Student Opportunities

McLean Hospital has educational opportunities for college graduates, undergraduate researchers, medical students, and students at Harvard University.

Post-Baccalaureate Clinical Fellowship Program

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:

• McLean-Franciscan Child and Adolescent Inpatient Program and McLean-Franciscan Community Based Acute Treatment Program for children 4-14 years old
• 3East Cambridge Transitional Residence, a program for women 21 and older, focusing on community reintegration, guidance in everyday life, and transition to adulthood
• 3East Girls Intensive and Step-Down Programs, specialized residential care for female adolescents struggling with self-injury, emotion dysregulation, and suicidal ideation
• 3East Boys Intensive Program, a specialized residential program for male adolescents also struggling with emotion dysregulation, self-injury, and suicidal ideation
• 3East DBT Partial Hospital Program, specialized care for adolescents struggling with self-injury, emotion dysregulation, and suicidal ideation
• Belmont Adolescent Partial Hospital Program, a day program for adolescents struggling with mood and anxiety, and other diagnoses, utilizing strategies based on cognitive and dialectical behavior therapies
• McLean SouthEast Adolescent Acute Residential Treatment Program, for teens 13-19 years old who struggle with everyday functioning, such as going to school, difficulty maintaining friends, sadness, substance misuse, etc.
• McLean SouthEast Adolescent Inpatient Program, for teens 13-18 years old who need crisis evaluation and stabilization, including medication management
• OCDI Jr., a specialized residential program for children 10-17 who have a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder
• PediMIND Program, a research program devoted to greater understanding of the brain/behavior mechanisms underlying common, impairing child psychiatric disorders—including bipolar disorder, irritability, suicide, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), and others

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.

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, and professional boundaries and ethics.

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).

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.

McLean Mental Health Research Summer Program

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:

• Mentored basic science or clinical research experience in a laboratory at McLean Hospital
• Workshops to teach and promote strategies for scientific success
• Outreach and community engagement in collaboration with McLean’s Brains Matter outreach program

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.

How to Apply

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:

• Online application, including a one-page personal statement – Online application
• Unofficial transcripts can be sent via email to @email
• Two one-page letters of recommendation – Submit

Applications are due by March 15, 2021. Six undergraduates will be selected in April.

With any questions, please contact @email.

Medical Student Education

McLean Hospital offers opportunities for medical students interested in pursuing elective studies in psychiatry.

Harvard Medical School

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.

Non-HMS Medical Student

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.

International Medical Students

Students from international schools may learn more regarding the exchange program for international medical students on HMS’s website.

Harvard Student Opportunities

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.