Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences | Psychology Fellowship

Boston Children's Hospital is one of the largest pediatric hospitals in the world, and the primary pediatric teaching hospital of the Harvard Medical School. The Boston Children's Hospital Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences consists of more than 300 psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, and trainees in the various disciplines. The psychology program at Boston Children's Hospital offers a variety of postdoctoral fellowship opportunities that blend traditional training approaches in child and family treatment, assessment, and consultation with state-of-the-art approaches to problems in pediatric psychology. We offer fellowships across a variety of sites to allow for specialized training within focused areas of interest as well as training in general core competencies of professional psychology. Applicants are welcome to apply to one or multiple fellowship openings across the program. The deadline to apply for fellowship is Dec. 11, 2023. The training year is Sept. 2 through Aug. 31.

The following training programs regularly offer one or more postdoctoral fellowships in psychology. Additional programs may offer fellowships on an intermittent basis. Please view our program brochure for more detailed information about each fellowship being offered in the coming training year.

We participate in the Universal Psychology Postdoctoral Directory. After following the link, enter "Children's Hospital" under "Agency Type" and "Massachusetts" under "State/Province" to find our current fellowship offerings.

Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Program (CNP)

The Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Program (CNP) provides multidisciplinary care for children with congenital heart disease and their families. Our patients include those with critical congenital heart defects requiring open heart surgery in the first year of life, children with acquired heart disease, and those needing cardiac transplants. Many of our patients have comorbid genetic syndromes, such as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and Noonan syndrome, as well as other low-incidence medical and neurological conditions. Patients typically present with complex neurodevelopmental profiles and functional impairments ranging from mild to severe. Increased rates of autism spectrum disorders and other social cognition deficits are present, as are high rates of attention and executive function challenges and cognitive and learning impairments. Psychosocial adjustment difficulties are also common, including behavioral dysregulation, anxiety, and depression. Our program provides comprehensive behavioral health assessment, consultation, and treatment services starting in the prenatal period to reduce maternal stress, continuing with newborn and young infant neurobehavioral consultation during the inpatient hospital stay, and transitioning to the outpatient setting after hospital discharge with evaluation and treatment services. CNP’s multidisciplinary team includes experts from the fields of psychology, infant and early childhood mental health, cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, education, genetics, and neurology.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program (DHHP)

The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program (DHHP) primarily provides psychological and neuropsychological assessments to children with reduced hearing. Fellows in DHHP are part of the cochlear implant (CI) team. They complete interdisciplinary CI pre-surgical candidacy evaluations and provide psychological support for the families through this process. The interdisciplinary team includes neuropsychologists/psychologists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, otolaryngologists, and developmental behavioral pediatricians. Training activities also include involvement in ongoing clinical research and opportunities to supervise/mentor undergraduate research assistants.

Developmental Medicine Center (DMC)

The Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital is dedicated to improving the lives of children and adolescents with developmental, learning, and behavioral difficulties and their families through integrated and collaborative clinical care, training, clinical and translational research, neuroscience, and community engagement and collaboration. The interdisciplinary staff comprises developmental-behavioral pediatricians, child psychologists, educational specialists, nurse practitioners, neurologists, and child psychiatrists; in addition, there is the opportunity to consult, as needed, with specialists from a variety of programs, including the Speech-Language Pathology Program, Sleep Program, and Division of Genetics and Genomics. Postdoctoral fellows are involved in direct clinical service, including diagnostic assessments, consulting, and short-term treatment, as well as research. Training is offered through a variety of possible six-month rotations (e.g., Infant and Toddler Team, Adoption Team, Down Syndrome Program).

Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS)

The Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS) is a state-of-the-art clinical program that provides individualized, safe, and affirmative care to transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) young people and their families. Boston Children’s has been consistently rated as one of the top children’s hospitals in United States for the past 10 years, and the GeMS program was opened in 2007 as the first gender affirming clinic for youth in the country. We provide comprehensive medical and behavioral health care and support for children and youth between the ages of 3 and 25. We strongly believe in a team approach to care, and our interdisciplinary team includes social workers, psychologists, medical providers, and trainees across several disciplines. We train postdoctoral fellows to be leaders in clinical care, teaching, and research. Trainees leave our program prepared to work in a variety of healthcare settings both within and outside the field of pediatric transgender health.

Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Program (LEAH)

The Boston Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) Program offers a one-year pediatric psychology training fellowship in the multidisciplinary Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine. The fellowship includes providing empirically based treatment in the eating disorder programs and the outpatient mental health program. Treatment is provided in a primary and specialty care setting that addresses a range of presenting challenges including psychiatric disorders, domestic violence, substance use, and diversity and gender issues. The program offers intensive interdisciplinary curricula, including seminars in adolescent health, advocacy, public policy, and prevention. The fellowship consists of clinical training in pediatric psychology, teaching responsibilities, and participation in ongoing research.

