The Adult Psychology track will offer two positions for the 2024-2025 training year. The interns work within the Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic of the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and our community-based specialty clinic, Hanover Psychiatry. The Adult Psychology track provides extensive training and supervision in the areas of individual and group therapy and in psychological assessment of adults. Interns work with a variety of presenting psychiatric disorders and have extensive opportunities to observe and work alongside professionals functioning as clinicians, researchers, administrators, and program developers. Interns deliver direct clinical services through the Anxiety Disorders Service and Mood Disorders Service within the Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic and a variety of medical subspecialty clinics through the Embedded Psychiatry Services.
The Anxiety Disorders Service specializes in diagnostic evaluation and delivery of cognitive and behavioral therapies for anxiety disorders, trauma-related disorders, and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders.
The Behavioral Medicine Service serves specific patient populations such as weight management, bariatric surgery, and sleep medicine. Interns will also get experience working with patients with chronic medical illness (e.g., cardiovascular disease). In addition to the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy, interns can also receive training in CBT-I, motivational interviewing, and acceptance and commitment therapy.
The Mood Disorders Service provides diagnostic evaluation and intervention for patients with primary mood disorders, including depressive disorders and bipolar disorders. Therapeutic approaches utilized include cognitive behavioral (CBT, CBAS, DBT) and integrative interpersonal. Training experiences at Hanover Psychiatry include psychological assessments and delivery of individual and group therapies for a variety of psychiatric disorders among a community patient population that includes members of the Dartmouth College and DHMC faculty, student, and staff communities.
The interns in the Adult Psychology track will spend the majority of their experience in clinical services, though extensive opportunities for collaborative research are also available.
Clinical training sites
Outpatient psychiatry at DHMC
DHMC is located in Lebanon, New Hampshire. DHMC is the regional academic medical center where faculty and trainees of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth provide direct care to patients from throughout New England. The Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic at DHMC is maintained by the Department of Psychiatry to provide child and adult services and manage the hospital's psychiatric inpatient and partial hospitalization units. Psychiatric emergency services are provided through the hospital's emergency department. Approximately 10,000 patients per year receive some type of service from one of the Department's units at DHMC. Approximately 4,000 adults and 1,300 children receive outpatient medication management and psychotherapy per year. Adult Psychology track interns spend a substantial proportion of their training year providing services to the DHMC population. DHMC is also considered the academic home of the internship program, and serves at the educational hub for the program. Interns complete their didactic training elements at DHMC as well.
Hanover Psychiatry
Hanover Psychiatry, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, is a community-based psychiatric and psychological practice offering evidence-based treatment and evaluation, and is a division of the Department of Psychiatry. The practice frequently provides services to Dartmouth College students and faculty, as well as members of the surrounding communities. All clinicians practicing and supervising at Hanover Psychiatry are faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, resulting in a team of highly skilled professionals who remain abreast of best practices in mental health services.
In addition to offering clinical services, Hanover Psychiatry staff clinicians are also involved in research projects, teaching and supervising junior faculty, residents, and interns. Treatment approaches utilized at Hanover Psychiatry include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), exposure and response prevention (ERP), mindfulness-based interventions, family-based treatment (Maudsley Approach), trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), relapse prevention, parenting skills building, and psychopharmacology. The Adult Psychology track interns spend up to two days per week at Hanover Psychiatry.
Embedded psychiatry services
The Department of Psychiatry also has integrated services into specialty medicine settings. Interns can gain experience working in gastroenterology, oncology and/or obesity medicine. Faculty and trainees in the embedded space provide a range of services from brief disease-specific psychotherapy, to pre-procedure evaluations and are active members of multidisciplinary teams. Opportunities to participate in program development and evaluation are also available.
Training faculty (adult psychology track)
Evan Bick, PsyD (William James College) – Dr. Bick joined the faculty of DHMC and Geisel School of Medicine in 2018; he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in mood and anxiety disorders at DHMC in 2017. He provides outpatient cognitive-behavioral therapy for adults for a variety of mental health concerns, with particular focus areas including psychotherapy for depression, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Additional areas of clinical interest include cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and anxiety.
Robert Brady, PhD (University of Arkansas) – Dr. Brady joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at DHMC and Geisel School of Medicine in 2014. He serves as the Training Director of the Psychology Internship and Fellowship Programs and Director of the Anxiety Disorders Service. His clinical specialty is the delivery of cognitive and behavioral therapies for anxiety and related disorders. He conducts research in the development and implementation of brief, scalable psychotherapies for anxiety and related disorders for delivery in nontraditional mental health settings.
Sarah Garnaat, PhD (University of Houston) – Dr. Garnaat will join the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at DHMC and the Geisel School of Medicine in 2023. She has expertise in the assessment and treatment of OCD and anxiety disorders, using behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapies. Her research focuses on the characterization of treatment-refractory OCD and the use of brain-based approaches, including noninvasive neuromodulation, to inform the development of novel treatments.
Keri Height, PsyD (University of Hartford) – Dr. Height has been an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at DHMC and Geisel School of Medicine since 2014. Her areas of expertise are in evidence-based psychotherapies for addictions, personality disorders, developmental disorders, stress related conditions, and eating disorders, as well as psychological testing. She is the Clinical Director of Hanover Psychiatry.
Sivan Rotenberg, PhD (Concordia University) – Dr. Rotenberg joined the faculty of DHMC and Geisel School of Medicine in December of 2016. She serves as the Director of the Behavioral Medicine Service and Embedded Psychiatry Services for Specialty Medicine. Her area of specialization is Health Psychology with an emphasis on weight management interventions and coping with cancer and other medical conditions. At DHMC, she provides embedded services through the Weight and Wellness Program and the Norris Cotton Cancer Care Pavilion Lebanon.
Jessica K. Salwen-Deremer, PhD (Stony Brook University) – Dr. Salwen-Deremer joined the faculty of DHMC and Geisel School of Medicine in 2018, and has appointments in Psychiatry and Medicine. She is embedded in the section of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, where she provides evidence-based treatments for gastroenterological conditions. She also has expertise in treatment of sleep disorders and chronic pain. Her research primarily focuses on understanding the relationship between sleep and pain in individuals with GI conditions or obesity.
Christopher Spofford, PhD (University of Massachusetts) – Dr. Spofford has been a faculty member at the DHMC and Geisel School of Medicine since 2016. He completed his post-doctoral training at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in 2012. In addition to his clinical responsibilities at Hanover Psychiatry and clinical supervisor in the internship program, Dr. Spofford also teaches cognitive-behavioral therapy to both psychology interns, post-doctoral fellows and psychiatry residents.
Lauren Szkodny, PhD (The Pennsylvania State University) – Dr. Szkodny joined the faculty at DHMC and Geisel School of Medicine in 2019. She specializes in evidence-based psychotherapies for adults presenting with anxiety disorders, trauma- and stress-related conditions, depression, and personality and relationship problems. Her academic interests include models of psychotherapy integration, and consideration of psychotherapy, therapist, and patient processes. Her research centers on enhancing assessment of anxiety and trauma-related processes.