Available for the 25-26 Training Year
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
The UCLA EMPWR (“empower”) Program provides specialized psychotherapeutic interventions to LGBTQ+ adults, youth, and their families dealing with stress and/or trauma in a safe and affirming treatment setting. Specialized individual, family, and group therapies build on personal strengths, foster healthy identity formation, and mitigate the consequences of stressful and/or traumatic experiences. The EMPWR Program implements a multidisciplinary model, closely integrating psychology and psychopharmacology training. The rotation is hosted at the UCLA Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR) Clinic. Examples of common issues addressed:
– Support around sexual orientation and/or gender identity development
– Recovery from trauma, bullying, and/or discrimination
– Exploration of social and/or medical transitions
DAY, TIME AND LOCATION:
Team meeting & didactics: TBD based on interns’ schedules
Clinic: Tuesdays 9AM-12PM, Wednesdays 9AM-5PM, Thursdays 9AM-5PM
Group: Wednesdays 5:30-6:30PM (8 week sessions)
A Floor, Semel Institute for Neuroscience
HOURS PER WEEK:
3-6 hours
DURATION OF ELECTIVE:
6 months
FACULTY & SUPERVISORS: Andy Tabuenca, PhD – Clinical Director
Nicole Hisaka, PsyD
Natalia Ramos, MD
TRAINING PROVIDED:
The elective offers trainees the opportunity to gain specialized training in evaluating and treating LGBTQ+ youth within a multidisciplinary (psychology/psychiatry) team led by experts in trauma, resilience, and LGBTQ+ issues. Trainees will conduct comprehensive evaluations of clients presenting with complex psychiatric and psychosocial needs. Trainees will deliver direct patient care under attending supervision, receive weekly supervision, and participate in a weekly team meeting that combines group supervision and didactics pertaining to the field’s established best practices for affirming LGBTQ+ care, sexuality and gender related minority stress, and trauma. Trainees will also expand their knowledge of psychopharmacological management of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Individual psychotherapeutic interventions offered include trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), CBT for anxiety and depression, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) skills training for improving emotion regulation. Structured family interventions include Family-Focused Therapy (FFT) and Families Overcoming Under Stress (FOCUS), a brief, 8-session, evidence-based intervention to reduce psychosocial stress and improve functioning and resilience within the family system for LGBTQ+ teens who are experiencing mental health symptoms.
The elective also offers the unique opportunity to co-facilitate the LGBTQ+ Teen Resilience Skills Group and/or the Parent/Caregiver Resilience Group. The teen group teaches tangible CBT skills to foster resilience and improve functioning in stressed youth (ages 12-17) over eight weeks. The parent group provides psychoeducation about identity, CBT skills, and parenting strategies applied to parenting LGBTQ+ youth to increase overall family support of teens’ identities.
Sessions are co-facilitated with an experienced group leader and directly supervised by attendings, who also provide individual feedback. Group co-facilitation is optional for this elective. For more information, contact EMPWR@mednet.ucla.edu
DIVERSITY TRAINING:
The UCLA EMPWR (“empower”) Program provides specialized psychotherapeutic interventions to LGBTQ+ youth, adults, and families dealing with stress and/or trauma in a safe and affirming treatment setting. The rotation offers trainees the opportunity to gain specialized training in evaluating and treating gender and sexual minority patients within a multidisciplinary (psychology/psychiatry) team led by experts in trauma, resilience, and LGBTQ+ issues. Specialized individual, family, and group therapies build on personal strengths, foster healthy identity formation, and mitigate the consequences of stressful and/or traumatic experiences. Common issues addressed include support around sexual orientation and/or gender identity development, recovery from trauma, bullying, and/or discrimination, and exploration of social and/or medical transitions. Patients often present from around the state, affording trainees additional opportunities to work with patients from myriad backgrounds. Trainees deliver direct patient care under attending supervision, receive weekly supervision, and participate in a weekly team meeting that combines group supervision and didactics pertaining to the field’s established best practices for affirming LGBTQ+ care, sexuality and gender related minority stress, and trauma. The elective also offers the unique opportunity to co-facilitate the Teen Resilience Skills Class and Parent/Caregiver Resilience Class.
SUPERVISION PROVIDED:
Method of Supervision: Direct Observation, Case Presentation
Format: Individual and Group
Hours Per Week: 3-6
Days and Times: Individual and case supervision available Wednesdays 9AM-5PM, Tuesdays 9AM-12PM and Thursday 9AM-5PM; Group therapies occur on Wednesdays 5:30-6:30PM (24 weeks/year)
Names of Supervisor(s): Andy Tabuenca, PhD, Nicole Hisaka, PsyD, and Natalia Ramos, MD