About Us

Clinical Psychology Residency Program

The Clinical Psychology Residency Program is a first year post-doctoral program located at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio Texas. The primary goal and mission of the program is to prepare post-doctoral military psychology residents to become licensed independent practitioners within the Army community and equipped to work within a variety of military settings.

A resident is defined as a student who has completed his or her dissertation and all academic and internship requirements for the doctoral degree to be conferred. The Army developed the residency year experience to give Army psychologists the time and supervision necessary to meet the licensure requirements. This also gives students the opportunity to expand their skills in the clinical and leadership roles that they will face as they move to other duty assignments. Generally, students continue at their initial internship sites to become residents. There are also occasions where an Army student will move to a different residency site. Also, Public Health Service psychologists have entered service and learned how to work in the military system through the residency program. Finally, candidates for direct accession may be considered for acceptance in to residency.

Application Process:

Currently, there is not a formal application process to attend the residency program given students generally transition from being pre-doctoral Army interns directly in to residency. However, if you are interested in joining an Army residency through the Public Health Service, you must contact the residency program director and your Public Health Service Recruiter to discuss this option. If you are interested in applying to residency through direct accession as an Army Officer, please contact an Army Healthcare Recruiter.

Overview of Program:

Training Model: A Practitioner-Scholar model guides the residency training at Brooke Army Medical Center, with an emphasis on clinical practice that is validated by empirical research. The program offers diverse training opportunities with both military and civilian populations. BAMC is a large regional medical center, so residents will have experiences unique to medical center settings, in addition to those more typical of traditional psychology training programs. Graduates leave the program with a wide variety of experiences, prepared to pursue careers as military psychologists.

Training Goal: To prepare post-doctoral military psychology residents to become licensed independent practitioners within the Army community and equipped to work within a variety of military settings.

Training Objectives:

  1. Make necessary administrative steps toward obtaining licensure.
    1. Take EPPP. All residents must pass before the end of the training year.
    2. Identify state for initial licensure and state licensing board requirements.
    3. Given some state requirements for supervision, licensure might not be obtained within the training year. However, residents will make all reasonable efforts to be as close to licensure as possible by the end of the year.
  2. Enhance and expand general clinical psychology skills.
  3. Expand military knowledge as an officer and psychologist. This will be accomplished by advancing the residents knowledge base in clinical areas relevant to the current military and providing didactics and practical experiences relevant to an Army Officer.
  4. Enhance clinical skills in individual areas of professional interest. This objective will be tailored to individual residents depending on their individual experiences, interests, needs, and the feasibility of requested training.

Total Hours Requirement: The purpose of residency is to progress toward licensure. Residents will complete 2000 hours, although it is expected they spend as much time as necessary to meet their training and EPPP study goals. Residents will obtain supervision requirements of the State they plan to be licensed in and develop a training program plan with the Residency Director to meet license requirements.

Description of Training Program

Residents will participant in five rotations throughout their training year. Four of these rotations will last three months each with the fifth Evidence-Based Treatment Rotation lasting the entire year, minus the time they are on the external rotation.

Administration Rotation

Residents will be assigned to the Warrior Clinic or Troop Behavioral Health Service for their Administration Rotation. The goals of this rotation are:

  • to expose residents to administrative duties of clinic chiefs and give them practical knowledge of how to organize and run a clinic. They will spend approximately 50% of their time on rotation performing administrative duties.
  • to allow residents to collect direct patient contact hours. Approximately 50% of the rotation time will be spent providing direct and indirect patient care.

During this rotation the residents will be supervised by the clinic chiefs or assigned faculty.

Clinical Consultation

Residents will be assigned to a BAMC medical clinic in order to complete their consultation rotation. The goals of this rotation include:

  • Provide behavioral health intervention within primary care and specialty care clinics.
  • Learn to function as a behavioral health consultant within the broader medical environment.

During this rotation, residents will serve as behavioral health consultants on multidisciplinary healthcare teams. They will learn to consult with other medical professionals on a variety of cases. By the end of this rotation, residents are expected to have an enhanced understanding of how to work with other medical disciplines in a productive manner and in a way that best promotes healthcare services for patients.

