Practicum for Pre-Internship Doctoral Students 

Our patient population includes primarily adults and families presenting to family medicine clinics who are interested in health and wellness coaching, managing chronic disease, brief psychotherapy, bridge support to long term psychotherapy, and diagnostic clarification.  The population is ethnically diverse and from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. There is a wide range of medical and behavioral health diagnoses including diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, insomnia, obesity, chronic pain, tobacco use disorder, depression, anxiety, ADHD as well as other conditions.

Within the setting of an integrated family medicine clinic, the psychology extern helps patient to set appropriate health behavior and/or psychotherapy goals, and make progress toward those goals. Health behavior goals may include improving medication adherence, weight management and healthful eating, improving sleep, increasing physical activity, smoking cessation, and stress reduction. Psychotherapy goals may be related to mood management, diagnostic clarification, improving focus, managing anxiety, and more. Patients are generally referred by their primary care provider, but may also be self-referred or outreached through the clinic’s diabetes, hypertension, depression, or complex patient registry. Services are provided in-clinic, virtually, and telephonically during one-on-on meetings, co-consultation visits with the patient’s primary provider, precepting, in warm hand-offs, and through our EMR.  Readiness to change is assessed in all patients who express an interest in receiving additional support to tailor goal setting to their stage of change. Interventions may include, but are not limited to psychoeducation, MI, CBT, BA, ACT, DBT, diagnostic interviewing, and consultation with interdisciplinary team members. Opportunities may also exist for the psychology extern to observe and take part in quality improvement activities, education of medical students and residents, community engagement projects, and family medicine inpatient rounds.

The psychology trainee will work as part of a multidisciplinary team to support Family Medicine patients and medical providers. The psychology trainee listens to and works with patients and medical team members to collaboratively set goals, identify barriers to change, provide feedback on progress toward goals, and communicate via the electronic medical record with the patient’s medical teams.  Duties also involve providing personalized education on a variety of topics including but not limited to nutrition, physical activity, mood management, stress reduction, weight management, grief, adjustment to illness, and tobacco cessation. The psychology extern will also follow-up with patients either in-person, virtually, or by phone to check on progress toward collaboratively set goals and re-assess state of change and barriers to change.

• Ideally 16-20 hours per week.
• Thursday: 10-11AM Behavioral Health Team Meetings (if possible).

Training in behavioral medicine and health psychology a plus.  Prior experience or training in motivational interviewing preferred. Must demonstrate ability to multitask, problem-solve, and think critically.

Apply by 1/31/23 with a cover letter, CV, and letter of recommendation to shandra.brownlevey@cuanschutz.edu. Indicate which clinic(s) you are interested in: A.F. Williams, Boulder, Westminster, Centennial, Landmark, and Lone Tree.

All interviews will be conducted via ZOOM from 12:00 - 1:00 PM (MST) and will be held on the following dates:

• Monday, February 6, 2023
• Tuesday, February 7, 2023
• Friday, February 10, 2023

Please note:

The University of Colorado has a requirement for COVID-19 vaccinations and full completion thereof by 9/1/21 or upon start date. Information regarding this requirement, and exemptions (medical and religious) can be found here.

In addition, COVID boosters are required as of 1/24/2022.

For the latest COVID-19 news and protocols visit the Anschutz Medical Campus COVID-19 webpage.

UCHealth Primary Care - Lonetree is the second largest clinic in the UCHealth primary care system and features a highly integrated behavioral health team. We work closely with primary care providers and staff to meet patient needs. Services may include a warm-hand off during a medical visit, a scheduled initial evaluation, brief ADHD/bariatric assessment, brief therapeutic care. We are always available to consult, provide resources, or offer support. Clinic pace ebbs and flows and flexible individuals thrive in our clinic environment. We work with patients of all ages, with a wide variety of physical and mental health goals. We love to incorporate teaching and learning into our day-to day work and are passionate about adapting traditional behavioral health care to fit the primary care setting.

UCHealth A.F. Williams Family Medicine: Our clinic provides a wide range of integrated behavioral health services. These include psychotherapy, consultations, and brief ADHD/Bariatric evaluations. We work closely with our medical and nursing providers and typically respond to several warm handoffs a day and receive a similar number of daily inbox requests from our providers. It is a fun, fast paced, team- based care environment that is occasionally hectic. AFW has a rich training environment and we are fortunate to work with our Department of Family Medicine residents, DFM psychology externs, interns and fellows.

UCHealth Family Medicine- Boulder is an integrated primary care practice consisting of Department of Family Medicine faculty physicians, midlevel providers, 2 psychologists, psychology trainees, social work, care management, nurses, and medical assistants. We also work with physical therapy and multiple medical specialties who share the practice. The patient population trends highly educated, often employed or affiliated with the University of Colorado, and interested in behavioral health. The trainee’s role is to provide brief (6ish visits) therapy, and be available for point-of-care visits. The clinic pace is busy but also calm and with opportunities for deeper study and reflection.

The behavioral team at CU Family Medicine Centennial and Landmark offers a comprehensive integrated training experience. We provide psychotherapy, assessment, and consultation across the lifespan and work closely with family medicine and psychiatry. Dr. Kluger has expertise in pediatrics and chronic pain and Dr. Zisner has expertise in anxiety disorders (panic, phobias, and OCD) as well as CBT-i for insomnia and written exposure therapy for PTSD. We are passionate about providing an excellent training environment to support the flourishing of our learners both during and following their practicum with us. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us with any questions!

The Integrated Behavioral Health and Primary Care minor rotation at the UCHealth Family Medicine Westminster Clinic provides interns the opportunity to work as part of a multidisciplinary team in providing whole-person, patient-centered integrated primary care. UCFMW is a Level III NCQA Patient Centered Medical Home that serves patients of all ages. 

Within this model, clinical psychology interns serve as behavioral health providers (BHPs) who provide a range of services including: brief consultation, assessment, triage to appropriate levels of behavioral health treatment or care management, and brief therapy (5-6 visits). Interns also have the opportunity to work on new or existing clinical transformation or quality improvement projects, participate in grant writing, or participate in additional avenues to integrate behavioral health into primary care (shared or group visits, warm hand-offs, etc.)