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Postdoctoral Residency – Vallejo

North Bay Consortium (Vallejo, Vacaville, Santa Rosa and San Rafael)

Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center
Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center
Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center
Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center

Vallejo is a rapidly growing community in Solano County that includes Downtown Vallejo, Mare Island, Northgate and the Waterfront. The surrounding area provides a number of fun activities including a Six Flags amusement park, naval museum exploring the history of the city and former naval base at Mare Island, concerts and films at the historic Empress Theater, hillside trails and rugged beaches at the Benicia State Recreation Area. San Francisco is easily accessible via the Vallejo Ferry and the Napa wine country is less than an hour’s drive away. The cost of living in Vallejo is one of the most affordable in the Bay Area.

Kaiser Permanente Napa Solano, first established in Vallejo in 1945, has steadily grown to serve 312,000 members, spanning an area stretching from the Carquinez Bridge north to Vacaville and Dixon, through the Napa Valley to Calistoga, and over to Benicia.
The Kaiser Vallejo Medical Center, rebuilt in 2010, is comprised of a 267-bed hospital and large outpatient medical office complex offering a range of primary care and specialty services. The hospital houses the renowned Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center, which provides state-of-the-art rehabilitation services to health plan members throughout Northern California. The ethnic diversity of the patient population is broad and includes Latino/a, African American, Pacific Islander, Asian, Caucasian, and those of other backgrounds. Kaiser Vallejo provides services to a large Medi-Cal population and functions much like a county hospital.

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 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.

In addition, residents will also have opportunity to participate in the NSA Psychiatry EID Task Force. This is a group of psychologists, LMFTs, LCSWs, psychiatrists, trainees, and administrative support staff in the Napa/Solano Psychiatry Departments who are passionate about issues related to culture and diversity. The task force meets monthly to plan events and trainings that advance employee understanding and engagement on issues related to EID. Additionally, the task force discusses how to enhance our Kaiser Permanente members’ care experience to ensure that we create a welcoming and safe space for individuals and groups who have been historically marginalized. We invite interested trainees to join our EID task force, and welcome new ideas and perspectives.

Finally, the Intersecting Identities in Clinical Practice seminar is a bi-monthly supervision group meets that provides postdoctoral residents the opportunity to discuss cases and obtain support around cultural and identity issues that arise in clinical work. In addition to case consultation, the seminar includes presentations on topics such as racial identity, gender, sexual orientation, and current events pertaining to culture and identity. Cultural humility and growth are encouraged and developed through self-exploration and reflection.

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. 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.

Seminars and Meetings

Residents will attend:

  • Weekly department team meetings
  • Weekly staff case conferences to consult on challenging cases and to learn how to incorporate outcome-based Feedback Informed Care (FIC) into their practice.
  • Group supervision to present cases to their postdoctoral peers. Residents gain experience giving and receiving feedback which helps them to develop the collegial and supervisory aspects of their professional identities as psychologists.
  • An Office Hours meeting led by the local training director which focuses on helping them to acculturate to the Kaiser Permanente organization. Topics include administrative issues and professional development, as well as general support.
  • Supervision of supervision for residents supervising a psychology extern over the course of their training year. Residents will also lead 1-2 didactic seminars for psychology externs to gain experience in facilitating didactics and receiving feedback.

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 Napa-Solano 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 assessment as part of their training. 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 attend group 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

Level II Trauma Surgery Consultation Liaison and Women's Health

Consultation/Liaison (CL) work in the Vacaville hospital’s Level II Trauma Surgery Center provides a unique and rich opportunity to be part of a tight-knit trauma surgery team in the role of embedded psychologist. This position involves bedside consultation that includes assessment and screening of trauma and cognitive functioning as well as psychoeducation and brief interventions to assist with adjustment. Training involves morning rounding with the trauma surgery team to identify patients who might benefit from additional psychological services. The resident will also regularly round in the hospital with the Delirium Team.

In addition, this track includes clinical care in the Women’s Health Department working as an embedded Behavioral Medicine Services (BMS) Psychologist. In this role, residents will have the opportunity to diagnose, develop treatment plans, and deliver care to patients within OB/GYN. The resident will treat conditions such as peripartum mood and anxiety disorders, loss, pelvic pain, infertility, and birth trauma. BMS psychologists are integral in treating adjustment disorders related to coping with medical diagnoses to improve whole-health patient outcomes.

The BMS model allows for warm handoffs from physicians, for patients who may be ambivalent about treatment or likely to benefit from brief interventions. Residents may serve as the liaison between patient and physician in monitoring response to medications and in general treatment compliance with the goal of optimizing overall health. Residents will be expected to attend OB/GYN huddles, as well as weekly BMS staff and case consultation meetings.

