Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Residency
Curriculum

The curriculum provides a broad range of clinical and didactic training experiences which have been developed by the residency training committee team and continues to evolve based on fellow feedback.

First-Year Training Overview

In the first year, fellows build a strong foundation in child and adolescent psychiatry through immersive clinical experiences and robust supervision. They learn to conduct developmentally appropriate psychiatric histories and mental status examinations, as well as gather collateral information from families, schools, and primary care providers. These core skills support fellows in formulating differential diagnoses, biopsychosocial formulations, and comprehensive treatment plans.

Fellows rotate through a diverse array of clinical settings, including our child and adolescent inpatient units, consultation-liaison service, adolescent substance use program, and outpatient pediatric neurology and genetics clinics. A dedicated community rotation offers exposure to pediatric endocrinology and adolescent medicine clinics, as well as experiences in public school psychiatry consultation and therapeutic school-based care. Fellows also gain exposure to interventional psychiatry, including Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), and Esketamine treatment.

Therapeutic training is a central component of the first year. Fellows engage in major treatment modalities such as play therapy, brief and long-term individual psychotherapy, family and group therapy, crisis intervention, supportive therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. These experiences are supported by weekly individual supervision, group supervision, and close oversight from faculty committed to fellow development. Supervision is a cornerstone of our program—providing personalized feedback, case formulation guidance, and opportunities for reflection and professional growth.

Pharmacologic training includes comprehensive instruction on prescribing psychiatric medications for children and adolescents, with a strong emphasis on indications, dosing, monitoring, side effects, drug interactions, and safety.

By the end of the first year, fellows will be equipped to conduct thorough child and adolescent psychiatric evaluations, manage acute psychiatric crises, provide evidence-based treatment, and consult effectively with other medical services—all with the support of a rich supervision structure designed to foster clinical competence and confidence.

Second-Year Training Overview

The second year of fellowship builds on the foundation established in the first year, with a focus on increasing clinical autonomy, deepening therapeutic skills, and expanding leadership and teaching opportunities.

Fellows take on junior attending roles across a variety of settings, including our partial hospitalization programs, extended day treatment program, and emergency department rotation. These experiences foster greater independence in clinical decision-making while maintaining the support and guidance of experienced faculty.

Additional rotations include outpatient autism specialty clinics, where fellows observe ADOS assessments and participate in social skills groups for young adults with autism. Fellows also gain exposure through rotations in the pediatric metabolic clinic, further broadening their understanding of complex medical and psychiatric presentations.

Throughout the year, fellows maintain an outpatient caseload and continue to build expertise in psychotherapy. They provide care using a variety of modalities, including individual and family therapy, psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, play therapy, brief psychotherapy, and integrated therapy with medication management. To support their continued development, second-year fellows receive weekly supervision from two individual psychotherapy supervisors, offering tailored feedback and a diversity of clinical perspectives.

A defining feature of the second year is a four-month elective block, during which fellows are encouraged and supported to pursue clinical or research interests that inspire them. Fellows are mentored closely as they design individualized electives to align with their goals and passions.

Leadership and teaching are central to the second-year experience. Fellows mentor junior trainees, contribute to didactics, and participate in community presentations, academic conferences, and grand rounds—developing the skills essential for future roles as clinician-educators and academic leaders in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Didactic Learning

Administrative Psychiatry and Leadership (APL)

The Administrative Psychiatry and Leadership seminar series is a two-year curriculum led by course directors Dr. Malik and Dr. Joychan, covering a variety of topics essential for a child psychiatry fellow’s personal and professional development. Session topics may include:

• Systems of care and the child psychiatrist’s role as a leader, team member, and advocate
• Career planning, including job search, contract negotiation, interview skills, and a panel of guest speakers from various clinical settings
• Financial planning, including disability insurance and retirement planning
• Leadership skills, including conflict management, leadership qualities, communication styles, team building, and psychological safety

Advanced Principles of Child Psychiatry (APCP)

This is a two-year longitudinal course using problem-based and case-based learning to cover major diagnostic areas, as well as audio-visual presentations to review seminal articles and related neurobiology. Break-out groups in class promote active learning and allow the group to drive the treatment planning for the case.

Advanced Formulation

Sessions focus on broadening and deepening our understanding of our patients, by reflecting upon the culture, religion, and community that surrounds them.