Advanced Military Assessment

Residents will work directly with various DBM assessment providers during this rotation. They will learn to conduct military specific psychological assessments including aeromedical evaluations, sanity boards, Medical Evaluation Board Evaluations to include Narrative Summaries and Temporary Disability Retirement List Evaluations, Command Directed Mental Health Evaluations, evaluations for specialty assignments, etc. Specific requirements for which assessments and how many must be completed will be determined and discussed with the resident at the beginning of their rotation. However, specific evaluation experiences are dependent on demand at any point in time. Apart from conducting actual assessment, residents are also expected to learn how to consult with requesting professionals, command, and patients as needed regarding the testing process.

External Military Rotation

Residents will spend up to 3 months embedded in a military unit. Specific sites will be selected based on availability of supervision, military clinical experiences available, and military and resident need. Rotation locations will be within Southern Regional Medical Command area.

The purpose of the external rotation experience is to enhance the residents' professional independence and military leadership abilities. They will be under supervision by licensed providers at their location, but will be expected to take appropriate initiative in activities, projects, and patient interactions.

Evidence-Based Treatment And Supervision Rotation (year-long)

Throughout their training year, residents will spend 1 to 2 days a week conducting evidence-based treatment with patients selected specifically to advance their clinical skills. Residents will be supervised in evidence based protocols for the treatment of PTSD, depression, insomnia/nightmares, and other disorders as they are available to be trained.

Within this rotation, residents will clinically supervise predoctoral residents conducting evidence-based treatments. The goal is for the residents to learn to be effective supervisors. Residents will be part of triad supervision teams where a licensed behavioral health supervisor familiar with the treatments will oversee the resident and predoctoral resident pair. Residents will be expected to conduct individual supervision to ensure protocol compliance, answer clinical questions, and oversee administrative documentation. Regardless of the resident's licensure status, the licensed behavioral health supervisor is ultimately responsible for the clinical care of the patient.

Didactics and Presentations: Many didactic opportunities are available to students throughout the training year. They participate with other postdoctoral students in classes on supervision, psychopharmacology, and other topics deemed appropriate. Residents also have their separate training blocks between rotations where they will learn more advanced clinical and assessment skills. They will also have military clinic administration classes to prepare them to assume a leadership role in a clinic setting, which they will likely experience in one of their first duty assignments.

Throughout the training year, workshops on various topics are presented by notable researchers and clinicians in their respective fields of psychology. These workshops are typically one to two days in length, and attendance is required.

Supervision: Residents will be supervised by staff members throughout the training year. A licensed psychologist is available whenever a resident is providing services to a patient. Each rotation has a primary supervisor who is responsible for overall coordination of the resident's work. Residents will have a minimum of 2 hours of individual supervision per week with many more opportunities for informal supervision. In addition to clinical supervision, all interns have a year-long preceptor.

General Information

Salary and Benefits -- Military residents are paid at the rank of Army Captain, or their service equivalent military rank. Residents also receive all military benefits and allowances, which include health and dental care for interns and their family members; paid annual leave, sick leave and federal holidays; and use of on-post facilities. Other benefits include EPPP release time, paid attendance at local workshops, and the opportunity to attend seminars presented by nationally known speakers at BAMC.

Fort Sam Houston Texas and Brooke Army Medical Center

Brooke Army Medical Center is located on Fort Sam Houston, which is in the center of San Antonio Texas. Not only is BAMC one of the largest military medical centers, it also is the location for the Army Southern Regional Medical Command. Information about BAMC can be found at the following website:

Brooke Army Medical Center Website

Fort Sam Houston is the home of the Army Medical Department, Army Medical Department Center and School, and is known as the "Home of Military Medicine" in that it hosts the training for most medical personnel in the Department of Defense. Specific information regarding Fort Sam Houston and the surrounding area can be found at it's website:

Fort Sam Houston Website

Questions

Contact the Residency Training Director at Brooke Army Medical: 210-808-2558

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