The Child and Family Therapy Clinic provides a one -year postdoctoral fellowship training in the diagnosis and treatment of childhood behavior disorders and family dysfunction. An additional second year is available for trainees looking to further their professional development before starting independent practice.
The Child and Family Therapy Clinic is an outpatient clinic with a mission to provide high-quality evidence-based treatment to children and families exhibiting a wide range of behavioral and emotional problems. We have offices located in Baltimore City, Columbia (Howard County), and Odenton (Anne Arundel County), Maryland. Common problems treated in our clinic include disruptive behavior problems, ADHD and impulse-control difficulties/executive functioning difficulties, anger-management/aggression, parent-child conflicts, parent-teen communication difficulties, depression, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, fears, phobias, panic, school-related difficulties, adjustment-related problems, stress management, emotion-regulation difficulties, mild self-harm, poor coping, and family transition issues. Families may also present with unique stressors surrounding concerns regarding their child or adolescent’s behavior that include divorce/separation, bullying, peer conflict, military deployment, transition to a new environment, or lack of social support. The clinic serves children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 20. Therapy modalities include family therapy, individual therapy, and group therapy, all within Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Functional Family Therapy (FFT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) frameworks. Our team consists of clinical psychologists with credentials in both areas.
The Child and Family Therapy Clinic training program prepares postdoctoral fellows to function as psychologists in a wide range of mental health and medical/hospital settings. The fellowship, part of a multi-disciplinary pediatric hospital, is designed to increase both depth and scope of pediatric psychology experiences and clinical skills before embarking on independent careers in the field on a trajectory toward leadership. The fellowship provides advanced in-depth and multifaceted training and experience in the context of a busy and specialized team of clinical psychologists, doctoral interns, pre-doctoral externs, and interdisciplinary colleagues, with attention paid to the special training interests of the fellow (i.e., interest in particular presenting issues, age groups, etc.).
Fellows participate in both group and “tiered” supervision as they provide peer review and mentoring to doctoral externs and undergraduate practicum students. Additionally, fellows attend numerous training activities, including a variety of CFT Clinic didactics on applying ACT, CBT, DBT, and FFT orientations to cases and consultation groups for DBT and FFT, departmental professional development seminars, and hospital-wide (KKI and JHSOM) presentations.
Fellowship opportunities include:
- Providing individual, family, and group therapy to patients and their families
- Group therapy currently includes Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills based groups and Cognitive Behavior Therapy skills based groups focused on interpersonal effectiveness and social anxiety exposure
- Training within a multidisciplinary pediatric hospital where fellows collaborate with other KKI and JHH faculty and staff on shared cases
- Collaborating with our legal team to increase expertise when dealing with issues related to a child’s school success, abuse and neglect, child custody, and subpoenas
- Consulting with school staff and other service providers including psychiatrists, primary care physicians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech and language therapists
- Obtaining advanced training in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Functional Family Therapy (FFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with trained and certified licensed psychologists in each of these areas
- Training in CBIT (Cognitive Behavior Intervention for Tics) with certified CBIT staff psychologists
- Specialized training in working with military families, including problems that often accompany deployment and other military stressors
- Several weekly didactics within the postdoctoral program as well as clinic wide
- Presentation opportunities both within the clinic as well as outreach to groups, including schools, focus groups, parent groups, pediatricians, and other outside agencies
- Developing an emerging leadership role within a large multi-tiered outpatient clinic
- Advanced training and leadership opportunities are available in a wide variety of domains for second year fellows
To Apply:
The Kennedy Krieger Institute is affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Medicine and does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, or religious affiliation. Interested candidates must have a Ph.D. or Psy.D. in Psychology (e.g., clinical, school) from an APA-accredited program, must have completed an APA-accredited Doctoral internship, and must have their dissertation defended prior to August 1, 2020.
Please send a cover letter, CV, degree verification form, three letters of reference (can be sent directly from letter writers), and transcript to psychology@kennedykrieger.org. Application review will begin as soon as CV and cover letter are received.