Internship Elective

Family Development Program (FDP)

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

The Family Development Program (FDP) provides evaluation, consultation, prevention and treatment services for families who are facing early life medical challenges with their infant, including high-risk pregnancies and NICU stays. The mission of FDP is to enhance the ability of family members to care for themselves and each other, and to cope with stressors while bonding with their infant. The rotation provides interns with specialized experience in the following areas:

-Bedside and phone consultations with families currently admitted to the NICU

-Individual weekly outpatient therapy with caregivers

-Couples therapy

-Group Therapy

Interns will receive training in brief and long-term individual and dyadic interventions and will learn to recognize and respond to the unique challenges of parenting medically complex infants and navigating medical trauma during the transition to parenthood. FDP’s family-centered approach allows clinicians to tailor trauma-informed treatments to include partners (e.g., couples therapy) and infants (e.g., attachment-based and dyadic therapy). Interns will attend weekly case conference and didactics. Additionally, live supervision will be provided for outpatient psychotherapy cases. Interns who are interested and available may also attend weekly multidisciplinary rounds with the NICU team and assist in providing consultation and training to NICU staff.

Day, Time, and Location

• Didactics (required): Thursdays 11:30am – 12:30pm

• Case Conference and Clinic (required): o Tuesdays 12:30pm -5:00pm OR

o Thursdays 12:30pm – 5:00pm (preferred)

• NICU Psychosocial Rounds (optional): Tuesdays 11am – 12pm

Location:

Nathanson Family Resilience Center, 300 Medical Plaza

Hours per week:

Approximately 4-6 hours

Faculty and Staff:

Catherine Mogil, PsyD

Blanca Orellana, PhD

Sierra Kuzava, PhD

Duration of elective:

6 months

Training provided:

Two opportunities: 1) Interns will see 1-2 individual and/or couples cases as well as family consultations. 2) Interns can choose a blend of group therapy, NICU rounds and family consultations.

Supervision Provided:

Method of Supervision: Direct observation and case presentation

Format: Individual and group

Hours per week: 2

Days and Time: Supervision and team meeting is on Thursdays 11:30-12:30 (plus clients/group on Tuesday or Thursday)

Names of Supervisors:

Blanca Orellana, Ph.D.; Catherine Mogil, Psy.D.; Sierra Kuzava, Ph.D.