Clinical Skills Verification (CSV’s)

To assist with meeting the Clinical Skills Evaluation requirements established by the ACGME and ABPN, our program creates opportunities twice yearly for our fellows to participate in CSV evaluations. We are fortunate to offer our fellows the oral board examination experiences with both school-aged children and adolescents. We host the multi-site CSV in the late fall, and we visit another local child psychiatry training program for the spring CSV, maximizing the diversity of our board examiner pool. We offer CSV preparation classes and provide opportunities for practice CSV’s to our fellows as well.

Craft & Art of Psychotherapy (CAP)

Using readings, case studies, and videos, this two-year longitudinal course utilizes a developmental perspective to cover the theoretical principles of child and adolescent development and explore the application of play therapy and other therapeutic modalities over the course of development.

Complex Case Conference

We have partnered with the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship programs at University of Connecticut Health, Creighton University Medical, and University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center to develop an interinstitutional case conference, where each program presents a complicated and unique case on a rotating basis via Zoom. A panel of experts joins the discussion as well.

Consultation Liaison Teaching Rounds (Ted Talk Tuesday)

Weekly class sessions occur during the four-month C/L rotation, in which the fellow or psychology trainee presents an interesting case, generating discussion regarding hypotheses and potential differential diagnoses. Following the case presentation, every participant returns the following week to give a 10-minute expert talk on their assigned question.

Continuous Case Conference

This monthly seminar is hosted by a psychotherapist/child psychiatrist who have expertise in infant mental health and parent consultation and are interested in the process of therapeutic change, integrating developmental theory with psychoanalytic theory. This instruction offers group supervision.

Family Therapy

This monthly course focuses on the principles and practice of working with children and their family systems. The major theoretical frameworks, including Structural Theory and Object Relations Theory, are reviewed. Techniques for each phase of the family therapy process are explored. The fellows learn through a combination of reading, discussion, role-play, case material, and videos how to apply the theoretical framework effectively in clinical practice.

Forensics

This two-year longitudinal course is dedicated to understanding the role of the child psychiatrist in clinical forensic child psychiatry. Lectures focus on teaching the legal and theoretical background of forensic practice. Faculty case presentations serve to illustrate clinical application to forensic practice and emphasize principles of advocacy.

Infant and Parent Mental Health

Seminar by Dr. Alexandra Harrison.

Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory

Taught by psychoanalysts, this course covers the development of psychoanalytic theory from early Freud to the present. Major developments in the field are discussed using selected readings. The focus is on an understanding of the essential features of drive, psychology, structural theory, ego, psychology, object relations theory, and self-psychology. Applications to clinical work across the lifespan are a constant feature.

Live Interview Course

This is a quarterly course allowing a variety of faculty to demonstrate an interview with a new child or adolescent, modeling different techniques for engagement while accessing the child’s life story as it relates to their current struggles. The fellows practice their formulation skills and review as a group the following week.

Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry

This seminar emphasizes the critical appraisal of current trends and controversies in the field. Special emphasis is placed on the interface of medical-legal and ethical issues. Fellows present papers that serve as a springboard for in-depth discussion.

Occum’s Razor

This is a monthly seminar focused on sharpening clinical thinking throughout a journey of exploration triggered by recent clinical experiences.

Psychopharmacology and Pharmacogenomics

This is a monthly seminar hosted by a pharmacy professor, an expert in pharmacogenomics, and a child and adolescent psychiatrist designed to review the basic and more advanced elements of prescribing and monitoring psychiatric medications. Discussion of clinical presentations, along with pharmacokinetic gene abnormalities and drug interactions, guide treatment planning. Clinical pearls are shared, and consultation is readily available.

Special Topics

This is an exciting two-year longitudinal seminar led by expert guest lecturers on a variety of current topics, including infant mental health, refugee mental health, sexual trafficking, cannabidiol oil research, and private practice.

Reactions to Patients – “T” group with Dr. D and Dr. S

The practice of child and adolescent psychiatry involves key skills of observing, listening, and taking note of our own affective experience. Since our patients and families often seek our help during times of crisis or instability, it is important that we recognize the emotional reaction that our patients’ circumstances evokes within us as clinicians. This course allows for an open, confidential, and nonjudgmental discussion of the challenges inherent in treating children and families, through dissecting our own emotional experience treating them. Each week a fellow presents a challenging case (from an affective or treatment standpoint) in order to learn about the way in which our reactions inform a deeper understanding of our patients and consequently our therapeutic interventions.

Youth Culture

This fun quarterly course uses the venue of viewing films or trending modalities (gaming, Tik Tok videos, etc) to examine current trends among today’s youth or clinically relevant topics. Fellows, with the support of a faculty mentor, discuss the role of development, culture, social media, peer influence, and community, and how they intersect to contribute to the youth’s presentation.