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Cutting Edge
Treatment

Postdoctoral Residency – Santa Clara

South Bay Consortium (San Jose and Santa Clara)

Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center
Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center

The city of Santa Clara is 35 miles south of San Francisco and has 130,000 residents. Santa Clara County, in which the city is located, is the heart of Silicon Valley, an economic center for high technology. It is considered one of the most desirable places in the US to live not only because of its temperate climate and scenic attractiveness but also because of its cultural diversity, sports, arts, research and development, and academic opportunities. It is home to Mission Santa Clara de Asis, Levi’s Stadium (headquarters of San Francisco 49ers football team), and a Great America amusement park. Santa Clara is bordered by the cities of San Jose, Sunnyvale and Cupertino.

A new Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center was opened in 2007 with a 327-bed hospital and new medical office building. More than 485 physicians and 4300 staff provide care to 300,000 health plan members in a geographical area that stretches from Palo Alto on the north to San Jose on the south: from Milpitas on the east to the westerly Santa Cruz Mountains.

The Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Psychiatry Department is comprised of a larger clinic housed in Cupertino with smaller clinics located in Campbell, Mountain View, Milpitas and Skyport. Santa Clara Psychiatry draws its clientele from Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. It serves an urban and suburban, lower middle to upper-middle-class, multi-ethnic community with some rural families from the central valley and coastal hills. There is a large population of monolingual and bilingual Spanish speakers, as well as communities speaking Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, Hindi and other languages.

Program Curriculum

Equity, Inclusion & Diversity

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 cultural humility, respecting every voice, and cultivating a sense of inclusion and belonging in the workplace.

Our Mental Health Training Program’s Regional Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Committee organizes monthly forums that are designed for trainees only. Forums are held with experts from the community, within Kaiser Permanente, and national leaders on EID topics impacting trainees clinical work and personal development. Example of forum topics include immigration, micro-aggression, unconscious bias, Black maternal mental health, white privilege, and gender-affirming care. In addition to the forums, our Regional EID Officers also provide optional monthly consultation sessions for trainees.

Didactic Training

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. 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.

Seminars and Meetings

Residents attend various weekly team or departmental meetings, in addition to:

  • Group supervision with the postdoctoral training cohort which includes case consultation and discussion of professional development topics. Residents gain experience giving and receiving feedback which helps them to develop the collegial and supervisory aspects of their professional identities as psychologists.
  • Outcome-based feedback informed care case consultation in which residents have opportunity to present patient cases and provide clinical feedback to peers and other staff members.

Telehealth Training:
Kaiser Permanente has greatly expanded its’ virtual presence, which will allow residents to fully train and practice in a variety of trailblazing platforms in telemedicine to provide accessible mental health care.

Supervision

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.

Community Partnership Program

Reflecting Kaiser Permanente’s core commitment to mental health and wellness in our communities, each trainee will spend at least 32 hours during their training year on a Community Partnership Project that focuses on improving mental health in the Silicon Valley community beyond our Kaiser Permanente patient members. Projects may include presentations on mental health topics or career mentoring in such settings as colleges/schools, faith-based organizations, and other local organizations dedicated to assisting those in need.

The goal of this project is to provide outreach to underserved populations to promote health and advancement. Anchors for the 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 the development of a project.

Psychological Assessment

All residents complete psychological testing as part of their training program. This includes the opportunity to work with two testing patients monthly. Primary referral questions include ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), with possible opportunities for additional psychological testing and referral questions. Residents receive supervision for support, consultation, and training related to assessment.

Program Evaluation

Each resident is required to undertake a program evaluation project during their training year. The project is selected based upon the resident’s interests and skill set and should fall within the regular scope of departmental services.

It may involve collecting and analyzing data to improve administrative operations, or a quality improvement project aimed at improving or assessing a treatment program or process. Examples include developing and evaluating a treatment group, intake procedure or other new programming; evaluating factors associated with treatment outcomes; or a needs assessment of a service that may be enriched by psychological consultation. Residents meet with the program evaluation supervisor as a group regularly over the course of the training year to review progress on their projects.

