Pediatric Psychology
The Pediatric Psychology Track provides in-depth training in pediatric psychology within a general medical setting. It is designed to teach clinical psychology residents assessment, treatment, and consultation skills across a continuum of care settings.
The Pediatric Psychology training opportunities are organized to provide clinical psychology residents with primary rotations emphasizing three different settings of pediatric psychology: 1) clinic-based consultation and integrated care pediatric psychology, 2) partial hospitalization (day treatment) pediatric psychology, and 3) inpatient pediatric psychology. Children with co-occurring medical and psychological problems constitute the primary treatment population. Training is provided to a variety of pediatric populations via hospital clinics and services (see descriptions below). Trainees also maintain long-term treatment cases via year-long participation in the oncology service (see description under Supplementals). Behavioral interventions constitute the primary therapeutic modalities. Experiences in family and group therapies are also incorporated. Trainees complete all three of the primary rotations listed and also choose supplemental rotations from the Pediatric Psychology and Clinical Child Psychology options.
Pediatric Psychology Primary Rotations
Each primary rotation lasts four months. The first rotation runs from July through October, the second rotation runs from November through February, and the third rotation runs from March through June. Residents in the Pediatric Psychology Specialty will participate in all three of the following primary rotations, organized by level of care provided.
Hasbro Children's Partial Hospital Rotation
Faculty Supervisors: Rebecca Laptook, PhD, Holly Manning, PhD, Kelsey Borner, PhD, Deborah Rasile, PhD, Jack Nassau, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Primary presenting problems include medical illnesses complicated by psychological factors, psychiatric illnesses complicated by physical factors, or both. Common types of presenting problems include eating disorders, elimination disorders, medical treatment non-adherence, pain disorders, and functional neurological disorder.
Demographic Presentation: Ages 6-18. The HCPHP patient population varies across race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and gender identity. Many have trauma histories and have or had involvement with the Department of Children, Youth, and Families.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessments, Individual, Group, Family
Description: This rotation provides intensive training in interventions for youth with co-occurring pediatric illness and psychiatric conditions in a day treatment model. The purpose of this rotation is to help the trainee develop competence in the assessment and treatment of children, adolescents, and families with complicated medical, emotional, and behavioral presentations. The HCPHP uses a family systems-oriented, day hospital format to treat children with a wide range of pediatric illnesses that have been refractory to standard treatment. Children attend the program five days a week, 8 hours a day, for an average length of stay of 8-10 weeks. The HCPHP has a multidisciplinary staff, including psychologists, pediatricians, child psychiatrists, pediatric nurses, nutritionists, teachers, and milieu therapists. Residents participate fully as members of the multidisciplinary treatment team, carrying a caseload of 2 patients, and have close collaboration with colleagues from all disciplines during training. Trainees will learn how to assess the individual, family, and academic needs of patients and how to develop interventions within an interdisciplinary framework. Residents will conduct individual therapy and also participate in process-oriented group therapy. Residents will observe and participate in family therapy and will be involved in care coordination/discharge planning and school collaboration.
Inpatient Care Rotation - Medical/Psychiatric Inpatient Program and Consultation/Liaison Service Rotation
- MEDICAL/PSYCHIATRIC INPATIENT PROGRAM ROTATION
Faculty Supervisors: Rawya Aljabari, PhD, Jen Stockwood, PsyD, Elaine Ruiz, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Treatment may address the safety and stabilization of patients who have co-occurring concerns such as eating disorders, somatoform disorders, gastrointestinal illnesses, diabetes, seizures, pain syndromes, and complex presentations needing diagnostic clarification.
