Supervisor(s): Eric Aureille, Ph.D.
Location: Nashville VAMC
Clinical or Research Rotation: Clinical
Number of Positions Available: 1
Anticipated Number of Face-to-Face Clinical Hours per Week: 4-6 hours/week
Description: The PTSD Clinic is a specialty clinic, providing outpatient care to veterans who have been referred variously by mental health and medical providers (e.g., PCP). Veterans have typically, but not necessarily, served in combat, and range in age from 20s to 80s. Some patients have experienced military sexual trauma. Once a consult has been processed, veterans participate in a one session educational group, the objective of which is to inform prospective patients about PTSD and psychotherapy options. Veterans then complete a PTSD evaluation to assess treatment needs and generate recommendations. Next, cases are staffed with an interdisciplinary treatment team, and final treatment recommendations are made. Coping oriented and trauma-focused interventions are offered to individuals and groups.
Competency Goals: This rotation provides opportunities to improve skills in the following areas: diagnostic assessment, cognitive-behavioral therapy in individual and group modalities. Additionally, interns will enhance skills in functioning as a member of interdisciplinary treatment teams. Through Outpatient Psychology, there will likely be additional opportunities to treat psychiatric disturbances in addition to PTSD (e.g., major depressive disorder, panic disorder). Interns will gain experience in treating wide-ranging comorbid pathologies including: substance use, medical disorders and disabilities. Mobility ranges from ambulatory to wheelchair-bound. Finally, this rotation will enable interns to learn a “gold standard,” empirically based psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD, namely, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). Interns will be trained by Dr. Aureille, a certified CPT Provider.
Prerequisites: Experience providing cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy with adults is preferred.
Contact Information: Please contact Dr. Aureille at Eric.Aureille@va.gov or 615-873-6817.