Neuropsychology

The Neuropsychology Program at Boston Children's Hospital offers a two-year, full-time fellowship that provides training in clinical neuropsychological assessment of children and clinical research. Training activities include clinical service delivery, didactic teaching, and research. The Postdoctoral Residency Program is a member of the Association of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology. The program is designed to conform to Houston Conference guidelines for training in neuropsychology and prepares candidates for board certification in clinical neuropsychology. The goal of our program is to prepare for independent specialty practice in pediatric neuropsychology.

Pain Treatment Center (PTC)

The Pain Treatment Center is a multidisciplinary program specializing in pediatric pain management. Psychology fellows develop skills in the assessment and treatment of a wide range of chronic pain conditions. The Pain Treatment Center includes specialty programs focusing on chronic headache evaluation and treatment and intensive day hospital pediatric pain rehabilitation. Physicians, physical therapists, psychologists, nurses, and fellows work collaboratively on a clinical team to address the complex problems faced by these patients and their families. The Pain Treatment Center fellowship consists of clinical training in pediatric pain management, direct clinical care of patients in outpatient and inpatient settings, and participation in ongoing research. Fellowship focus is approximately 75 percent clinical and 25 percent research.

Pediatric Integrated Primary Care and Trauma and Community Resilience Center

A partnership between Children's Hospital Primary Care Center (CHPCC) and Boston Children’s Hospital's Trauma and Community Resilience Center (TCRC) offers a one-year fellowship. CHPCC is partnering with the Refugee Trauma and Resilience Core of the TCRC around Project Epic (Enhancing Pediatric Integrated Care), an initiative aimed at implementing Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) and components of its adaptation for refugees and immigrants (TST-R) to increase access and engagement of ethnocultural youth and families specifically within our primary care program. The TCRC works to support providers and service systems in delivering exceptional, effective care to refugee and immigrant youth and their families through research, resource development, intervention development, and training. The psychology fellow will hone their skills in the delivery of a broad range of clinical services within an integrated pediatric medical home, along with specialized skills in TST/TST-R to raise the standard of care for refugees, immigrants, and other vulnerable populations. The fellowship includes clinical training, and participation in seminars and lectures in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Primary Care programs at Boston Children’s. Clinical activities include consultation with patients/families, medical providers, social workers, and other interdisciplinary staff; diagnostic assessments and delivery of brief, problem-focused treatment with patients and their families, representing a range of diversity with respect to presenting behavioral health and medical concerns, family characteristics, and sociocultural factors; and guardianship evaluations with young adults with significant developmental disabilities. The fellow will also be trained in TST/TST-R and provide clinical services as part of the Project EPIC clinical team.

Pediatric Psychology Fellowship In Gastroenterology

The psychology service in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition provides outpatient mental health assessment, consultation, and treatment services to patients diagnosed with a wide variety of gastrointestinal illnesses. By the end of the training year, the Pediatric Psychology Fellow in Gastroenterology will be well versed in working with patients diagnosed with chronic medical conditions. The fellowship also provides extensive exposure to many of the presenting problems commonly seen in this population of patients, some of which include adjustment to illness/diagnosis, management of acute and chronic pain symptoms, treating anxiety and/or depressive symptoms that present as a result of medical illness, and assisting families in navigating the complexities associated with parenting a child diagnosed with a gastrointestinal condition. Given this training, those who complete this fellowship will be well prepared to pursue employment as either a generalist or illness-specific pediatric psychologist in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Referrals to the GI psychology service are made by pediatric gastroenterologists providing treatment to patients diagnosed with disorders of the gut-brain interaction (e.g., functional abdominal pain, irritable bowel syndrome, rumination disorder), inflammatory bowel disease (i.e., Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis), celiac disease, and feeding disorders. The fellowship consists of clinical training in the psychological assessment and treatment of pediatric gastrointestinal conditions. Training is provided in the context of different specialty programs within the department, including the Functional Abdominal Pain Program, the Growth and Nutrition Program, and the Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder Program. These programs are multidisciplinary in nature and consist of a team of psychologists, social workers, nutritionists, and physicians. Although primarily a clinical position, about 20 percent of the fellow’s time will be spent participating in either a program development, quality improvement, or applied research project.

Psychiatry Consultation Service (PCS)

The Psychiatry Consultation Service provides consultation-liaison services for children, adolescents, young adults, and families facing challenges related to medical illness and hospitalization, including new diagnoses, chronic illnesses, acute medical or psychiatric crises, and difficulty coping with hospitalization. The consultation-liaison service model is based on the biopsychosocial framework and provides a range of services during inpatient medical or surgical admissions, including diagnostic and emergency evaluations and short-term therapeutic interventions. The fellowship consists of clinical training in pediatric psychology consultation-liaison models, including assessment and follow-up, provision of psychoeducation, support for caregivers, liaison with multidisciplinary teams, and a variety of treatment interventions. Trainees are also involved in an applied clinical research project during the fellowship year.

For general program questions, please contact:

Mrs. Courtney Kellogg
Manager, Training Programs in Psychiatry & Psychology
Boston Children's Hospital
300 Longwood Ave., BCH 3022
Boston, MA 02115
courtney.kellogg@childrens.harvard.edu