Demographic Presentation: Ages 10-17, serving a diverse population across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and gender identity
Modality: Diagnostic Assessment, Individual, Family, Group
Description: The Medical/Psychiatric Inpatient Program serves a diverse population of adolescents struggling with co-occurring psychiatric and medical illnesses requiring inpatient psychiatric hospitalization (typically short-term). Patients come from all areas of the country for treatment. This 16-bed unit in Hasbro Children’s Hospital is staffed by pediatricians, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other health professionals who collaborate to provide acute psychiatric and medical care. This includes multidisciplinary assessments leading to individualized care plans, individual therapy, family therapy, daily group therapy, community meetings, and milieu therapy. Trainees will spend two months gaining exposure to all elements of the program by serving as a clinician for cases in the program. Patients on the Medical/Psychiatric Inpatient Program often step down to the Partial Hospitalization (day treatment) Program. - PEDIATRIC CONSULTATION/LIAISON ROTATION
Faculty Supervisors: Margaret Mannix, PhD, Emily Katz, MD, Alison Manning, MD
Clinical Presentation: Consultations from pediatrics and medical specialty teams for pain complaints, eating disorders, adjustment to chronic illness, problems with adherence to medical regimens, coping with burns or other traumas, and suicidality. There is a spectrum of medical patients with no psychiatric history to those with co-morbid, chronic and refractory psychopathology.
Demographic Presentation: Ages 2-21. Patients and families are ethnically diverse from a wide variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Modality: Clinical evaluation, diagnostic assessment, brief individual therapy, crisis prevention and intervention
Description: The Pediatric Consultation/Liaison experience entails participation with the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry team consulting to Hasbro Children's Hospital's medical inpatient floors. The team consists of both psychiatry and psychology trainees. Clinical psychology residents and fellows are expected to serve as the primary clinician on new consultations and to provide follow-up care as indicated. More specifically, residents and fellows will: evaluate medically ill children for co-morbid mental health disorders that may be playing a role in their medical presentation and treatment; provide evaluation and disposition planning of pediatric patients medically admitted in the wake of suicidal or self-injurious behaviors; develop behavioral plans for patients who are having difficulty coping with their illness or participating in their care; provide short-term psychological treatment and psychoeducation to patients and their families; work closely with medical, nursing, social work, child life, and PT/OT staff to coordinate care, especially behavioral treatments to medically hospitalized children; provide psychoeducation to staff members and families to help them provide developmentally and psychologically appropriate care to minimize the patient's distress or discomfort and prevent or limit iatrogenic trauma to patients and their families; and participate in twice-weekly team rounds.
Clinic-Based Consultation and Integrated Care Rotation (Hematology, Sleep, Cardiology, and Primary Care Clinics)
The Clinic-Based Consultation and Integrated Care Rotation gives trainees exposure to the practice of pediatric psychology consultation and treatment in multiple settings and with a variety of patient populations. Trainees participate in four half-day clinics. The purpose of this rotation is to help trainees develop competence in the provision of outpatient pediatric psychology care and familiarize themselves with models of psychologist involvement in integrated care settings.
- PEDIATRIC SLEEP DISORDERS CLINIC ROTATION
Faculty Supervisor: Julie Boergers, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Primary presenting problems include insomnia, bedtime refusal, delayed sleep phase, sleep terrors, nighttime fears, excessive daytime sleepiness, and adherence to medical treatments for disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome.
Demographic Presentation: Ages 12 months through 18 years. The clinic serves a diverse population across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and gender identity. Comorbid neurodevelopmental and/or medical conditions are common.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessments, Family, Individual
Description: This rotation offers training in empirically supported assessment and treatment of pediatric sleep disorders in an integrated multidisciplinary outpatient clinic. The multidisciplinary team includes psychology, pulmonology, and trainees from psychiatry and pediatrics. Residents engage in diagnostic assessments and provide therapy. Treatment is primarily family-based and consultative in nature. Core interventions include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), sleep training approaches such as graduated extinction, and parent training. Training includes co-therapy as well as individual and group supervision. Residents learn cross-cutting skills that can be leveraged in many other clinical settings. - PEDIATRIC CARDIOLOGY CLINIC (PHC) ROTATION
Faculty Supervisors: Janet Anderson, EdD & Barbara Jandasek, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Primary presenting problems include individual and familial adjustment to heart-related symptoms (e.g., chest pain, palpitations) or congenital heart disease (CHD), preparation for medical procedures, transition to increased responsibility for their own medical care for youth with CHD and preparation for transfer to adult cardiology, as well as co-occurring mental health issues, such as behavior problems, depression and anxiety.
