Boston College University Counseling Services Postdoctoral Fellowship
Boston College University Counseling Services offers an eleven-month fellowship for postdoctoral clinical and counseling psychologists who are interested in advanced training in professional psychology in a university mental health setting. Fellows can expect to have an intensive, well-supported experience working with a diverse population of young adults who manifest the full spectrum of psychological and psychiatric problems. Fellows generally exceed Massachusetts' state requirements for license-eligibility by the time they have completed the training year. After the fellowship, former Fellows have gone on to secure employment in university mental health settings, establish themselves in private or group practice, and/or join the staff of various kinds of mental health agencies.
We have openings for three full-time Fellows each academic year. These are professional positions within the university and are fully-benefited. The current recruitment cycle begins in late-fall, with applications and interviews held in January. Notifications are made in early February. The fellowship begins in mid-August and ends following summer in mid-July.
Program philosophy
The fellowship program aspires to provide Postdoctoral Fellows with a training experience concentrated on the advancement and deepening of Fellows' clinical skills as well as the development of expertise in the challenges prevalent in university mental health practice today. We are a relatively large and highly utilized counseling service on a campus of 14,000 students. In this setting, Fellows are actively engaged in the varied roles and functions of our work, which includes evaluation and treatment of both undergraduate and graduate students; crisis and emergency response; group therapy; consultation; and outreach programming. Our students are diverse and talented. As a Jesuit institution of higher education, Boston College is fundamentally vested in integrating students' intellectual development with their personal formation. This makes for a psychologically rich population with which a Postdoctoral Fellow can explore, closely and intensively, the practice of individual psychotherapy. A Fellow’s clinical work and individual supervision, which together form the core of training during the fellowship year, are embedded in the more encompassing experience of being part of a clinical staff that is committed and thoughtful in its work. In formulating client difficulties, we emphasize an integration of psychodynamic, developmental, and culturally-informed approaches. The department has been involved with training psychologists for many years, with a focus on training postdoctoral Fellows beginning in 1992.
Program Components
Regular didactic and training experiences include weekly supervision (3+ hours), a weekly clinical case conference, a small group peer consultation, a multicultural conversation hour, a series of professional practice seminars, and administrative meetings. During the first two weeks of the fellowship, Fellows have concentrated training as part of orientation.
Fellows gain extensive experience in the evaluation and treatment of individual clients. They have the opportunity to co-lead groups; and they participate in the Psychological Emergency Clinician rotation, through which they respond to psychiatric emergencies and crises. Fellows also have opportunities to develop consultation relationships with university partners and campus groups throughout the year.
Diversity and Inclusion
The postdoctoral training program is highly invested in recognizing and honoring diversity among its staff, postdoctoral Fellows, and clients. UCS devotes both resources and attention to fostering an environment that values awareness and appreciation of all aspects of diversity. Our department’s Diversity Committee works to support marginalized and disenfranchised student populations as well as facilitate training and discussion forums for UCS staff with a social justice frame.
For more information
Our program brochure and application materials are updated annually and are generally available mid- to late-October. Each of the relevant documents can be downloaded or printed from the links at the top of this web page. You may also want to review our program description in the APPIC Universal Psychology Postdoctoral Directory (https://www.appic.org/Postdocs/Universal-Psychology-Postdoctoral-Directory-UPPD). Additionally, you are welcome to contact us directly if you have specific questions:
Selina Guerra, PhD
Assistant Director for Training
guerrase@bc.edu
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