The Texas Child Study Center, a collaboration of Dell Children’s Medical Center and the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School is offering two full-time Pediatric Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship positions for the 2022-2023 training year. A third fellowship offering may also become available later in the year, pending additional funding. Applicants may apply to one of our three primary training concentrations. Clinical training activities will take place within hospital, specialty care, and community-based primary care clinics provided by the Psychology Service at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

Fellowship applicants are encouraged to apply to only one of the following 3 training tracks:

  1. Inpatient Medical Consultation-Liaison Service Concentration
  2. Developmental Disabilities/Autism Concentration
  3. Pediatric Primary Care Behavioral Health Concentration

Inpatient Medical Consultation-Liaison Service Concentration

The C/L Service provides mental/behavioral health services to medically ill children and adolescents (and certain adults) within all of the inpatient services of Dell Children’s Hospital. Psychologists and trainees provide consultative and liaison services from a behavioral medicine perspective with a focus on (1) helping children and their families cope and adjust to acute and chronic medical illness, (2) assessing and managing anxiety/depression, emotional upset, or other maladaptive responses associated with their hospitalization, (3) identifying psychopathology when present, and (4) collaborating with team members from an interprofessional perspective to make appropriate treatment recommendations. The C/L Service is an integrated program, meaning that psychology and psychiatry work together directly to determine how best to support the Dell Children’s inpatient population. Psychology attendings and trainees work alongside psychiatry fellows and their attendings as an integrated service for both straightforward and more complex cases. In addition to benefitting patients and families, an ancillary advantage of the preceding is that learners in both disciplines are afforded the opportunity to learn soft skills from one another through varied interviewing styles and lines of questioning, clinical formulation and organization of differential diagnoses, exposure to additional feedback sources to highlight blind spots, and supervision and feedback from an attending in a different discipline. Learners’ supervision is integrated into the service within morning rounds/case presentations, pre-encounter huddles, intra-encounter modeling and reflective practices, and post-encounter debriefings.

Developmental Disabilities/Autism Concentration

This postdoctoral fellowship concentration takes place within the Dell Children’s  Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics service, a specialty outpatient clinic that provides diagnostic evaluations, consultation, and therapeutic interventions for children with developmental and behavioral concerns. Primary referral concerns typically include autism, developmental delay, ADHD and follow-up for infants and children up to age 14 who are at risk for developmental delay due to premature birth or other perinatal events. This program collaborates with speech therapists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists from Dell Children’s Rehabilitative Services, in addition to the psychological services through the Texas Child Study Center. Postdoctoral fellows work as part an interdisciplinary team to offer a multidisciplinary approach to the diagnosis and monitoring of children with neurobehavioral conditions such as ADHD, autism, speech/language disorders, dyspraxia and developmental delay. The clinic also provides developmental follow-up for NICU graduates and children with Down Syndrome. Fellows will also learn to use evidence-based interventions, including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), as well as cognitive-behavioral interventions for children and their families. They receive live supervision and see preschool and school-age children presenting neurodevelopmental disabilities and co-occurring internalizing or externalizing disorders. In addition to training to provide these interventions, fellows are also expected to engage in collaborative clinical practice and interdisciplinary training with medical residents on rotation in clinic.

Pediatric Primary Care Behavioral Health Concentration

This fellowship training experience takes place within a hospital-community partnership that extends behavioral health services to primary care settings in the Greater Austin Community. Training in integrated behavioral health services is prioritized but fellows also have opportunities to participate in co-located and telebehavioral health modes of care, serving five community-based primary care clinics. Clinical services consist of warm handoffs and well child consultations, diagnostic screening, psychoeducation, parent consultation, brief intervention and problem prevention, as well as direct consultation with pediatricians and the medical team. Fellows learn how to adapt evidenced-based behavioral health assessment and treatment models to meet the needs of a pediatric community clinic context. In addition to behavioral health service delivery, the fellow also gains experience tailoring services toward child clinical populations with potential or emerging issues who are in need of prevention, early identification, or early intervention. The primary care fellow is expected to contribute to the training of psychology interns and other clinicians in training who are learning evidence-based modular interventions for the primary care setting. The fellow will also participate in co-facilitation of physician psycho-educational seminars and dissemination of behavioral health resources. Opportunities for tiered supervision will also be incorporated, with the fellow providing some level of direct clinical supervision and training for psychology interns and advanced doctoral practicum students.

