Curriculum

You will be admitted to one of following three Substantive Specialty Practice Programs in the fellowship. In each specialty, you will receive advanced training in assessment, psychodiagnostics, research methodology and evidenced-based practice.

Clinical Child Psychology
The primary purpose of training in this Specialty Program is to provide you with a depth and breadth of assessment, intervention, educational, consultative and research experiences in clinical child psychology, pediatric psychology and family psychology that results in advanced professional practice competency.

Training takes place primarily in three clinical areas:

• Clinical Child Psychology
  Anxiety and mood disorders outpatients, eating disorders clinic, enuresis/encopresis program, disruptive behaviors disorders, victims of abuse, parent management group and social skills group
• Pediatric Psychology
  Pediatric diagnostic and referral clinic, pediatric pain clinic, pediatric diabetes clinic, sleep disorders, consultation and liaison in the Mayo Eugenia Litta Children’s Hospital and Kasson Family Medicine Clinic
• Child Psychological Assessment
  Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, pervasive developmental disorders, personality assessment and risk assessment

Clinical Health Psychology
The primary purpose of training in this specialty program is to provide you with a depth and breadth of assessment, intervention, educational, consultative and research experiences in clinical health psychology, which results in advanced professional practice competency. You will have one primary major clinical rotation and may have several minor clinical rotations.

Major rotations include:

Anxiety Disorders Program
Multidisciplinary assessment and treatment of OCD, panic, social phobia and health anxiety

Psycho-Oncology Service
Primary sources of referral include breast clinic and radiation oncology.  Research examining tobacco use among underserved populations and quality of life interventions for cancer patients

Pain Rehabilitation Center
A multidisciplinary three-week intensive outpatient treatment program for patients with intractable pain

Primary Psychiatry and Psychology
Evaluation and treatment of patients who are employees/dependents and community/regional patients, and on-site involvement with primary care clinics

Obesity Program
Evaluation and treatment of patients with medically complicated obesity in a multidisciplinary bariatric surgery program, services include a binge eating disorders program, individual cognitive-behavioral therapy, weight management groups, and maintenance groups; participation in several NIH-funded obesity clinical trials is possible

Clinical Neuropsychology
The primary purpose of this specialty program is to provide you with a depth and breadth of assessment, educational, consultative, intervention and research experiences in adult clinical neuropsychology, which results in advanced professional practice competency.

The principal training site for you during your first year is the Psychometric Assessment Laboratory which evaluates both inpatients and outpatients referred by Mayo physicians for neurocognitive evaluations.

You also will spend a minimum of three months during the first year on the inpatient Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Unit.

During your second year, you can choose elective rotations in:

• Traumatic Brain Injury Outpatient Program
• Pain Rehabilitation Program
• Dementia Behavior and Response Team
• Epilepsy service
• Primary psychiatry and psychology
• Behavioral neurology
• Inpatient general neurology
• Neuropathology
• Neuroradiology
• Speech pathology
• Inpatient geriatric psychiatry

The Neuropsychology Specialty Program is based on educational guidelines of APA Divisions 22 and 40 and the Houston Conference; Member, Association of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology (APPCN). Rehabilitation psychology training is based on the Division of Rehabilitation Psychology Postdoctoral Training Guidelines.

Clinical Training
You will gain the skills and experience necessary to independently evaluate and treat complex psychological problems. This fellowship program offers you a unique opportunity to participate in several multidisciplinary teams, and to participate in their approach to psychological problems.

Mayo Clinic offers a unique inter-professional practice environment, in which you will be intimately involved in clinical decision-making with many opportunities to develop your assessment and intervention skills. There is an emphasis on the integration of science and practice with training in empirically supported interventions.

Rotations
You will rotate through inpatient and outpatient experiences. The duration of rotations and other educational experiences will depend on how central the rotation is to your specialty program and your previous background and experience.

A number of primary clinical rotations and supplementary educational experiences are available. Each specialty program has rotations that are specific to the program. Fellows often elect to have clinical experiences that are in another specialty program to broaden or enhance their skills.

The Medical Psychology Fellowship Program includes the following primary clinical rotations to support its three specialty programs:

There are opportunities for experience in other clinical settings based upon your educational and training needs. You can complete rotations with other departments when consistent with your training goals (e.g., Neurology, Pain Clinic, Medical Oncology and Sleep Disorders Center).

Teaching Opportunities
You may have the opportunity to teach medical school students in discussion groups as part of the Human Growth and Development Course, or to teach motivational interviewing skills in the Introduction to Patient Course.

You may also be able to teach psychiatry residents through clinical instruction. Fellows often provide seminars or lectures to other departments.

Committee Assignments
You will be assigned to a range of committees to promote administrative training. Options include the Departmental Research Committee, Quality Management Committee, Fellowship Training Committee, Division Meetings and Work Group Meetings.

Evaluation
To ensure that you acquire adequate knowledge, training and supervision to develop your skills, your performance will be monitored carefully during the course of this fellowship. You will be evaluated formally by your supervising faculty members in the middle and at the end of each training year. The Medical Psychology Fellowship Training Committee meets monthly and progress of fellows is discussed.

This fellowship has six core content areas of training: Clinical skills, consultation skills, scholarly activities, administrative and organizational skills, professional conduct and individual diversity skills. In addition, you will evaluate the fellowship program and the faculty.

Career Development
You will meet periodically with various faculty members, your Specialty Program Coordinator and the program director to discuss your career goals.

Didactic Training
Clinical conferences, seminars, small discussion groups, and one-on-one instruction are all an integral part of the Medical Psychology Fellowship Program. Grand Rounds in Psychiatry and Psychology and the Medical Psychology Seminar Series are held on a weekly basis.

During your second year of training, you will prepare and make a presentation about your research interests or a pertinent clinical topic at our department's grand rounds.

Regular Conferences
The bi-weekly Tuesday afternoon seminar series includes topics such as:

• Eating disorders
• Ethics
• Psychosocial oncology
• End-of-life care
• Addictions treatment
• Case presentation skills
• Work-life balance
• Psychosocial transplantation issues
• Cognitive testing
• Chronic illness
• Dementia
• Somatoform disorders
• Pain management
• Crisis Management Skills
• Epidemiology

Grand Rounds
Topics during Tuesday's weekly Grand Rounds at noon have included: depression, sleep disorders, creativity, executive health, somatoform disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, psychopharmacology, psycho-oncology, genetics and cross-cultural issues. Speakers are selected from within Mayo Clinic and from psychiatry and psychology departments nationally and internationally.

Research Training
Your research opportunities at Mayo Clinic are outstanding. Due to the wealth of patient material, prospective or retrospective investigations in either basic science or clinical studies are possible.

You will have the opportunity to work with established clinical researchers on ongoing projects, as well as develop independent research projects. Several faculty members are involved in externally funded research projects. You are expected to generate at least one national presentation and at least two publications by the end of the fellowship. Workshops focusing on grant writing skills and publishing articles are offered on a regular basis.

You will be assigned a research mentor and encouraged to participate in the development of at least two research projects suitable for presentation and two manuscripts for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Several fellows in the Medical Psychology Fellowship Program have received external grant funding for their research applications.

A Clinician-Investigator Training Program is available as part of this program if you desire a more intensive research experience.

Also see:

• Clinician-Investigator Training Program