The UT Southwestern Psychotherapy Concentration provides clinical and educational experiences for UTSW psychiatry residents interested in developing advanced psychotherapy skills and scholarship.

This concentration supplements our residency’s robust core psychotherapy training. Depending upon their clinical interests, residents have the option to focus upon a specific therapeutic modality or gain experience in multiple modalities.

Clinical Training

Concentration residents begin their psychotherapy electives during their PGY-3 year. Because of the depth of our faculty’s expertise, our program provides a broad range of educational experiences at diverse clinical sites, including the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University’s psychiatry outpatient clinic, the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and community health clinics.

In addition to psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT), more specialized modalities offered include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, and Exposure Response Prevention. Trauma-focused therapies such as Prolonged Exposure Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy are also available. 

Mentoring

Concentration residents are paired with a psychotherapy mentor, who will help their mentees develop personalized career goals.  Mentors are selected based upon the individual resident’s clinical and career interests.

Research

Residents can participate in ongoing clinical trials that focus upon psychotherapeutic interventions within medical populations.

Scholarly Activity

Residents work with their mentors and the concentration director to develop a scholarly project. Past projects include a CBT-based group therapy intervention for patients with eating disorders, psychotherapy practice habits of UT Southwestern residency alumni, and a survey of psychotherapists’ attitudes towards and experiences of telehealth psychotherapy.