Demographic Presentation: The PHC serves families who have been identified during prenatal screening and follows patients from birth through young adulthood. All families may be referred to behavioral health, although the majority of our patients are school-aged through adolescents. As the only Heart Center in the state, we see a diverse population in terms of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, as well as sexuality and gender identity.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessments, Individual, Family, and potential option to be involved in Group
Description: The Pediatric Cardiology rotation entails providing integrated behavioral health services in Hasbro’s Pediatric Heart Center. Trainees on the rotation participate as part of an interdisciplinary treatment team that includes representation from disciplines of nursing, cardiology, psychology, and social work. Treatment provided is typically individual and family therapy, informed by CBT, ACT, and MI. Culturally Responsive Supervision is integrated into this training experience. Opportunities to observe all aspects of medical care within the PHC are available during this rotation, including medical visits, echocardiograms and stress tests. - HEMATOLOGY SERVICE ROTATION
Faculty Supervisor: Alexandra Pachter, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Presenting problems may be related to mood, behavior, anxiety, feeding/sleeping difficulties, adherence, pain management, school concerns, and illness adjustment.
Demographic Presentation: Patients and families within this clinic are from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and the majority are of African and Hispanic descent. Patients are followed in the pediatric clinic from birth through early adulthood.
Modality: Brief clinical assessment, behavioral health screening, neurocognitive screening, individual and family therapy
Description: The Pediatric Hematology rotation provides unique training in the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with sickle cell disease and thalassemia across settings (e.g., outpatient specialty clinic, inpatient setting, outpatient intervention, outpatient assessment). Residents will be integrated within the multidisciplinary team (consisting of hematologists, social workers, nutritionists, dentists, and nurses) for the bi-weekly Comprehensive Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Clinic. Psychology team members typically meet with each patient and are available to address specific concerns/difficulties as they arise, completing brief consult-based assessments and coordinating closely with other team members. There are also opportunities to see patients with SCD when they are admitted for an inpatient hospitalization and for short-term, outpatient intervention.
Given the neurocognitive sequelae of sickle cell disease, the service has a standardized screening protocol in which all children are referred for a brief cognitive screening battery at ages 5/6 and 12/13. The resident will have the opportunity to administer this battery, score, write brief letters with results and findings, and formulate conceptualizations and impressions to inform recommendations. The Sickle Cell Disease program is growing at Hasbro Children’s Hasbro and there are opportunities for residents to engage in program development as well (e.g., education-based group development/implementation, development of educational handouts) if interested. - PRIMARY CARE CLINIC ROTATION
Faculty Supervisors: Janet Anderson, EdD (Med-Peds), Judith McCullough Romero, PhD (Med-Peds and Pediatrics), Michelle Pievsky, PhD (Pediatrics), Sarah Joelson, PhD
Clinical Presentation: A variety of presenting problems, including traditional mental health concerns (e.g. mood and anxiety disorders, behavior problems, ADHD) and/or various behavioral health concerns (e.g., weight management, chronic pain, toileting). Clinical psychology residents rotating with Dr. Pievsky will focus in particular on children ages 0-3 with developmental concerns, especially those who screen positive for autism.
