Universal Psychology Postdoctoral Directory

Elements of quality clinically focused postdoctoral training

Please note that Behavioral Medicine at Cooper University Health Care offers a variety of postdoctoral fellowship tracks. You are reading the description for the generalist track focused on combined experiences in inpatient medical consultation-liaison psychology and outpatient integrated care services. Please review our additional listings for further information on our positions in infectious disease, psych-oncology, and other specialties.  

About Cooper University Health Care 

About Cooper University Health Care (CUHC) is an academic medical center anchored in Camden, NJ and serving all of South Jersey. At the heart of the medical center, and just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, is Cooper University Hospital (CUH), South Jersey’s only level one trauma center and 635-bed public hospital. We are also a level two pediatric trauma center as well. In addition, CUHC operates over 100 ambulatory clinics, the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, 2 urgent care centers, and is affiliated with the Cooper Medical School at Rowan University. In total, Cooper’s nearly 9,000 team members, 700 physicians, 400 APP’s, 325 Physicians in residency and fellowship and our staff care for nearly 2 million patients each year, many of whom live in disadvantaged areas in Camden. 

Post-Doctoral Fellowships in Behavioral Medicine 

The post-doctoral fellow in Behavioral Medicine will service our inpatient medical CL and outpatient integrated primary service and have the opportunity to train in other elective areas including critical care, inpatient psychiatry, women’s health, trauma, cardiology, and pediatrics. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with numerous other health care professionals across a variety of specialties, including hospital medicine, trauma, neurology, hematology and oncology, addictions medicine, psychiatry. Points of intervention include individual and group work with patients and families, as well as direct collaboration with other providers. The fellow will also have the opportunity to work with the newly formed Compassion and Resiliency Experience (C.A.R.E.) Council to provide wellness-related education and other support to providers and staff throughout the health system. 

For additional information about the Division of Behavioral Medicine please visit https://www.cooperhealth.org/services/behavioral-medicine. Learn more about the C.A.R.E. and other wellness initiatives at http://wellness.cooperhealth.org/ 

Position Description 

The post-doctoral fellow will provide psychological consultation and psychotherapeutic intervention for patients and families in both medical inpatient and outpatient settings. The successful candidate will provide evidence-based brief interventions including but not limited to CBT, ACT and mindfulness-based approaches with demographically diverse patients and family members presenting with an array of psychological concerns from adjustment issues to depression and anxiety, as well as serious mental illness and PTSD. The fellow will work in collaboration with, and provide consultation to, a multidisciplinary medical team. It is also expected that the fellow will participate in daily operations of various clinics and mental health team; collaboratively work to maximize disposition efficiency for patients with psychological diagnosis; ensure intradepartmental mental health care is practiced in accordance with best medical practice for mental health challenges and emergencies; collaboratively work to institute appropriate changes to improve patient/employee/third party satisfaction; review and revise billing procedures to potentially improve revenue cycles; design and pilot research protocols and programs in order to contribute to the emergency services literature. The successful candidate will also assist in ensuring that mental health emergency procedures meet JCAHO/CMS credentialing requirements and that best care practices are followed, which includes providing any needed ongoing education for emergency department personnel. 

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Provides individual clinical care to patients with health psychology concerns including, but not limited to, adjustment to illness, managing chronic illness, adherence to treatment regimen, pain management, sleep concerns. 
• Engages in comprehensive assessment to confirm psychological diagnosis. 
• Faithful implementation of empirically supported interventions for health psychology targets including, but not limited to CBT, ACT, MBSR, and Motivational Interviewing. 
• Case conceptualization skills will be highlighted during fellowship year. Expectations for applicants include a strong ability to conceptualize from the appropriate theoretical orientation, though all conceptualizations should relate back the interaction of individual factors with medical conditions. These formulations should include etiological factors and maintaining factors, which should then transition naturally into your treatment plan and how you will address these factors to improve physical and psychological wellbeing. 
• The individual should be able to meaningfully and effectively build relationships with leadership and frontline physicians, nurses, residents and students. The candidate will engage in regular direct communication with all staff as well as patients and their families. 
• Provide patient risk assessment and recommendations. 
• Provide consultation as well as liaison services in a busy medical clinic. 
• Create group programming as appropriate for medical patients across a variety of clinics. 
• Serves as a mental health liaison across various medical clinics. 
• Develops and maintains referral relationships with community-based behavioral health providers to assist in timely psychological and psychiatric support for patients needing referrals for longer term mental health needs. 
• Provides consultative support to caregivers seeking referral to appropriate behavioral health providers, including education about most efficient and effective use of behavioral health resources. 
• Develops original presentations and trainings as needed to cover areas such as stress management, self-care and provider wellness. 
• Participate in on-going Behavioral Medicine research; initiation of new projects, work toward procurement of internal and external grant-funding; participation in professional presentation at national conferences; work toward publication of Behavioral Medicine research. 
• Represent Cooper locally, regionally, and nationally at conferences-presenting emergency. Work collaboratively with other institutions to share best practices and program strategies. Oversee data collection and maintain database. Submit publications to peer reviewed journals in collaboration with the Division of Behavioral Medicine 
• Provide secondary supervision for Behavioral Medicine externs and interns as applicable. 

• Mandatory Psy.D./Ph.D. in Clinical or Counseling Psychology 
• Must have completed an APA accredited Psychology Internship 
• Must have applied for or be prepared to apply for New Jersey permit (if necessary, this depends upon current number of supervision hours) 

Other Preferred Qualities 

• Health Psychology experience 
• Experience working in an acute hospital setting as well as experience with acute psychiatric conditions 
• Excellent oral and written communication skills 
• Ability to work independently and exercise sound clinical judgment 
• Ability to work in cooperation with multidisciplinary medical team 
• Strong organizational and management skills