A defining feature of our didactics is the Harvard Consolidated Seminar Program. In this program, first-year fellows in the Harvard-affiliated child psychiatry training programs (Cambridge Health Alliance, MGH/McLean, and Boston Children’s Hospital) come together to participate in a 3-hour seminar program. Internationally renowned Harvard faculty are guest lecturers on a variety of topics in child mental health research, assessment and treatment.
First-Year Seminars
- Systems Issues
- Typical Development
- The Pragmatics of Child Psychiatry
- Introduction to Child/Adolescent Psychotherapy
- Introduction to Health Equity, Improvement, Scholarship and Leadership
- Introduction to Research Literacy
- Behavioral Therapies
- Assessment and Treatment in Child Psychiatry
- Evidence Based Medicine – John Hamilton, MD and Margaret Weiss, MD, PhD
- Harvard Consolidated Seminar Program:
- Child Development
- Child Psychopathology
- Health Equity, Improvement, Scholarship and Leadership
- Trauma Case Conference
- Inpatient Family Therapy Case Conference
- Family Therapy Seminar
- School C/L
- Forensics
- Parenting
- Telepsychiatry
Second-Year Seminars
- Learning How to Teach
- Immigration Issues and Asylum Evaluations
- Culture and Society
- Infancy and Attachment: Clinical Implications
- Gender and Sexuality Seminar and Supervision
- Clinical Scholarship
- School C/L Seminar and Supervision
- Child Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
- Play Therapy
- Neuroscience and Genetics
- Transitions to Practice
- Integration Seminar
- Ethics and Professionalism
- Health Equity, Improvement, Scholarship and Leadership - QI project
- Family Therapy (elective)
- Pediatric Psychopharmacology
In addition to the above seminars, first- and second-year fellows have twice-monthly training meetings with the program directors to discuss training issues, and also meet monthly with a facilitator Jeanne Heiple, MD, for a peer support group.
Family Therapy Training
Family Therapy is often a core component of any successful psychiatric treatment of a child or adolescent. The guidelines of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education, the Practice Parameters of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the recommendations of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Committee on the Family all underscore the role of working with families. To this end, the CHA child psychiatry fellowship offers a very strong grounding in Family Therapy training opportunities. These opportunities aim to provide fellows with a basic conceptual understanding of family therapy as well as a range of experiences across treatment settings with diverse families and family issues.
In the first year, fellows participate in a year-long seminar that introduces Family Therapy theory, assessment, and intervention. The seminar consists of didactics and observation of family consultations using a one-way mirror, with a daylong “Family Therapy Retreat” to wrap-up the academic year. The focus of this seminar is on acquiring basic knowledge, skills and attitudes in working with family systems.
In the second year, an advanced elective seminar is offered which provides clinical training in Family Therapy through case consultation and live supervision using a one-way mirror. Individual supervision for family therapy cases seen during both years of fellowship is offered by members of the faculty.
Fellows also participate in inpatient Family Consultations, conducted on both the Child Inpatient Unit and the Adolescent Inpatient Unit, and participate in a Family Therapy Case Conference.
Program in Psychodynamics
The Program in Psychodynamics is an elective opportunity for fellows in both years across all three Harvard Child Psychiatry Fellowship programs. Its goal is to foster the career development of fellows with an interest in psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychodynamic research, and psychoanalysis. The core activity is a monthly dinner meeting hosted by program faculty to discuss relevant topics in the context of case presentations. The program offers a flexible set of opportunities for enrichment in the Fellowship and two years post Fellowship. In collaboration with the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI), the Program in Psychodynamics allows fellows to enhance and deepen their psychodynamic interests and to integrate psychodynamic scholarship into the rigorous clinical training provided to all CHA child psychiatry fellows. Fellows may choose to pursue an elective with BPSI during their second year.
Teaching during Child Training
All our fellows are required to teach during their child training. Fellows have a hands-on, interactive "Learning to Teach" seminar in the summer of their second year. Theycan then choose teaching responsibilities based on their interests. In the past, fellows have co-taught seminars, taught medical students and general psychiatry residents on the inpatient units and outpatient evaluation teams, given lectures as part of standing seminars, supervised adult residents in their child therapy cases, developed curricula for public education, given talks in community settings, and helped organize and teach in CHA/HMS continuing medical education courses.
Gender and Sexuality Training
Throughout their training, fellows work to provide compassionate, competent psychiatric care to sexual and gender minority children, adolescents, and families. Second-year trainees work with a youth struggling with LGBTQ related issues in weekly psychotherapy. Trainees receive bi-weekly clinical supervision, teaching, and consultation in supporting care of this patient population.
Health Equity, Improvement, Scholarship, and Leadership (HEISL)
Our fellowship program aims to develop leaders in community child and adolescent psychiatry. To support fellows in this effort, we have created the Health Equity, Improvement, Scholarship, and Leadership (HEISL) curriculum within our program. Throughout both years of training, fellows will participate in seminars as well as group and individual projects to learn the knowledge, skills, and behavior required to be leaders in improving the health and care for families in need. Through a guiding framework of health equity, fellows will learn about important principles and practices such as: social determinants of health and structural competency, implicit bias, coproduction of healthcare, population mental health, value-based care, health disparities research, quality and performance improvement science, change leadership, and personal narrative and advocacy. The HEISL curriculum is structured around a 1.5 year-long group quality/performance improvement project targeting a barrier of health equity for our patients.