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McLean Hospital has educational opportunities for college graduates, undergraduate researchers, medical students, and students at Harvard University.
The Simches Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at McLean Hospital offers a two-year Post-Baccalaureate Clinical (PBac) Fellowship Program for college graduates interested in pursuing a career in mental health. This guided, entry-level professional experience is shaped by the four pillars of McLean Hospital’s mission: excellence in clinical care, groundbreaking state-of-the-art scientific investigation, training the next generation of mental health professionals, and serving the hospital and our communities.
Led by Fairlee C. Fabrett, PhD, the PBac Fellowship Program includes a two-year, full-time paid position as a community residence counselor in one of the following programs:
The fellowship is a two-year, forty-hours-a-week, full benefits eligible position in one of the programs participating in the fellowship. Working in the same program for the length of the fellowship allows the fellow a thorough experience of the therapy provided and a closer connection with the staff.
Some of the fellowship opportunities are with the McLean-affiliated children’s programs at Franciscan Hospital. These fellows are employed, paid, and have the benefits of Franciscan Hospital staff. They participate in all the educational and service programs of the fellowship.
While the programs share the mission of caring for children, adolescents, and their families, each has a different approach to treatment and set of interventions based on the population and diagnoses they treat. For instance, the 3East programs use dialectical behavior therapy as their main mode of treatment, while OCDI Jr. utilizes exposure and response prevention therapy. Other programs use a variety of trauma-focused interventions, cognitive behavioral strategies, anxiety interventions, and more. Each program also has a different set of expectations and schedules. For example, fellows working at OCDI Jr. tend to work day shifts, while McLean SouthEast fellows tend to work evening shifts and fellows at Franciscan have overnight shifts.
Accepted fellows are hired into a program where they spend the two years of the fellowship. Initially, fellows attend one week of orientation addressing a variety of topics, such as the different levels of care in a mental health environment, understanding how to work with a multidisciplinary team, essentials of group therapy, crisis management, professional boundaries and ethics, and basics of cognitive behavior therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, exposure response prevention therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy.
During the fellowship years, fellows participate in program-specific training and supervision along with other program colleagues. In addition, fellows join in a monthly professional development and education seminar where they learn from world-renowned clinicians about different therapy modalities, therapeutic strategies, and diagnoses (depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, attention deficit disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder). McLean staff also conduct seminars on topics such as child development, ethics and boundaries, success as a young professional, and quality improvement research being conducted in various settings.
Later in the fellowship, seminars focus on professional development and provide exposure to opportunities in a broader context, such as the various clinical degrees, law and mental health professions, health research, public health and policy, and technology and psychiatry. Fellows also receive guidance on career options and support around graduate school applications, including earned recommendations.
Finally, fellows provide service to McLean and/or the community at large via a partnership with the Office of Public Affairs. They will participate in, or even help plan, events in coordination with the NAACP, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and McLean’s own nationally recognized Deconstructing Stigma project—to name just a few of the exciting opportunities.
Applicants interested in the 2021-2023 fellowship should submit a current curriculum vitae, letter of interest, and one letter of recommendation from a faculty member.
If you will have completed your bachelor’s degree and are able to start a full-time commitment around March 2021: Apply online.
If you are interested in starting in July 2021: Apply online.
Applications are due by March 5, 2021. For more information, please contact Fairlee C. Fabrett, PhD.
The McLean Mental Health Research Summer Program (MMHRSP) seeks to engage scientific curiosity, create research opportunities, and promote academic success in mental health research for promising young Black, Indigenous, and underrepresented people of color (BIPOC) interested in pursuing a career in research or have not yet explored the possibility.
This 10-week (June-August) paid summer research program offers a top-notch research experience to undergraduate BIPOC students currently in a two- or four-year college/university. Our overarching mission is to increase representation and diversity in critical areas of mental health research.
This intensive, full-time, hands-on mental health research experience involves three components:
Students participate in laboratory research remotely, in-person, or as a hybrid, pending McLean’s COVID-19 policies. Students also join workshops on how to use various data analysis and statistics software, such as Image J and Prism.
Students are mentored by current principal investigators and research fellows who recognize the importance of cultural competency in science education and have experience working with trainees from populations underrepresented in STEM and higher education.
The program offers support so students may attend and present their work at a scientific conference, such as the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science and the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. These conferences are an opportunity for students to present their research work at a scientific meeting and enhance their professional development skills. These meetings create a welcoming scientific community where students can be their whole self. Universities across the nation attend to recruit minority students to their graduate programs.
Interested junior or seniors in a four-year university or second-year students in a community college who reside or attend college in Massachusetts should submit the following materials for application:
Applications are due by March 15, 2021. Six undergraduates will be selected in April.
With any questions, please contact mmhrsp@mclean.harvard.edu.
McLean Hospital offers opportunities for medical students interested in pursuing elective studies in psychiatry.
Harvard Medical School (HMS) students interested in an elective at McLean Hospital may learn more on the HMS website. For more information, please contact the HMS Registrar or contact John B. Roseman, MD, director of Medical Student Education at McLean.
Students from other medical schools may apply for an advanced fourth year elective at McLean Hospital through the Harvard Medical School Registrar. HMS does not offer elective opportunities for non-HMS students prior to the fourth year of medical school.
Students from international schools may learn more regarding the exchange program for international medical students on the HMS website.
Harvard University offers a number of programs which can be fulfilled via McLean Hospital.
The Scholars in Medicine Program allows students to carry out a faculty mentored scholarly project as a graduation requirement.
The Program in Neuroscience, a PhD training opportunity, provides students with the instruction, research experience, and mentoring they need to become leaders in research and education.
Harvard College undergraduate students may coordinate an independent study at McLean.