Tracks and Rotations

Behavioral Medicine (Pediatric)

The Pediatric Health Psychology Postdoctoral Residents will receive training in Pediatric primary care and Pediatric specialty care psychology while working within a close-knit team. The residents will spend approximately half of their time in Behavioral Medicine Services (BMS), embedded within primary care or specialty clinics and half of their time embedded in hospital-based services on the pediatric floor.
In this role, residents will have the opportunity to diagnose, develop treatment plans, and deliver interventions that target behavioral and psychological factors contributing to whole-health patient outcomes. BMS providers co-treat chronic conditions such as diabetes mellitus, chronic pain, headaches, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome and adjustment disorders related to coping with medical diagnoses in gastroenterology, palliative care, oncology, and endocrinology. This position broadens and deepens the residents’ brief assessment and intervention skills across many diagnoses with a diverse group of patients.

The BMS model allows for warm handoffs from the physicians, for patients who may be ambivalent about treatment or likely to benefit from brief interventions. Residents will collaborate with physicians on the evaluation of psychotropic medications within their scope of practice and may serve as a liaison between patient and physician in monitoring medication compliance and response. An additional responsibility of the residents is to perform ADHD evaluations and feedback sessions. Opportunities to conduct gender care evaluations and work in lifestyle medicine are also available in addition to opportunities to be involved in groups for gender care, sleep, lifestyle medicine, and chronic conditions management.

Residents attend BMS staff meetings and case consultation. While residents will be housed primarily in BMS, they will also have opportunity to work and train in other areas of the medical center.

Behavioral Medicine (Adult)

Health Psychology Postdoctoral Residents will receive training in primary care psychology while working within a close-knit team. Residents will spend approximately half of their time in Behavioral Medicine Services (BMS), embedded within primary care or OB/GYN. In this role, residents will have the opportunity to diagnose, develop treatment plans, and deliver interventions that target behavioral and psychological factors contributing to whole-health patient outcomes. BMS providers co-treat chronic conditions such as diabetes mellitus, chronic pain, headaches, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome and adjustment disorders related to coping with medical diagnoses. This position broadens and deepens the residents’ brief assessment and intervention skills across many diagnoses with a diverse group of patients.

The BMS model allows for warm handoffs from the physicians, for patients who may be ambivalent about treatment or likely to benefit from brief interventions. Residents will collaborate with physicians on the evaluation of psychotropic medications within their scope of practice and may serve as a liaison between patient and physician in monitoring medication compliance and response. An additional responsibility of residents is performing brief cognitive screenings as requested by the primary care physician. Opportunities to conduct Bariatric surgery evaluations may be available depending on resident interest and experience. Residents attend weekly BMS staff meetings and case consultation.

While residents will be housed primarily in BMS, they will also have opportunity to work and train in other areas of the medical center such as in the Emergency Department in a Consultation/Liaison capacity, Chronic Pain Management program, Oncology, and in diabetic education.

Adult Psychiatry Generalist

The resident on this track will be assigned to the Psychiatry Department’s Adult Services Team. The Adult Team provides a variety of clinical opportunities including individual intake assessments, intervention, and co-facilitation of groups. We host many groups each week for a variety of populations and presenting problems. Residents are expected to attend a weekly Adult Team Staff meeting and case consultation group. Monthly in-service trainings on topics related to clinical care excellence are also provided.

This training opportunity allows the resident includes various 6-month rotations such as the Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP), ADHD, bariatric evaluations, and eating disorders.
The resident’s duties will include creating curriculum, co-facilitating psychoeducational and process-oriented groups, conducting intake assessments, developing treatment plans, providing individual therapy with a small caseload focused on crisis stabilization and providing family therapy when indicated. The role also involves twice daily meetings and consultation with a small tight-knit, interdisciplinary treatment team. The position will broaden and deepen the resident’s clinical skills across all diagnoses with a very diverse group of patients. Program development/evaluation projects focused on care improvement for patients with serious mental illness are encouraged.

Training in evidence-based individual treatment will consist of providing individual therapy in a focused-therapy model, and will include feedback-informed care, CBT, DBT, ACT, and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) interventions. Training in evidence-based group treatment will consist of co-facilitating groups under the supervision of licensed therapists.

Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Generalist

The Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Child and Adolescent Psychiatry opportunity offers residents the opportunity to work on a multidisciplinary treatment team offering evidence based, focused and multimodal treatment to children, teens, and their families.