Demographic Presentation: In the Med-Peds clinic, the caseload typically includes adolescents and young adults, with some adults seen. At Pediatrics, residents will work with children and adolescents.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessments, Individual, Family
Description: At both clinics, trainees will evaluate and treat patients who are referred for mental health services by the clinic’s primary care physicians and medical residents, provide consultation services for medical staff when in the clinic, and coordinate with primary care physicians regarding the treatment plan. At the Med-Peds Clinic, we use an eclectic treatment approach that has a foundation in CBT and also includes DBT and ACT. At the Peds Clinic, our treatment approach is eclectic and heavily influenced by ACT. There is particular emphasis on early childhood development in consultations and referrals with Dr. Pievsky. There is the opportunity to work alongside other allied behavioral health professionals, including social workers and psychiatry residents and fellows, in addition to collaborating with pediatric residents and attendings.
Pediatric Psychology trainees also complete a year of experience with the Pediatric Oncology service (see description under Supplemental Rotations).
Pediatric Psychology Supplemental Rotations
Trainees in the Pediatric Psychology Track may choose Supplemental Rotations from the Pediatric Psychology and/or Clinical Child Psychology options (see additional supplemental options under Clinical Child Psychology description). The Sleep, Hematology, Primary Care, Cardiology, and C/L experiences (described above as core elements of the Pediatric Psychology track) are also available as supplemental experiences to Child Clinical Track trainees.
Pediatric Sleep Disorders Clinic
Faculty Supervisor: Julie Boergers, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Primary presenting problems include insomnia, bedtime refusal, delayed sleep phase, sleep terrors, nighttime fears, excessive daytime sleepiness, and adherence to medical treatments for disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome.
Demographic Presentation: Ages 12 months through 18 years. The clinic serves a diverse population across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and gender identity. Comorbid neurodevelopmental and/or medical conditions are common.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessments, Family, Individual
Description: This rotation offers training in empirically supported assessment and treatment of pediatric sleep disorders in an integrated multidisciplinary outpatient clinic. The multidisciplinary team includes psychology, pulmonology, and trainees from psychiatry and pediatrics. Residents engage in diagnostic assessments and provide therapy. Treatment is primarily family-based and consultative in nature. Core interventions include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), sleep training approaches such as graduated extinction, and parent training. Training includes co-therapy as well as individual and group supervision. Residents learn cross-cutting skills that can be leveraged in many other clinical settings.
Primary Care Clinic
Faculty Supervisors: Janet Anderson, EdD (Med-Peds), Judith McCullough Romero, PhD (Med-Peds and Pediatrics), Michelle Pievsky, PhD (Pediatrics), Sarah Joelson, PhD
Clinical Presentation: A variety of presenting problems, including traditional mental health concerns (e.g. mood and anxiety disorders, behavior problems, ADHD) and/or various behavioral health concerns (e.g., weight management, chronic pain, toileting). Clinical psychology residents rotating with Dr. Pievsky will focus in particular on children ages 0-3 with developmental concerns, especially those who screen positive for autism.
Demographic Presentation: In the Med-Peds clinic, the caseload typically includes adolescents and young adults, with some adults seen. At Pediatrics, residents will work with children and adolescents.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessments, Individual, Family
Description: At both clinics, trainees will evaluate and treat patients who are referred for mental health services by the clinic’s primary care physicians and medical residents, provide consultation services for medical staff when in the clinic, and coordinate with primary care physicians regarding the treatment plan. At the Med-Peds Clinic, we use an eclectic treatment approach that has a foundation in CBT and also includes DBT and ACT. At the Peds Clinic, our treatment approach is eclectic and heavily influenced by ACT. There is particular emphasis on early childhood development in consultations and referrals with Dr. Pievsky. There is the opportunity to work alongside other allied behavioral health professionals, including social workers and psychiatry residents and fellows, in addition to collaborating with pediatric residents and attendings.
Feeding Disorders Clinic
Faculty Supervisors: Sarah Hagin, PhD
Clinical presentation: primary presenting problems include ARFID, developmental and intellectual delays, and acute and chronic medical conditions that impact feeding development.
