Postdoctoral Residency – Walnut Creek

We are committed to nurturing and integrating diversity training into all aspects of our postdoctoral residency program by:

Providing residents with opportunities to work with patients who represent various aspects of diversity, including age, religion, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, values, and lifestyle.

Placing a high value on residents’ willingness to engage in self-reflection, and supporting the exploration of attitudes, beliefs and therapeutic postures that could impact clinical interactions.

Maintaining a consistent focus in clinical supervision on expanding residents’ multicultural awareness and competence in the provision of psychotherapeutic services and providing guidance, training, and resources on topics such as mitigating unconscious bias, respecting every voice, and cultivating a sense of inclusion and belonging in the workplace.

Residents are encouraged to participate in the Regional Mental Health Training Program EID Committee’s advanced trainings on topics related to cultural sensitivity and competence along with a forum to reflect on and discuss their varied experiences in a safe environment. There is also opportunity to participate in an EID committee at the local clinic level.

Regularly scheduled weekly didactic seminars, formerly held at the consortium level, are now organized, and administered regionally for all KP NorCal postdoctoral residents. Residents are required to attend a two-hour weekly virtual seminar, which focuses on developing competencies and expertise in clinical areas most relevant to their day-to-day work.

Our Regional Mental Health Training Program also sponsors seminars for continuing professional development. The seminars are offered at select times during the year for all KP mental health trainees and staff at Kaiser Northern California Medical Centers. We bring in local and national experts on a variety of cutting-edge topics in mental health treatment and research. Residents are required to attend these monthly seminars. Regional seminar dates and a list of speakers and topics can be found on the Regional Mental Health Training Programs website. In addition, many of the presentations are recorded and available under the continuing education lecture library webpage.

• AMRS Case Consultation,
• Child/Adult Team Case Consultation
• Integrated Care Team Meetings
• Feedback Informed Care Case Consultation
• Spanish-Speaking Provider Case Consultation
• Weekly Site Training Cohort Meeting
• Monthly Diversity Seminar
• Supervision of Supervision Training Seminar

All postdoctoral residents are supervised by licensed psychologists and are assigned to a primary supervisor and a secondary supervisor. The clinical supervisors meet with their assigned resident one hour per week for individual face-to-face supervision. Thus, each resident has two hours of individual supervision per week.

The primary and secondary supervisors are responsible for overseeing the direct delivery of clinical services. The primary supervisor takes a lead role in developing the resident’s learning plan, monitoring their progress, and evaluating their training schedule. The primary supervisor is also responsible for completing the resident’s evaluation after gathering input from other supervisors and staff who may have provided supplementary supervision during rotations or while co-facilitating groups with the resident. Additionally, track specific group supervision may be required.

Reflecting Kaiser Permanente’s core commitment to mental health and wellness in our communities, each resident will spend at least 32 hours during their training year on a Community Partnership Project that focuses on improving mental health in the local community beyond our Kaiser Permanente patient members. Recent projects have included partnerships with Dozier Libbey Medical High School in Antioch, the KP Launch Summer Internship Program, and the Trinity Center in Walnut Creek.

The goal of this project is to provide outreach to underserved populations to promote health and advancement. Anchors for this project include developing alliances with individuals and/or systems to improve the lives of those served; providing education and training based on the empirical literature; and presenting relevant outcomes data to partnership stakeholders. Residents will meet with the Community Partnership supervisor to assist with placement and developing a project.

Residents complete neuropsychological assessments for adults and children and ADHD evaluations for adults during their training year. Residents also attend a psychological assessment seminar to consult on cases and receive supervision.

This training opportunity emphasizes EBTs for trauma treatment in adult outpatients, providing the postdoc specialized training in EMDR, PET, or CPT while they practice within an organized service delivery program for treating PTSD and anxiety disorders.

The Adult Trauma Treatment Track includes group and individual treatment for patients who are evaluated and matched with the program. The postdoc also will have opportunity to meet, diagnose and treat a wide range of diverse patients presenting to the Adult Psychiatry Department. Postdocs will provide a combination of virtual and in person services.

Residents have neuropsychological and ADHD assessment training opportunities while on this track.

Residents will have broad exposure to team-based outpatient care on a truly multidisciplinary, integrated medical team. Residents are provided practice with a wide range of roles and expectations on an outpatient treatment team providing group and individual psychological services including intake assessments, psychoeducation and other group and individual therapeutic services.

Postdocs will provide individual (hybrid remote / in person) services 3- 4 days per week to patients in the AMRS Departments’ abstinence-based programs. Postdocs will provide a combination of virtual and in person services  to patients presenting with both SUD and other mental health disorders.

Residents have neuropsychological and ADHD assessment training while on this track.

This track offers clinical training opportunities embedded within primary care settings with children and families where the emphasis is on prevention, early detection, and normalization of mental health and wellness. It is one of two full-time health psychology offerings and will be conducted as a hybrid – in person 2 days with another partial day required occasionally for assessments.

Postdocs will be involved in the treatment of emerging disorders as well as collaborating with psychiatry departments to provide mental health services to patients who need a higher level of care. Residents will gain clinical experience in the provision of group, individual, family, and parenting therapies across settings and consulting with pediatric medical teams. The assessment training will provide experience with relevant pediatric neuropsychological cases or ADHD whenever possible.

On this health psychology track embedded in OBGYN departments, with some opportunity for relevant general adult outpatient experience, the postdoc receives supervised professional experience in consulting, treatment planning, brief treatments and groups. It is conducted as a hybrid – in person some days with another partial day required occasionally for assessments.

The training focuses on preventing the predictable negative health consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and on normalizing mental wellness through early awareness. Emphasis is on early intervention, multicultural competency and applications to healthcare in meeting patients, families and their providers with their presenting concerns.

Collaboration on multidisciplinary teams through daily huddles, department consultation, education and program evaluation. In addition, the residents will collaborate and train within psychiatry departments to provide mental health services to patients who need a higher level of care.

Neuropsychology and ADHD training for this track will offer additional relevant referrals for health psych brief screeners when suitable.

The Intensive Outpatient Program is a unique track for training with adult patients stepping down from hospitalization or increasing the level of care from standard outpatient treatment. Residents will be involved with individualized treatment planning for psychiatric adult outpatients at all levels of acuity. They will gain experience with evidence-based treatments for patients with serious and persistent mental illness, including DBT, CBT and milieu therapy.

Treatment modalities in this rotation include group and individual psychotherapy. There are numerous opportunities for postdocs to collaborate with multidisciplinary treatment team providers within and outside our organization. There are opportunities to shadow emergency services and crisis consultation provided by supervisors and team managers.

Postdocs can follow patients through Aftercare planning and through the next phase of their stabilization. Residents on this track will also learn to assess and treat adult patients in the general psychiatric population within the integrated care model at KP.

This track provides training in Neuropsychological and Adult ADHD assessment.

This training track offers specialized clinical treatment for adult patients utilizing evidence-based targeted treatments. Residents will learn to develop individualized treatment plans that integrate individual psychotherapy, psychoeducational groups with therapeutic homework assignments, all with an emphasis on ongoing feedback informed care. Treatment pathways consist of focused collaborative approaches to treating mood disorders presented by our general adult population.

In addition, there will be opportunities for specialized work with adults struggling with Eating Disorders, partnering with providers of outpatient and intensive treatment modalities.

This track provides training in Neuropsychological and Adult ADHD assessment.