Postdoctoral Psychology Fellowship

Child Fellowship Track

The Child Fellow is assigned to the Child Adolescent Psychiatry Service Clinic (CAPS) for the full year and conducts assessments and comprehensive psychological evaluations with children and adolescents. As a part of these activities, they administer, score, and interpret testing batteries that often include tests of intellectual functioning, academic skills, social-emotional functioning, attention, and personality tests. They also write diagnostic assessments and evaluation reports, give feedback, maintain chart records, and engage in various case management duties. They work with schools, community agencies, and the courts as necessary.

In addition to the activities described above, the Child Fellow also conducts individual and family therapy. Presenting therapy concerns include behavioral problems and parenting concerns, as well as a full range of psychiatric disorders. The primary therapy orientation is cognitive-behavioral, with a variety of specific interventions taught/supervised including, CBT, TF-CBT, behavioral activation, habit reversal, exposure/response prevention, and parenting skills training. Fellows are taught to tailor their interventions to the specific needs of the child in the context of their cultural background and particular life situation.

Pediatric Consultation Services

The Child Fellow provides consultation to pediatric inpatients on the Pediatric Unit, as well as on other medical units. Typical consult requests include assessment of suicide risk, mental health symptoms, and disposition planning, health and behavior evaluations, support with coping with injuries and/or recent trauma, behavior management issues, and coordinating better care between patients and staff. Psychology staff and trainees are often asked to facilitate communication between a patient and the patient’s family members when a significant injury or death has occurred. 

Adult Fellowship Track

The Adult Fellow has a year-long placement in the Adult Therapy Clinic. A variety of theoretical approaches to psychotherapy are practiced in this clinic, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Psychodynamic therapies. Both long-term and short-term approaches are used. Fellows are taught to implement specific interventions using a variety of evidence-based treatment modalities. The current patient population includes many individuals with serious and persistent mental illness, which can be challenging with regard to developing effective strategies. Additional duties include conducting psychological readiness evaluations for bariatric surgery.

The Adult Fellow can co-lead groups in the Adult Therapy Clinic depending on the fellow’s interest and the availability of staff and patients. Common group offerings include CBT, DBT skills, Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training, Co-occurring Disorders, LGBTQ Process, Interpersonal Process, and Mind-Body.

Health Psychology Track

The Health Psychology Fellow has opportunities to engage in training and provide care within a variety of health psychology settings. Some of these opportunities include working on the Adult Consultation Service (described below), providing CBT-I in the Sleep Clinic, doing Bariatric Surgery Evaluations for psychological readiness prior to bariatric surgery, and working as part of the multidisciplinary team in the HHS Burn Center, Pain Clinic, or Knapp Rehabilitation Clinic.

Adult Consultation Service

Established in 1998, the Adult Consultation Service ensures the timely provision of psychological services in the Department of Psychiatry and throughout the hospital. The service also trains psychology fellows in psychological evaluation and health psychology consultation. The Adult Fellow is typically scheduled for one afternoon per week on this service and the Health Psychology Fellow is typically on this service for two afternoons per week.

There are two main functions of this service. First, physicians from medical inpatient units in the hospital can request psychological consultations. These often focus on issues such as coping after trauma (e.g., motor vehicle accidents, thermal injuries), adjustment to disability or injury, behavior management, and pain management. Psychology fellows routinely have opportunities to provide consultative services to patients in the Orthopedic, Surgery, Medicine, Neurosurgery, and Burn units.

Second, psychology fellows may be involved in Critical Incident Support to teams around the hospital in response to various identified stressors.

Supervision & Didactics

The Psychology training faculty values the opportunity to work closely with fellows in training and supervision. While all training staff members have adopted an "open door policy" to provide supervision as needed, fellows are assigned, several specific supervisors. Each fellow has a primary supervisor who serves as a mentor and coordinates the training experience for the fellow throughout the training year.

All fellows receive additional supervision and consultation by attending weekly supervision groups and participating with individual supervisors for various services. For example, after group therapy sessions, fellows participate in post-group supervision with the staff therapist or facilitator. Individual supervision is also provided for all consultation/assessment clinics.

In total, fellows receive at least 2 hours of supervision per week, of which a minimum of 1 hour per week is individual supervision and 1 hour per week is group supervision. Often fellows will receive significantly more supervision.

Training Orientation

The fellowship year begins with three weeks of orientation, during which the fellows are introduced to the faculty, Hennepin Healthcare’s facilities, as well as to policies and procedures. The orientation also includes a series of lectures on basic topics such as interviewing, report writing, mandatory reporting of abuse, working with interpreters, and clinic procedures.

Seminars

Orientation is followed by a weekly seminar series. These seminars focus on assessment, therapy, and consultation services, with the increasing complexity of materials being presented as the year proceeds. Fellows are able to choose up to two, one-hour didactics to attend each week that fit with their training goals.

In addition to the psychology-specific didactic offerings, the Psychiatry Department sponsors a Special Topics Seminar and a Psychiatry Case Consultation series.

During the fellowship year, two all-day workshops are arranged jointly by several of the local internship and fellowship sites. The fall workshop focuses on diversity and the spring workshop focuses on supervision and ethics.

The Psychology training faculty values the opportunity to work closely with interns in training and supervision.

Our Faculty

• Manju Elizabeth Alexander, Ph.D., L.P.
• Marielle Demarais, Ph.D., L.P., Chief Psychologist
• Marissa Alliegro, Ph.D., L.P.
• Yosef Amrami, Ph.D., L.P.
• Autumn Bussuvanno, Psy.D., L.P.
• Melissa Eisenmenger, Ph.D., L.P.
• Nouf Gazdar, Ph.D., LP
• Marchion Hinton, Ph.D., L.P.
• Marcia Jensen, Ph.D., L.P., Director of Psychology Training
• Courtney LeClair, Ph.D., L.P.
• Hyun-Soo Lee, Ph.D., L.P.
• Lisa Legrand, Ph.D., L.P.
• Mohammed Lodhi Khan, Ph.D., L.P.
• Adrine Maresco, Ph.D., L.P.
• Patrick McMahon, Ph.D., L.P.
• Scott Miller, Psy.D., L.P.
• Mitch Radin, Psy.D., L.P.
• Lindsay Schreiber, Psy.D., L.P.
• Stacey Solakian, Ph.D., L.P.
• My-Tien Ton, Ph.D., L.P.
• Cameron Weaver, Ph.D., L.P.
• Kristen Wiik, Ph.D, L.P.