Demographic presentation: Average age is around 3yo. Ages range from infancy to adolescence. The feeding clinic serves a diverse population across race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessment, Exposure- and family-based interventions.
Description: The Pediatric Feeding Disorders rotation is a multidisciplinary outpatient clinical program for children with significant nutritional and feeding disorders associated with chronic illness or disability. The Feeding Disorders program is organized through the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology. Treatment is coordinated with the disciplines of Pediatric GI, Nutrition, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Pathology. Psychology trainees will conduct evaluations and treatment of children and families as they relate to feeding. Psychological treatments are family-oriented and behaviorally based.
Pediatric Cardiology Clinic (PHC)
Faculty Supervisors: Janet Anderson, EdD & Barbara Jandasek, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Primary presenting problems include individual and familial adjustment to heart-related symptoms (e.g., chest pain, palpitations) or congenital heart disease (CHD), preparation for medical procedures, transition to increased responsibility for their own medical care for youth with CHD and preparation for transfer to adult cardiology, as well as co-occurring mental health issues, such as behavior problems, depression and anxiety.
Demographic Presentation: The PHC serves families who have been identified during prenatal screening and follows patients from birth through young adulthood. All families may be referred to behavioral health, although the majority of our patients are school-aged through adolescents. As the only Heart Center in the state, we see a diverse population in terms of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, as well as sexuality and gender identity.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessments, Individual, Family, and potential option to be involved in Group
Description: The Pediatric Cardiology rotation entails providing integrated behavioral health services in Hasbro’s Pediatric Heart Center. Trainees on the rotation participate as part of an interdisciplinary treatment team that includes representation from disciplines of nursing, cardiology, psychology, and social work. Treatment provided is typically individual and family therapy, informed by CBT, ACT, and MI. Culturally Responsive Supervision is integrated into this training experience. Opportunities to observe all aspects of medical care within the PHC are available during this rotation, including medical visits, echocardiograms and stress tests.
Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic
Faculty Supervisors: Barbara Jandasek, PhD, Sharanya Rao, PhD
Clinical Presentation: The endocrinology department serves children presenting for a number of medical presentations including Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. Common referrals for psychology also include Thyroid Disease and Turner’s syndrome.
Demographic Presentation: Psychology serves children most commonly between 5-22 years of age. Family therapy is also a common modality used in this clinic.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessment, Individual and Family therapy
Description: The Endocrinology Clinic is a multidisciplinary outpatient clinical for children with endocrinology disorders and diseases. The goal of this rotation is to learn about the most common referral populations which include Diabetes and Thyroid disorders to provide evidence-based individual and family therapies to meet the patient behavioral health needs. Common presentations include burnout with diabetes care and exacerbation of anxiety/mood concerns with hyper/hypothyroidism. The trainee with work directly with the clinic supervisor to deliver services throughout this rotation.
Pediatric Consultation/Liaison
Faculty Supervisors: Margaret Mannix, PhD, Emily Katz, MD, Alison Manning, MD
Clinical Presentation: Consultations from pediatrics and medical specialty teams for pain complaints, eating disorders, adjustment to chronic illness, problems with adherence to medical regimens, coping with burns or other traumas, and suicidality. There is a spectrum of medical patients with no psychiatric history to those with co-morbid, chronic and refractory psychopathology.
Demographic Presentation: Ages 2-21. Patients and families are ethnically diverse from a wide variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Modality: Clinical evaluation, diagnostic assessment, brief individual therapy, crisis prevention and intervention
Description: The Pediatric Consultation/Liaison experience entails participation with the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry team consulting to Hasbro Children's Hospital's medical inpatient floors. The team consists of both psychiatry and psychology trainees. Residents and fellows are expected to serve as the primary clinician on new consultations and to provide follow-up care as indicated. More specifically, residents and fellows will: evaluate medically ill children for co-morbid mental health disorders that may be playing a role in their medical presentation and treatment; provide evaluation and disposition planning of pediatric patients medically admitted in the wake of suicidal or self-injurious behaviors; develop behavioral plans for patients who are having difficulty coping with their illness or participating in their care; provide short-term psychological treatment and psychoeducation to patients and their families; work closely with medical, nursing, social work, child life, and PT/OT staff to coordinate care, especially behavioral treatments to medically hospitalized children; provide psychoeducation to staff members and families to help them provide developmentally and psychologically appropriate care to minimize the patient's distress or discomfort and prevent or limit iatrogenic trauma to patients and their families; and participate in twice-weekly team rounds.
