Fellowship Training Overview

This two-year program focuses on attaining expertise in the comprehensive evaluation and treatment of children and adolescents. Emphasis in the first year is on inpatient settings. First year fellows will spend six months on the child and adolescent inpatient unit, two months in the MUSC STAR program (a therapeutic school and treatment day program for children) and four months in the MUSC Children's Hospital psychiatric consult service. In addition, during these consult months, fellows provide care in the pediatric neurology clinic, Project REX Autism specialty service, psych ER evaluation clinic, and at the Lowcountry Children's Center (a clinic service for children referred by the Department of Social Services).

In the second year, fellows focus on outpatient psychiatry and community mental health. Fellows participate in an outreach program sponsored by the National Crime Victims Research & Treatment Center (NCVRTC) in which they learn and administer trauma focused CBT. The NCVRTC offers a variety of specialized, evidence-based assessments, interventions, and treatment services to adult and child victims of violent crime and their families. They also provide service to victims of other forms of trauma, such as automobile accidents, house fires, industrial accidents, and natural disasters. In addition, fellows participate in community mental health and school based rotations, learn the fundamental of Parent Child Interaction Training in our PCIT outpatient clinic, spend two months seeing incarcerated adolescents being supervised by our child forensic specialist, and have the opportunity to attend training for Multisystemic Therapy (MST).

During both years fellows will have scheduled outpatient clinic time 1-3 days per week. This clinic allows the trainee flexibility to pursue psychotherapy, medication management, family therapy, and multi-disciplined therapeutic approaches. Appointment lengths can be dictated by the trainee and may range from 15-minute visits to 60-minute sessions. During clinic, an experienced outpatient provider supervises all care and time for supervision is protected for the trainees during every clinic.

Didactics during the two-year fellowship include overview of pertinent diagnoses, current practice parameters, child and adolescent development, board preparation, clinical case conferences, forensic cases, therapy training (including play therapy, PCIT, and TFCBT), and journal review. Second year also contains didactics concerning career planning, contract negotiation, financial planning, and Family Systems Therapy.