Education and Training

Strengths of our Program

The goal of the Women’s and Gender Health Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship is to provide advanced training for psychologists specializing in assessment and treatment of a wide range of psychological concerns important to women, female identifying, male, and gender queer persons with medical conditions in an academic medical setting. At the completion of training, fellows should be capable of independent patient care, research, and teaching in a range of settings including the academic medical center, hospital, or private practice settings.

The fellow will be supervised by a primary supervisor on each rotation. On the major rotation, there is the opportunity for supervision on a rotating basis based upon patient presenting concern and patient location. Clinical supervision will occur during individual meetings with the identified supervisor. The fellow will have at least 2 hours of direct supervision every week. The fellow will also meet with the program director to discuss career development and professional issues at least once a month or as topics arise. If the fellow elects to do a research or quality improvement project, research supervision will be done by the research mentor, who may be the same as one of their clinical supervisors. 

Components of the Our Program

Clinical Training

The fellowship is one year in duration with a primary focus on building experience in specialty health psychology care with women and gender care populations. The fellow is expected to have approximately 20 hours spent in clinical care per week. Based upon interest and rotation, this time will be comprised of outpatient evaluations and therapy. The fellow will devote at least 65% of their time to clinical activities. The remaining time will be divided among clinical training opportunities, teaching, and research.

The fellow will maintain a caseload primarily comprised of adult patients referred by OBGYN, women’s health, gender care, and men’s health clinicians for a variety of clinical questions including anxiety/depression during pregnancy or postpartum, grief due to pregnancy or infant loss, management of a chronic mental or physical health condition during pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain management, chronic illness management focused on gender-specific concerns (e.g. endometriosis, PCOS, vulvodynia, vaginismus, IC, ED, prostate condition), management of symptoms associated with perimenopause or menopause, sexual health and sexual function, gender-affirming care, among others.

Didactic Teaching

The fellow will have the opportunity for a range of didactic and educational opportunities at University Hospitals and at Case Western Reserve University. Mandatory didactic experiences include participation in departmental Grand Rounds for Psychiatry and OBGYN and workshops throughout the year, including Women’s Mental Health day run as a joint program by Psychiatry and OBGYN. Additional didactic opportunities include psychology seminar and other departmental Grand Rounds. Fellows will be required to present at one Grand Rounds during the year. The fellow may also have opportunities to present to Case Western School of Medicine residents, fellows, and medical students, and to clinical ambulatory staff. The fellow will devote approximately 10-15% of their time to didactics.

In addition, the fellow will be expected to complete readings related to women’s health, sexual health, reproductive health and other clinical psychology topics. Readings will be chosen for each fellow by their supervisors. Case conceptualization, knowledge of evidence-based intervention and ethical standards will be assessed at three time points over the course of the fellowship year.

Research Training

Fellows can devote up to 15% of their week to research activities. There is not a required research project currently included in the curriculum. Fellows can choose to join existing research or quality improvement projects or plan their own research endeavor. Data sets for the adult OBGYN population may be available. Core research faculty includes Dr. Erika Kelley, Dr. Danette Conklin, and Dr. R. Brian Denton, associated with their respective areas of expertise and research interests. Research supervision and mentorship will depend on the fellow’s research focus and mentor availability.