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 several faculty in a structured interviewing course. This 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 of patients.   This panel includes both patients enrolled for medication management and/or short- or long-term psychotherapy. Due to our program structure, residents can follow some of the same patients for up to 3 years in clinic continuously.

Residents receive weekly guidance from an individual psychotherapy supervisor.  Our supervisors are skilled in a wide array of modalities, including Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,  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 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 psychotherapy seminar including psychoanalytic foundations, complemented by a 3-month series on evidence-based modalities.

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 one- to two-year psychodynamic certification through local psychoanalytic institutes.  Dedicated residents may also 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.