For Professionals

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training Program

The NewYork-Presbyterian Child and Adolescent Residency Training Program complements the residents’ clinical experiences with a comprehensive didactic curriculum that takes place on Wednesdays and runs sequentially across the first and second years of training.

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First-Year Didactic Curriculum

The foundational first-year curriculum covers the fundamentals of development, psychopathology, and therapeutics, with an emphasis on translating classroom learning into effective conversations with patients and families. Courses include:

This course establishes a foundation of knowledge and skills in child psychiatry, covering topics like assessment, diagnosis, developmental principles, psychological testing, educational law, mandated reporting, and principles of pediatric psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. Residents use these interactive sessions to prepare for their clinical rotations, and this series lays the groundwork for subsequent coursework.

This course serves as a review of normal development by age and stage, offering an in-depth exploration of topics like attachment, language, and cognition. The principles of development are also paired with a guided analysis of the range of disorders seen during childhood and adolescence, as well as an overview of therapeutic interventions. Faculty expertise lends clinical wisdom to these courses, during which residents review current literature and discuss clinical vignettes.

Over the course of the year, residents are introduced to the psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments for psychiatric conditions that affect children and adolescents. Specifically, the fundamentals of psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and family treatments are reviewed.

Second-Year Didactic Curriculum

The second-year curriculum builds on first-year topics through in-depth exploration of developmental neuroscience and evidence-based treatments, the development of advanced clinical skills, and guided professional development. Included in the curriculum are:

This course reviews the neurobiology of pediatric disorders and the pharmacological targets of psychotropic medications. All of the major pediatric psychopharmacology clinical trials are reviewed in a seminar format. Each resident is assigned a seminal paper to prepare to present to colleagues for discussion.

This course teaches second-year residents how to apply psychodynamic psychotherapy principles to their work with children and adolescents. In this interactive seminar, residents learn to recognize and classify defenses, work with common developmental challenges, and conduct developmentally-appropriate psychotherapy. Residents also hone their skills in using a developmental perspective in case formulation and treatment planning by choosing age-appropriate therapeutic modalities like imaginative play, structured play, and talk therapy. Throughout the course, residents also explore how to work effectively with caregivers, identifying and managing countertransference, and integrating psychodynamic psychotherapy with other interventions such as medications, family therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy.

This course examines the major empirically-supported psychotherapy modalities used to treat pediatric psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, and OCD. Residents explore the principles of behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents (IPT-A), and dialectical behavior therapy. Residents also become familiar with the indications for and the use of relaxation techniques, systematic desensitization, exposure/response prevention, interpersonal inventory, and affective regulation and problem-solving techniques.

This seminar series reviews topics in forensic child psychiatry and addresses ethical considerations in child and adolescent psychiatry.  The forensic lectures are supplemented with an introduction to the Bronx Family Court that includes courtroom observation and the assessment of court-referred youth.

This seminar offers residents the opportunity to present and discuss with colleagues and faculty articles that address the mental health disparities experienced by many children and adolescents.

This lecture series explores substance use and misuse among youth, and accompanies the residents’ observational experience at a treatment program for adolescents with addiction. Residents learn about rehabilitative strategies in adolescent populations.

This seminar offers a review of the contributions of developmental neuroscience to our understanding of normal development and of psychopathology that emerges during childhood and adolescence.

This series provides the second-year residents with panel discussions regarding academic, administrative, research, and clinical practice careers; a primer on risk management; guidance around interviewing for and securing jobs after training; and opportunities to develop skills related to supervision, management, and sustainable career development.

 

Additional Special Topics

  • Health Justice in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
  • Cultural Psychiatry and Mental Health Practice
  • Collaborative Care
  • Preschool Assessment
  • Board Review and Preparation
  • Scholarly Projects/Works-in-Progress

Contact Us


NewYork-Presbyterian Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training Program

Attn: Shamila Dilmaghani, MPA, Training Program Manager