Career Development
Psychotherapy Training
The doctor-patient alliance is key to successful patient care. From the early 1900s, psychiatry has been based in psychotherapy, and the field has developed a multitude of psychotherapeutic modalities since that inception. Our program believes in training residents to be competent in the major evidence-based psychotherapies, including psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, supportive therapy, and brief psychotherapy. In addition, residents receive exposure to dialectical behavioral therapy. Over the course of four years, residents participate in multiple didactics and case presentations focusing on the different psychotherapeutic modalities. Second year residents have the opportunity to pick up a long-term psychodynamic patient and receive supervision from a multitude of supervisors from the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. In third year, residents are required to carry a caseload of at least 11 therapy patients.
The breakdown of cases is as follows:
- 2 long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy
- 2 cognitive-behavioral therapy
- 2 brief therapy
- 5 supportive therapy
Residents have a variety of supervisors who specialize in cognitive-behavioral therapy or psychodynamic psychotherapy. Residents who have a particular interest in therapy are encouraged to go beyond the required number of cases and may receive supervision for additional cases.
Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute
Residents who are interested in learning more about psychodynamic principles or in pursuing a psychoanalytic fellowship post-residency have a variety of opportunities through the residency program to explore these interests. Our program has a long-standing connection with the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute (MPI). As a result, our residents often participate in various MPI clinical activities, including the following:
- Monthly Clinical Moments, where residents are invited to attend a dinner and case presentation at the home of a member of the MPI. Residents enjoy this opportunity to socialize and network with psychodynamically-oriented mental health professionals.
- Early Admissions Program, which features Saturday morning seminars showcasing clinical material presented by applicants to the MPI. Residents are invited to attend these sessions and are given advanced psychoanalytic readings.
- Psychoanalytic Fellowship, which is a 1-year fellowship program in which residents and other mental health professionals meet weekly, observe case presentations by a practicing analyst, and discuss cases and psychoanalytic readings. Upon completion, a certificate is received.
Research Opportunities
The field of psychiatry is turning increasingly more to evidence-based guidance of formulation, diagnosis and treatment. With this in mind, WSU provides required didactics and seminars throughout residency, to ensure its residents build the basic skills necessary to comprehend and integrate ongoing research findings into their clinical practice. In addition, there are several options available to increase exposure to those interested in a more research-intensive career.
Curriculum-required Experience:
- Evidence-based practice integrated into all rotations
- Statistics and research methodology didactics lecture series
- PGY-2 scholarly case presentation
- PGY-3 weekly Journal club and psychopharmacology didactics, monthly statistics and research methodology
- PGY-4 grand rounds presentation and completion of a scholarly project which may be original research, writing a literature review, quality improvement projects
- Individual research elective available for PGY-2 and PGY-4
Individual research is supported and encouraged. The department offers New Investigator Awards annually to assist interested residents in realizing their projects.
In addition, residents may be permitted one half day per week for research. In the PGY-4 year, residents may take research electives for dedicated time to work on individual projects.
Faculty supervisors for such projects are abundant and include psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, clinical and basic scientists, and epidemiologists. The program is home to former members of NIH, and leaders of other prestigious national organizations and review bodies. These individuals closely collaborate with residents and one another on educational and research projects. List of supervisors and projects for residents.
Our residents have been selected for numerous national and international awards for research.
Teaching Opportunities
Fourth year residents have the opportunity to complete a one or two month elective in medical student education. During this elective the resident is directly supervised by the director and/or assistant director of medical student education. The focus of the elective is improving skills to teach medical students and junior residents. Time is spent in several patient care settings within the DMC, working with medical students and junior residents individually and in small groups. The elective provides the opportunity to foster teaching skills, with time to create and practice teaching materials to use in these settings. In addition, the resident takes part in larger group weekly didactics under supervision. During the two month elective, the resident can complete an education project of his/her choice to contribute to the development of the educational curriculum.
Throughout residency training, residents have an opportunity to teach junior and senior medical students on a regular basis. As an academic program associated with WSU SOM, which has a class size of 290, medical students are a frequent part of the treatment team. The academic atmosphere fosters opportunities to both learn and teach. Residents frequently have the opportunity to teach medical students at the bedside and in small groups on many services during their training.]