Oncology Service
Faculty Supervisor: Margaret Mannix, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Common referral concerns include adjustment to diagnosis, pain management, difficulty with procedures or treatment regimens, anxiety, depression, and bereavement.
Demographic Presentation: Trainees may have the opportunity to work with parents of patients with cancer if this is of interest, therefore, age range is wide. Patients are treated on the oncology service until 25 years old.
Modality: Clinical evaluation, individual therapy, potential family therapy, bereavement therapy
Description: The Pediatric Hem/Onc Service is a multidisciplinary clinical program for children with cancer or hematological disorders and their families. Psychology trainees on the oncology rotation provide evaluation and treatment and consult to members of the multidisciplinary team. Depending on their medical status and the needs of the family, patients are seen during inpatient stays, during outpatient visits to the Tomorrow Fund Clinic, or during outpatient visits at the Psychology Clinic. Opportunities also exist for didactic presentations to the team and consultation to schools. This is a 6-month rotation.
Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic
Faculty Supervisor: Melissa Pielech, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Presenting problems include persistent pain conditions, somatic symptoms, and/or Functional Neurological Disorders
Demographic Presentation: Children and adolescents (≥ 8-years-old), as well as their caregivers from a range of demographic backgrounds representing the state of Rhode Island
Modality: Consultation/evaluation and brief intervention
Description: Rehabilitation therapists (i.e. physical and occupational therapists) refer patients to psychology for evaluation and treatment (as indicated). Treatment utilizes evidence-based, family-centered approaches (primarily ACT and CBT) to treating pain/ somatic symptoms and associated psychopathology and involves frequent communication with the patient’s rehab providers to ensure consistency in our multidisciplinary approach. Trainees are responsible for conducting an initial assessment and functional analysis. The initial assessment is then used to develop a case conceptualization and inform the selection of specific skills to deliver/address in ongoing therapy. Referrals to community providers for longer-term treatment are provided, as needed. Trainees consult and coordinate with occupational, physical, and speech therapists, as well as other providers, such as the neurologist or pediatrician.
Hematology Clinic
Faculty Supervisor: Alexandra Pachter, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Presenting problems may be related to mood, behavior, anxiety, feeding/sleeping difficulties, adherence, pain management, school concerns, and illness adjustment.
Demographic Presentation: Patients and families within this clinic are from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and the majority are of African and Hispanic descent. Patients are followed in the pediatric clinic from birth through early adulthood.
Modality: Brief clinical assessment, behavioral health screening, neurocognitive screening, individual and family therapy.
Description: The Pediatric Hematology rotation provides unique training in the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with sickle cell disease and thalassemia across settings (e.g., outpatient specialty clinic, inpatient setting, outpatient intervention, outpatient assessment). Residents will be integrated within the multidisciplinary team (consisting of hematologists, social workers, nutritionists, dentists, and nurses) for the bi-weekly Comprehensive Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Clinic. Psychology team members typically meet with each patient and are available to address specific concerns/difficulties as they arise, completing brief consult-based assessments and coordinating closely with other team members. There are also opportunities to see patients with SCD when they are admitted for an inpatient hospitalization and for short-term, outpatient intervention.
