Clinical Health Psychology Fellowship Program | Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine

The Clinical Health Psychology Post-Doctoral Fellowships program aims to train competent, independently practicing Clinical Health Psychologists who will be well prepared to pursue a Clinical Health Psychology career in a hospital, healthcare setting, or academic medical center and to pursue board certification in Health Psychology. The training program offers two focus tracks: primary care and weight management. Learn more about the program (PDF)

Clinical Rotations

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Behavioral Medicine and Primary Care Psychology Clinic (BMPC)

The Behavioral Medicine and Primary Care Psychology (BMPC) Clinic is an assessment and treatment clinic focusing on primary care and specialty health psychology. This clinic serves the behavioral health needs of patients being treated in primary care as well as patients from specialty medical clinics without direct access to health psychology services. Patients referred to the BMPC clinic have a variety of presenting problems including adjusting to physical health conditions and/or treatments, mental health concerns (e.g., depression, anxiety), or engaging in healthier habits (e.g., smoking cessation, improved sleep, increasing physical activity).

Plank Road Clinic

The Plank Road Clinic is a free-standing outpatient, ambulatory Froedtert Health primary care clinic with three specialties (med/peds, family medicine, and internal medicine). A busy primary care clinic serving both children and adults with all presenting concerns. Fellows will serve as a behavioral health consultant for adult patients and perform empirically validated health psychology assessments and brief interventions. They will be available for warm hand-offs of primary care patients, ongoing brief behavioral health care, and consultation on behavioral and mental health concerns of primary care providers.

Bariatric Surgery Clinic

The Bariatric Surgery program is an outpatient, ambulatory Froedtert Health surgical specialties clinic with a multi-disciplinary approach to weight loss. It is co-located with the Metabolic Weight Loss Management program. This is a busy clinic serving teens, adults and geriatrics from diverse backgrounds and often complex medical issues, including diabetes/endocrine, pre-transplant, pre-orthopedic surgery, pulmonary and cardiac issues. Fellows will conduct evaluations for post-bariatric patients and eventually pre-bariatric patients. There will be opportunity to supervise graduate students and health psychology residents for group therapy.

Metabolic Weight Loss Management Clinic

The Metabolic Weight Loss Management program is an outpatient, ambulatory Froedtert Health endocrinology clinic with a multi-disciplinary approach to weight loss for patients who are either not candidates for bariatric surgery or who choose to not pursue bariatric surgery. This is a busy clinic serving teens, adults and geriatrics from diverse backgrounds and complex medical issues. Fellows will conduct evaluations for metabolic weight loss patients as well as ongoing brief behavioral health care for metabolic weight loss patients and consultation on behavioral and mental health concerns of various health care professionals including endocrinologists, bariatric surgeons, dieticians and advance practice providers.

Didactics and Supervision

Fellows will spend the bulk of their time in a specialized clinical area, with time set aside for receiving individual supervision and providing group supervision (one half day per week), as well as for didactic seminars and work on their empirically-based health psychology project (one half day per week).

Each fellow will work with two different major supervisors, receiving two hours of individual supervision per week. The nature of the supervision will be direct observation, case review/discussion, and at times co-treatment with a supervisor (e.g., seeing patients together in a primary care setting). Supervision at each rotation will begin with direct observation and will evolve into case review and discussion as the fellow demonstrates greater levels of development across competencies.

View the Schedule (PDF)

Meet the Director | Heidi F. Christianson, PhD, MS

Heidi Christianson, PhD Dr. Christianson completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dr. Christianson provides psychological services including assessment, psychotherapy, and consultation at the Clinical Cancer Center at Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Christianson works with the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program performing pre-BMT evaluations and follow-up psychological care as patients cope with the resultant behavioral and health restrictions associated with the bone marrow transplant process. She also helps patients address adjustment to illness, psychological disorders co-existing with cancer diagnosis, complicated patient and/or family situations, and maladaptive behavioral coping strategies. In addition to direct patient care, Dr. Christianson collaborates with the Froedtert Grace Clinic Staff on early screening and intervention for psychological distress and quality of life throughout the cancer treatment process.

Learn more about Dr. Christianson

Application Process

Qualified applicants will have graduated from an APA-accredited graduate program in clinical or counseling psychology. Applicants should have all degree requirements completed prior to the start of the Clinical Health Psychology Fellowship Program. Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin encourages applicants from under-represented minority groups, women, and those with disabilities to apply.

Based on qualifications, a select group of applicants will be invited to interview in person. Applicants who do not meet required qualifications will not be considered for an interview and will be provided with proper notice. Interviews will be offered to applicants based on meeting qualifications and being identified as a good fit for the Fellowship. Notification of interview status will be given no later than January 1.

The application rolling deadline is December 15.

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Employment Eligibility Requirements

The Medical College of Wisconsin has eligibility requirements for employment. According to the Wisconsin Caregiver Law, any employer identified as a caregiver institution must conduct background checks. On background checks, applicants must disclose all crimes and offenses including all civil forfeitures, misdemeanors, ordinance violations, or fines. Applicants will also need to disclose any pending charges for crimes or offenses including civil forfeitures, misdemeanors, ordnance violations, or fines. Failure to disclose this information on your application or misrepresentation of a disclosure will be considered falsification and will remove you from eligibility for employment. Please refer to the Wisconsin Caregiver Background Regulations and the list of Offenses Affecting Caregiver Eligibility to determine disqualifying events. All disclosures will be evaluated for relevancy to the job.

Required Qualifications

Completion of a PhD or PsyD from an APA-accredited doctoral program in clinical or counseling psychology
Completion of degree requirements prior to the start of fellowship
Strong core clinical/counseling psychology psychotherapy and assessment experience
Strong background in health psychology in internship/residency and/or practicum (e.g., hospital, academic medical center, integrated primary care)
Interest in pursuing career in health psychology

Preferred Qualifications

Interested in pursuing board certification in Clinical Health Psychology
Primary clinical experience/interest with adults
Experience with empirically validated treatment approaches
Experience with health psychology behavioral interventions
Strong assessment background with experience in health psychology assessment

Required Materials

Curriculum vitae illustrating past clinical and relevant research experience
Graduate transcript
Three letters of recommendation

Stipend, Benefits and Accreditation Information

Stipend

The current annual stipend is $50,000.

Benefits

View benefit information on the MCW Human Resources website.

Accreditation Statement

Non-accredited. Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditations:

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditations
American Psychology Association
750 1st Street, NE, Washington DC 20002
(202) 336-5973 | apaacred@apa.org | APA Website

Meet Our Core Faculty

Courtney Barry, PsyD

Assistant Professor

Areas of interest/experience: Create and evaluate programs that highlight integration of mental and physical health. Topics of interest include: acceptance and commitment therapy, trauma, and residency education.