Behavioral Medicine

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, Parkinson’s Disease support group, Oncology, Concussion/Sports Medicine Clinic and in diabetic education. This position requires autonomy and flexibility in fast-paced medical settings.

Adult Generalist with Intensive Outpatient Program Emphasis

This training opportunity allows the resident to provide services to more acute and chronically ill patients. Patients in our Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) may have recently been hospitalized or be at risk for psychiatric hospitalization. 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.

The resident on this track will also 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 over 40 groups across the service area 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.

Adult Generalist with Trauma Focus Competency Emphasis

This training opportunity will allow the resident to develop specialized skill in trauma treatment. The resident’s duties will include performing intake assessments, delivering individual and group psychotherapy for trauma-related disorders, and attending case consultation with trauma specialists.

The resident will also learn to create treatment protocols for patients affected by trauma as part of their program development/evaluation project. The resident will gain experience and expertise in utilizing individual and group evidence-based treatments such as cognitive processing therapy (CPT) across a diverse patient population in the Napa-Solano service area. Individual CPT supervision will be provided by a CPT certified psychologist.

The resident on this track will also 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 over 40 groups across the Napa/Solano service area 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.

Adult and/or Child/Family Generalist with Eating Disorder Emphasis

This training track affords residents the unique opportunity of working with a variety of eating disorder presentations in our outpatient clinics. The Eating Disorder treatment program serves patients struggling with anorexia and bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorders, ARFID and unspecified eating disorders.

Residents will manage an individual caseload of patients struggling with disordered eating behavior and body image concerns. They will actively participate in a weekly multidisciplinary case consultation and consult with our medical team and medical nutrition therapists. Residents will have access to regional trainings specific to the treatment of eating disorders in an outpatient setting.

Residents in this track will also have the opportunity to co-facilitate group therapies focused on disordered eating behaviors and body image concerns including our Adult DBT Focused Treatment Group for Eating Disorders and Eating Disorder Changes: A Motivational Interviewing focused group for individuals struggling with disordered eating. Child/Family EDO residents will have an opportunity to co-lead the Teen Eating Disorders group.

Adult Generalist and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Emphasis

Residents who train in this treatment track will have a year-long opportunity to develop expertise in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) by co-leading a number of DBT skills groups across our service area. Additionally, they will provide individual and group psychotherapy for patients participating in our DBT Intensive Program which offers weekly individual and group treatment to individuals diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Residents in this track will meet weekly with the DBT team for ongoing case consultation.

Health Psych (OBGYN) and Maternal Infant Resiliency (MIR)/Postpartum Treatment Emphasis

This training opportunity is located within our OB/GYN Departments, where our Behavioral Medicine Service (BMS) psychologists provide the supervision. The MIR approach aims to ameliorate the intergenerational impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and address related health consequences through early intervention in the form of consultation, brief treatments, and psychoeducational groups.

Didactic training by content experts is provided in infant attachment, childhood, adult & family development, OB-GYN services, assessment and skill-building in resilience and coping, lifespan development, and ACEs with an emphasis on early intervention, multicultural competency, and applications to health care. Resident responsibilities include attending multidisciplinary team meetings/daily huddles, monthly medical department consultation, attending continuing education seminars, and conducting program development/evaluation projects with an MIR focus.

In addition to working in the medical clinic and hospital, residents will also have the opportunity to co-lead the outpatient Postpartum Support groups and to provide individual and group psychotherapy to birthing parents struggling with peri and postpartum mood disorders, anxiety, and OCD.

Schedule

All clinical tracks offer in person and virtual components and a flexible 4 day work week schedule option (no more than 10 hours per day).

Behavioral Medicine and Trauma Surgery Residents will spend the bulk of their time in person/on site but may have the option for some remote work as well.

The generalist training tracks offer the option of a flexible 4 or 5 day work schedule.

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

  • 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): 2 hours/month
  • Practicum Supervision: .5-1 hour/ week
  • Didactic Training: 2 hours/week
  • License Prep/Other Projects: 2 hours/week
  • Program Evaluation: 2 hours/month
  • Community Volunteer Project: 32 hours/year

Accreditation

  • North 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

Vallejo Mental Health Clinic
1761 Broadway, Suite 100
Vallejo, CA 94589

Vallejo Hospital
975 Sereno Drive
Vallejo, CA 94589

Vacaville Mental Health Clinic and Hospital
1 Quality Drive, Suite A27
Vacaville, CA 95688

Fairfield Mental Health Clinic
520 Chadbourne Road
Fairfield, CA 94534

Training Director

Supria Gill PhD
Training Program Manager/Assistant Regional Director Mental Health Training Program
supria.k.gill@kp.org


Jennifer Gershen, Psy.D
Consortium Director
jennifer.l.gershen@kp.org


Janice Lehman, PsyD
Training Director
janice.d.lehman@kp.org


Meet the Vallejo 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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