Given the neurocognitive sequelae of sickle cell disease, the service has a standardized screening protocol in which all children are referred for a brief cognitive screening battery at ages 5/6 and 12/13. The resident will have the opportunity to administer this battery, score, write brief letters with results and findings, and formulate conceptualizations and impressions to inform recommendations. The Sickle Cell Disease program is growing at Hasbro Children’s Hasbro and there are opportunities for residents to engage in program development as well (e.g., education-based group development/implementation, development of educational handouts) if interested.
Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic
Faculty Supervisors: Barbara Jandasek, PhD, Sharanya Rao, PhD
Clinical Presentation: The endocrinology department serves children presenting for a number of medical presentations including Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. Common referrals for psychology also include Thyroid Disease and Turner’s syndrome.
Demographic Presentation: Psychology serves children most commonly between 5-22 years of age. Family therapy is also a common modality used in this clinic.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessment, Individual and Family therapy
Description: The Endocrinology Clinic is a multidisciplinary outpatient clinical for children with endocrinology disorders and diseases. The goal of this rotation is to learn about the most common referral populations which include Diabetes and Thyroid disorders to provide evidence-based individual and family therapies to meet the patient behavioral health needs. Common presentations include burnout with diabetes care and exacerbation of anxiety/mood concerns with hyper/hypothyroidism. The trainee with work directly with the clinic supervisor to deliver services throughout this rotation.
Fostering Health Clinic
Faculty Supervisor: Christine Nunes, PsyD
Clinical Presentation: Primary presenting problems include traditional mental health concerns (e.g. mood and anxiety disorders, behavior problems, ADHD) and/or various behavioral health concerns (e.g., weight management, chronic pain, developmental delays, toileting, sleep disruption).
Demographic Presentation: The Fostering Health Clinic is a primary care service for children who are or have been in the foster care system. The patient population is culturally and clinically diverse. The population includes young children (under 1 y/o) through adolescence.
Modality: Within the Fostering Health program, visits are integrated care encounters with the pediatrician on service that day. There may be opportunity to have a small case load of outpatients but mostly the sessions are family-based therapies that occur during the primary care visit.
Description: The Fostering Health Clinic rotation entails providing integrated behavioral health services in Harbro’s Primary Care department. Trainees on the rotation participate as part of an interdisciplinary treatment team that includes a pediatrician and a psychologist. Treatment provided is typically family therapy although some individual therapy is provided to older adolescents. Interventions occur during the primary care visit and are co-led with the supervising psychologist. Culturally Responsive Supervision is integrated into this training experience through live supervision during encounters and individual supervision carved out as needed.
Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Clinic
Faculty Supervisor: Kristine Durkin, PhD
Clinical Presentation: Primary presenting concerns include adjustment to chronic illness, treatment adherence challenges, anxiety, depression, health-related stress, coping with medical procedures, family stress, and transition-related issues (e.g., increasing autonomy, transition to adult care). Patients may also present with comorbid neurodevelopmental or mental health conditions that affect disease management and quality of life.
Demographic Presentation: Children, adolescents, and young adults with cystic fibrosis (approximately ages 5–25) and their caregivers. The clinic serves a diverse population across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and gender identity.
Modality: Diagnostic Assessment, Individual Therapy, Family Therapy, Integrated Behavioral Health Consultation
Description: This outpatient rotation provides training in evidence-based psychological assessment and intervention within a multidisciplinary pediatric subspecialty clinic at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Trainees work as part of an integrated cystic fibrosis care team that includes pulmonologists, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, nurses, social workers, dietitians, pharmacists, and other allied health professionals.
Clinical experiences focus on the psychosocial and behavioral aspects of cystic fibrosis, including adherence to complex medical regimens, coping with chronic illness, emotional adjustment, and family functioning. Trainees gain experience conducting brief psychological assessments, delivering empirically supported interventions (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, problem-solving strategies), and providing real-time consultation to the medical team during clinic visits. Emphasis is placed on developmentally informed, culturally responsive care, and on supporting patients and families across key illness milestones and transitions, including the transition from pediatric to adult care.