Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Fellowship in Behavioral Medicine

The Neurological Institute, Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at the Cleveland Clinic offers a one to two-year postdoctoral fellowship with the major rotation (3 days/week) being in behavioral medicine within the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis and a secondary rotation (2 day/week) being within health psychology at the Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic is a world class academic medical center rated among the top 4 hospitals in America. The goal of this fellowship is to provide supervised, clinical opportunities for unlicensed graduates of psychology doctoral programs. This training includes psychological assessment and interventions with adult patients experiencing medical and psychological problems. The fellowship is outpatient-based and includes psychological consultations and diagnostic interviews, short-term psychotherapy, behavioral interventions, group and couples/family therapy.

Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research is a Disease Based Center, and is one of the largest and most comprehensive programs for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) care and research worldwide. The dedicated team of the Mellen Center focuses on addressing physical, emotional, cognitive and rehabilitation needs of the MS patient and their family members through a team approach. Our interdisciplinary center provides services in: neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychology, psychiatry, social work, neuropsychology and cognitive training.

Mellen Center providers are national leaders in basic and clinical research related to MS pathogenesis and medical management and have made major contributions in the development of drugs to control MS disease activity and progression. They provide consultative services for neurologists and patients’ world-wide and ongoing care for approximately 8,000 MS patients annually, including approximately 1,600 new patient/consult visits.

The postdoctoral fellow will build and maintain an active caseload of adult patients representing a broad range of diagnostic categories, presenting problems, socioeconomic status, and developmental life stages. The fellow will work under the close supervision of the Mellen Center staff psychologist and will receive at least one hour of individual supervision per week at Mellen Center.

Many opportunities for participation in research projects exist and fellows typically participate in writing journal articles and chapters, making poster presentations at national meetings, and presenting at Grand Rounds in a variety of departments. Time allotments will be arranged for research within our IRB approved research database. The fellow is expected and encouraged to participate in ongoing research, educative and didactic programs, and is expected to make one organized presentation at Mellen Center Didactic on a research or clinical topic of their choice. Fellows are encouraged to take advantage of the wide variety of educational opportunities at Cleveland Clinic.

The fellowship provides an annual stipend of approximately $ 48,500 with a cost of living increase in second year of training, as determined annually by the Cleveland Clinic Graduate Medical Education Department and the clinical health psychology fellowship center. Generous benefits include: individual supervision for licensure, extensive didactics, three weeks of paid vacation per year, stipend for travel/continuing education, generous individual/family medical benefits and dental insurance in second year of training. For more information on benefits please see: http://www.clevelandclinic.org/education/gme/benefits2.asp. It is expected that fellows will have completed their doctoral degrees prior to beginning the fellowship.

Applications are accepted from September 1 to January 1 of each academic year. Applicants must have completed all requirements for graduation from an APA-accredited Clinical/Counseling PhD or PsyD program prior to their September start date; there are absolutely no exceptions. Completion of an APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship in clinical or health psychology is required; health psychology experience is a must with absolutely no exceptions. Working within a comprehensive medical team is a plus. Applications require a letter of interest/intent, curriculum vitae, official graduate transcript, a clinical work sample, and three letters of recommendation. A letter from your program director attesting to the applicant’s status as a doctoral candidate is also required. Curriculum vitae’s and a letter of intent should be submitted electronically to Dr. Dana Brendza: brendza by January 1 of each academic year. Applicants invited for an interview will be asked to submit one packet containing paper copies of the following application materials: a letter of interest/intent, curriculum vitae, official graduate transcript, a clinical work sample, three letters of recommendation and a letter from your program director attesting to your status as a doctoral candidate. Completed packets are due by January 10 of each academic year.

Interviews for invited applicants are held in a group format in late January or February. Hiring decisions regarding appointments are typically finalized in early spring of the year with the actual appointments beginning in early September 2013 Any questions should be directed to: Brendzb