Clinical Health Psychology Fellowship

Program Mission : To provide advanced clinical, didactic, and academic training to produce competent psychologists in the specialty of Clinical Health Psychology.

Program Goals :

1. Development of advanced skill in the evaluation and treatment of psychological issues in medical patients, and consultation to other professionals and families.
2. Development of advanced understanding of biopsychosocial issues, that is, the interrelationships among medical, psychological, and social factors.
3. Scholarly activity, e.g., submission of a research study or scholarly paper for publication and/or presentation.
4. Didactics, including attendance and participation in relevant seminars and educational activities, e.g., Health Psychology Seminar, Psychiatry Grand Rounds, Behavioral Neuroscience Seminar.

Typically, approximately 80% of the fellow's time is spent performing clinical duties while the remaining time is split between research (15%) and didactics (5%). This postdoctoral fellowship is one of many training programs in the UIC Department of Psychiatry. For more info on the department, faculty, and other programs, go to www.psych.uic.edu.

Clinical Experiences:

Clinical experiences involve inpatient and outpatient evaluation, consultation, and intervention.

Inpatient: Health Psychology provides a consultation-liaison service in the University of Illinois Hospital on several medical units. We have a very busy consultation service, and receive consults on patients from oncology (stem cell transplant, surgical oncology, medical oncology), sickle cell, acute rehabilitation, geriatrics, organ transplantation, cardiology, and other services. Typically consults are requested for issues of coping and adjustment to medical illness, depression and anxiety, delirium, decisional capacity, and noncompliance.

Outpatient: We provide evaluation and treatment for patients referred from many specialty areas, such as sleep, sickle cell, oncology, pulmonary. We do many evaluations and also intervention with individuals seeking bariatric surgery, both adults and adolescents. In this context, we work closely with our colleagues in surgery and nutrition. Dr. Prensky is also developing a new biofeedback program.

Research Experiences:

  Research experiences will be determined on an individual basis. Current active projects in health psychology include the study of psychosocial factors in sickle cell disease, interventions to decrease anxiety prior to fMRI, social support and emotional expression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, psychological issues facing related stem cell transplant donors, the effects of premorbid psychological factors in adult bariatric surgery outcome, and characteristics of adolescents seeking bariatric surgery as well as factors impacting their outcomes

Didactics: Didactics include seminars presented by the psychiatry department, which include topics such as Health Psychology, Geropsychology and Applied Neuropsychology, and Grand Rounds presentations throughout the hospital which include talks on sickle cell disease, oncology and bi-monthly hospital ethics seminars. There is also a departmental Consult-Liaison Psychiatry seminar that the fellow may attend. The fellow is encouraged to attend appropriate national scientific meetings as well.

Clinical and Research Supervision : All supervision is done by Drs. Susan Labott, Eric Prensky, and Sarah Shelby. The amount of time spent with each supervisor will depend upon the specific clinical and research experiences in which the fellow is involved. All supervisors are actively involved in both research and clinical work themselves.

Entry Requirements : Successful completion of an APA-accredited doctoral program and APA-approved internship that includes substantial training in health psychology. All candidates must have completed Ph.D. prior to beginning fellowship. The fellow will be expected to begin the fellowship on or about July 1.

Salary and Benefits: The salary for the postdoctoral fellowship will be $30,000 for the year. Subsidized health benefits are offered including medical, dental and vision. An office, desktop computer and voicemail will be provided. Fellows have access to the Library of the Health Sciences of the University of Illinois as well as other campus resources.

To Apply: Send a CV, a statement of interest and goals, three letters of recommendation, graduate transcripts, a clinical report, and any research papers or reprints to:

Susan Labott, Ph.D., ABPP
Department of Psychiatry, MC 913
University of Illinois at Chicago
912 S. Wood St .
Chicago , IL 60612

Materials will be screened by a search committee and a select number of applicants will be invited for an interview, either in person or by phone.