship Program in Clinical and Community Psychology. Doctoral psychology fellows specializing in Behavioral Medicine train within multidisciplinary teams of medical providers (consisting of physicians, surgeons, nurses, and social workers) and gain valuable experience in the provision of behavioral health consultation, psychological assessment, and behavioral health intervention to a broad range of medically ill patients within the Yale Cancer Center, Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center, and Department of Psychiatry’s Consultation-Liaison program.

Within each of the medical specialties, Behavioral Medicine fellows consult with medical providers and provide psychotherapy to medically ill patients using a combination of behavioral, cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based therapeutic approaches. Fellows also receive specialized training in the evaluation of live liver donors, and participate in the liver transplant program's Donor Advocacy Team and Recipient Review Committee meetings. Within the Yale Cancer Center, fellows spend one-half day per week within the head and neck clinic and receive specialized training in the assessment of high-risk patients and use brief Motivational Interviewing techniques to engage patients in smoking cessation and alcohol reduction services. Fellows also participate in the Sexuality, Intimacy and Menopause (SIMs) clinic where they work closely with a faculty gynecologist and gynecology-oncology surgeon and perform brief behavioral consultations with women who have a history of cancer and whose primary concern relates to sexual functioning, body image, or menopause.

Seminars and Scholarly Project

Behavioral Medicine fellows attend and participate in a range of weekly seminars within the Department of Psychiatry, Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Psychological Medicine Service. Seminars address a range of assessment, intervention and professional development topics. Psychology fellows also have one-half day per week of protected time to pursue and conduct clinical research with a faculty mentor.