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Structure

Fellows dedicate 60% of their clinical time to their major training concentration/rotation and 30% to a chosen minor, such outpatient therapy, consultation/liaison services, Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT), or one of the hospital embedded pediatric subspecialty care clinics. Major concentrations consist of 12-month placements, while minor rotations can be either 6- or 12-month placements. In addition to these patient care oriented experiences, postdocs participate in Training and Professional Development Activities 10% of the time. Specifically, these include professional development seminars and formal training in evidence-based care. Further, postdocs are expected to dedicate a portion of their Training and Professional Development time to EPPP study and test preparation and scholarly development activities.

This is a 12-month appointment at a salary of $53,760. In addition, healthcare benefits will be paid by our organization. The Postdoctoral Fellowship year will begin on the first of September and end twelve months later. An additional option to apply for a second year of post-doctoral training is possible, if the fellow presents research or more specialized training goals that warrant extended training. Fellows receive the standard vacation and sick time afforded to professional staff at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School. If you have questions about the position, the financial offer, benefits package etc., please feel free to contact the Co-Directors of Psychology Training, Dr. Sasha Jaquez (sdjaquez@ascension.org and Dr. Ankita Krishnan (ankita.krishnan@ascension-external.org).

Applicants from underrepresented groups and/or with Spanish language ability are encouraged to apply. Employment is through the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School.

A fully completed application includes:

  1. A letter of interest indicating your preferred training concentration, specific training goals and interests, and eligibility for post-doctoral fellowship (i.e., internship completion date, current dissertation status)
  2. Curriculum Vitae
  3. Three letters of reference.

To be eligible, applicants must have competed (or are scheduled to complete) an APA-Accredited Doctoral Internship in Psychology. Applicants are expected to have completed all doctoral requirements, with confirmation of dissertation completion and degree conferral prior to the start of the fellowship start date.

Please send all materials together within a single application email, preferably within a single pdf document. Fully completed applications should be sent to TCSC Education Coordinator, Mr. Jeff Daily at Jeff.Daily@austin.utexas.edu. Application materials will be accepted through December 15, 2021.

The Texas Child Study Center strongly values diversity and believes in creating an equitable, hospitable, appreciative, safe, and inclusive environment for all staff, trainees, and families. TCSC welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds and believes that a diverse training environment contributes to the overall quality of the program. Applicants who are bilingual in English and Spanish are encouraged to apply. TCSC provides equal opportunity to all prospective applicants and does not discriminate because of a person’s race, color, sexual orientation, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other factor that is irrelevant to success as a psychology intern. The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School is the employer for this position and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

About the Texas Child Study Center

The Texas Child Study Center was created in response to the need for pediatric mental health services and training for future mental health practitioners in the Austin area. The Center is a collaboration between Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas and The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School and all psychologists are employees of the medical school. The Center resides directly on the main campus of Dell Children’s Medical Center within a state of the art, newly designed clinical space. The Center provides evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents with emotional, behavioral, and developmental disabilities, ranging from adjustment difficulties to more chronic conditions including major mental health diagnoses, mood, and developmental disorders. Providers collaborate with physicians at Dell Children’s Medical Center to provide psychological support to children coping with acute and chronic medical conditions. Patients seen at the Center come from all socioeconomic strata and ethnic and racial backgrounds.

About Dell Children’s Medical Center

Dell Children’s Medical Center (DCMC) is located in Austin, Texas and it is the only freestanding pediatric facility in the region. DCMC is a member of Seton/Ascension Family of Hospitals, has 176 beds, and serves a 46-county area. The hospital earned the world’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Healthcare (LEED-HC) platinum designation from the U.S. Green Building Council. DCMC values the healing power of the environment and includes a large collection of art, a three-acre multi-level Healing Garden, and several courtyards and gardens that represent eco-systems in the Central Texas Region. The mission of Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas is to improve the quality of life and health of children through family centered and family-oriented care, regardless of the family’s ability to pay for care. Central to this mission is developing partnerships with other organizations that share the mission and vision and providing educational activities that are synergistic with provision of care and meeting community needs.