Our training program emphasizes a balanced psychotherapy experience that can be easily modified to individual learning goals.  The foundation begins in PGY-I, when interns learn interviewing skills from a several faculty in a structured interviewing course. There is a weekly program on our inpatient units, where rotating faculty teach different interviewing approaches through discussion and participation in live interviews.

Starting in PGY-II, each resident starts outpatient half-time and becomes established with their own panel.  From this panel, residents can select appropriate patients for short or long-term psychotherapy. If the resident does not have an appropriate candidate for a desired modality, one can be found within the wider clinic.  Due to our program structure, residents are able to follow the same patients for up to 3 years in clinic continuously.

Residents receive guidance from an individual psychotherapy supervisor.  Our supervisors are skilled in a wide array of modalities, including Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (including CBT for psychosis), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Family & Couples Therapy, and more.  Residents may also elect to participate in the DBT team and trauma-specific modalities. Our on-site supervisors are from variety of disciplines and train Harbor’s psychiatry residents, psychology fellows, and social work interns. PGY-II didactics also include a year-long seminar complemented by a 3 month series on evidence-based modalities and psychoanalytic foundations.

In PGY III, residents continue their half-time outpatient clinic and dive deeper into their existing cases as well as broaden their scope.  Some residents elect to pursue a two-year psychodynamic fellowship through a local psychoanalytic institute.  Dedicated residents may learn through psychotherapy cases in our child and adolescent clinic, which specializes in modalities such as Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for Adolescents.

PGY IV, residents may pursue psychotherapy electives at UCLA-NPI or other institutions by special arrangement.  Beyond the modalities mentioned above, there are clinics specializing in Couples & Sex therapy, evidence-based therapy for depression or anxiety, Attachment-Based Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, Interpersonal Therapy, Mentalization-Based Therapy, Psychedelic-Assisted psychotherapy, and more.