The Postdoctoral Resident will offer generalist training within the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry department. The resident will have the opportunity to complete a rotation in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) as well as ADHD assessment and other evidence-based psychotherapy groups and classes.

This program is designed to provide a breadth of training experiences with the purpose of developing a generalist practitioner in child and adolescent psychiatry. Post-doctoral residents are assigned cases from the broad and diverse patient population addressing needs related to the treatment of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorders, attention and impulse control disorders, behavioral issues, and more.

The Postdoctoral Resident will utilize evidence-based interventions within a feedback informed care model with the use of outcome monitoring at each session. They will utilize both individual and group supervision for case formulation and treatment planning and will receive training in individual and family psychotherapy as well as group treatment. Training in evidence-based individual and family treatment will consist of providing individual and family therapy within a focused therapy treatment track. Training in evidence-based group treatment will consist of co-facilitating groups under the supervision of licensed therapists. Training in evidence-based individual treatment will consist of providing individual therapy in a focused-therapy model, and will include feedback-informed care, CBT, DBT, ACT, and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) interventions. Training in evidence-based group treatment will consist of co-facilitating groups under the supervision of licensed therapists.

Addiction Medicine (AMRS)

The Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Addiction Medicine and Recovery Services (AMRS) residency provides an opportunity to work on a dynamic and skilled multidisciplinary treatment team offering cutting edge, outpatient substance use treatment to adolescent and adult patients and their families. The AMRS team offers a close-knit, supportive work environment characterized by unity of purpose, teamwork, and positive morale.

Santa Clara AMRS offers partial hospitalization services, intensive recovery services, ongoing recovery groups, harm reduction treatment, dual diagnosis treatment, medication assisted treatment, withdrawal management services, adolescent treatment, and codependency treatment on an outpatient basis. Over the course of the year, the resident will gain expertise in utilizing evidence-based substance use and dual diagnosis treatment modalities with a diverse population of patients. Duties include conducting intake assessments and providing individual case management/counseling, group facilitation and psychoeducational classes.

The resident will create treatment protocols to serve individuals impacted by substance use disorders as a part of their program development/evaluation project and share their findings with the treatment team. Residents will attend daily team case consultation and a weekly clinical case conference with addiction medicine specialists. Supervision in motivational interviewing is provided by a psychologist with advanced training.

Schedule

All generalist tracks offer in person and virtual work schedules and a flexible 4 or 5-day work week (with no more than 10 hours per day).

Residents will typically spend 2-3 days onsite and 1-2 days working remotely after the first month of onboarding.

BMS and AMRS residents will spend the bulk of their time in person/on-site but may have the option for some remote work.

  • Direct Patient Care: 20 hours (+/- 2 new patients /week)
  • Psychological Testing: 2-3 hours/week
  • Group Psychotherapy: 2-4 hours/week
  • Non-Patient Care: 12 hours/ week
  • Individual Supervision: 2 hours/ week
  • Assessment Supervision: 1 hour/week
  • Equity, Inclusion & Diversity Group Supervision (EID): 1 hours/month
  • Didactic Training: 2 hours/week
  • License Prep/Other Projects: 2 hours/week
  • Program Evaluation Project: 1 hours/month
  • Community Partnership Project: 32 hours/year

Current Opportunities

Position Track(s)
Adult Psychiatry (2 Positions) Adult
Pediatric Behavioral Medicine Embedded (2 Positions) Pediatric BMS

Accreditation

  • South Bay Consortium Accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA)
  • Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation: Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation American Psychological Association 750 1st Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002 Phone: (202) 336-5979 / E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org Web: www.apa.org/ed/accreditation

Location

Adult and Child Psychiatry
19000 Homestead Rd., Bldg. 2
Cupertino, CA 95014

Behavioral Medicine
710 Lawrence Expressway
Santa Clara, CA 95051

Addiction Medicine Recovery Services
19000 Homestead Rd Bldg 1
Cupertino, CA 95014

Lifestyle Medicine
19000 Homestead Rd Bldg 2
Cupertino, CA 95014

Training Director

Julie Johnston PsyD
Training Director
julie.j.koenig@kp.org
408 366 4433


Meet the Santa Clara Training Team

Membership

Member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC)

Additional Resources

Postdoctoral Residency Admissions, Support, and Initial Placement Data

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