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Residency Training - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Didactic Courses

Download the didactic course schedule.

The didactic curriculum for both first and second year residents takes place on Wednesdays throughout the academic year and rotates between the Columbia and Weill Cornell/Payne Whitney Manhattan sites. Both the CAP residents and CAP Track residents join together for didactics. With the exception of the Grand Rounds, the courses which comprise the curriculum are organized sequentially by year of training.

Child Psychiatry Grand Rounds

First- and Second-Year Course: The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Grand Rounds are scheduled on Wednesdays from September to June on both the Columbia and Weill Cornell Campuses and is an integral part of the residents’ didactic curriculum. Both internal and outside scholars and investigators present their work. Approximately once per month the grand round is devoted to a clinical case conference presented by a child and adolescent psychiatry resident.

Introductory Summer Course

First-Year Course: An introduction to child psychiatry including assessment, diagnosis, classification, developmental principles, education and child abuse laws, psychological testing, principles of pediatric psychopharmacology and principles of psychotherapy is presented in lecture form supplemented with both live and videotaped patient interviews.

Development/Psychopathology Course

First-Year Course: This course begins with a review of normal development by age and stage with specific lectures on developmental topics such as attachment, language and cognition. This is followed by a psychopathology section in which the participants are exposed to the range of disorders seen during childhood and adolescence with an overview of therapeutic interventions. Faculty experts in the Divisions of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry contribute to this course. Clinical vignettes and videotapes complement the lectures.

Fundamentals of Child And Adolescent Psychotherapy

First-Year Course: The goal of this course is to introduce the resident to the basic, core therapeutic processes common to all child and adolescent psychotherapies. Through both experiential and didactic learning, the class aims to assist the resident in developing familiarity and comfort with managing common clinical elements and dilemmas inherent in working with children and adolescents. By providing a guiding atheoretical framework, the course is devoted to key issues and concepts that emerge starting with the initial phone contact, through the procedures and processes inherent in observation and assessment, to key therapeutic issues such as establishing an alliance, engaging patients of different developmental ages, and impasses, handling no-shows, confidentiality, and treatment termination. Throughout the course, a focus on self-monitoring and reflection is emphasized as the resident develops his or her clinical acumen and expertise.

Fundamentals of Pediatric Psychopharmacology

First-Year Course: This course reviews the major classes of psychiatric medications used in pediatric populations. Psychiatric indications of the various medications, appropriate medical evaluation prior to initiation and ongoing management are addressed through didactic and case based learning.

Developmental Neuroscience Seminar

First-Year Course: This seminar provides an introduction to translational developmental neuroscience taught by experts in the field from the Sackler Institute of Developmental Psychobiology. Topics reviewed include the adolescent brain and risk for depression, affective neuroscience, and imaging and genetics of autism and ADHD.

Introduction to Research Methods and Statistics

Second-Year Course: This summer course provides an introduction to statistics and research and facilitates the residents' ability to critically evaluate the literature.

Forensics

Second-Year Course: This course is a combination of a reading seminar and courtroom observation that begins at the end of the first year and extends into the summer of the second year. The reading seminar reviews forensic psychiatry, child custody, civil litigation, and the juvenile justice system. Residents observe typical activities in a family courtroom in Rockland County, New York under the supervision of a forensic psychiatrist one afternoon and one morning.

Adolescent Substance Abuse

Second-Year Course: This course includes a series of lectures on substance abuse and observational experience in a day program for substance abusing adolescents. Residents learn about rehabilitative strategies in adolescent populations and observe groups focused on recovery, motivational enhancement and relapse prevention.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy In Children And Adolescents

Second-Year Course: Building upon the first-year course on the fundamentals of psychotherapy, this second-year course teaches residents how to conduct psychodynamic psychotherapy with children and adolescents. Through a variety of media and interactive teaching activities, residents develop skill in recognizing and classifying defenses, working with common developmental challenges, and conducting developmentally appropriate psychodynamic psychotherapy. By applying a developmental perspective to case formulation and treatment planning, residents learn to choose and conduct age-appropriate therapeutic modalities including imaginative play, structured play, and talk therapy. Throughout the course attention is paid to working effectively with caregivers, identifying and managing countertransference, and integrating psychodynamic psychotherapy appropriately with other treatment modalities including medication, family therapy, and behavior therapy.

Empirically Supported Therapies

Second-Year Course: This course provides a review of the major studies of psychotherapy for child psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior disorders. Principles of behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy and dialectical behavior therapy are reviewed. Residents become familiar with the indication for and use of relaxation training, systematic desensitization, exposure/response prevention, conduct of an interpersonal inventory, techniques of affect regulation and interpersonal problem-solving skills.

Advanced Pediatric Psychopharmacology Seminar

Second-Year Course: 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. The discussion is facilitated by faculty experts.

Journal Club

Second-Year Course: In each journal club meeting, two residents in turn discuss an article published in a peer reviewed journal that they have selected in consultation with an assigned faculty discussant. Each journal club is organized around a particular topic which reflects an area of expertise of the discussant. The journal club exposes residents to important publications in the field of child psychiatry as well as enhances skill in critical appraisal of the literature.

Reading Seminar

Second-Year Course: The reading seminar provides an opportunity for residents to review concepts as they have developed historically in the area of development and child psychiatry through the review of the classical and modern literature. Several residents will be assigned articles to read, summarize and present during class to stimulate discussion.

Culturally Diverse and Special Populations

Second-Year Course: This is a series of lectures with invited speakers that address relevant issues affecting urban, culturally diverse, and special populations of children and adolescents. Themes as varied as substance abuse, school consultation, and AIDS are presented. Issues of culture, assessment, and policy incentives are discussed. Specific clinical and research interventions for African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American children are reviewed.