Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Pediatric Psychology Clinic and Consultation Service (PPCS) Program provides postdoctoral fellowship training in pediatric psychology as part of the Kennedy Krieger Institute professional psychology training program in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHSOM). The PPCS fellowship training program is designed to increase both depth and scope in the context of a busy and specialized team of pediatric psychologists, doctoral interns, and interdisciplinary colleagues, with attention paid to the special training interests and needs of the fellow (i.e., interest in particular patient populations, settings, units, clinics, etc.). It prepares postdoctoral fellows to function as psychologists in a wide range of health care settings and across a treatment continuum including: the acute medical hospital (e.g., PICU, school-aged and adolescent units), pediatric medical subspecialty clinics, and outpatient psychology clinic. Additionally, fellows have the opportunity to attend numerous training activities, including PPCS team didactics, departmental professional development seminars, departmental Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (EDI) seminars, and hospital-wide (Kennedy Kreiger and JHSOM) presentations. Fellowship training is currently available for first or second year fellows.

Successful applicants must have completed an APA-accredited internship with an emphasis in pediatric psychology.

Pediatric Psychology Fellowship (1-2 positions): The fellow will gain experience in staffing inpatient C/L, interdisciplinary medical clinics, and outpatient pediatric psychology care.

Primary components of this training position include:

  • Providing pediatric psychology services in at least 2 interdisciplinary medical clinics.  Based on the fellow’s interest, clinic options could include: Limb Differences Clinic, Sleep Clinic (Pulmonary or Neurology), Diabetes Clinic, Angelman Syndrome Clinic, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) Clinic, Genetic Bone and Connective Tissue Disorders Clinic, Rehabilitation Clinic, or Concussion Clinic. Additional opportunities in post-COVID Clinic, Sickle Cell Disease Clinic, or Fit & Healthy Kids Clinic may be available. Clinic rotations could be a full year or for 6 months, based on fellow interest.
  • Providing inpatient consultation-liaison services to Johns Hopkins Hospital pediatric floors (acute medical), assisting faculty psychologists with administrative duties, and scaffolded supervision of psychology doctoral interns in this setting.
  • Providing outpatient therapy services in the Pediatric Psychology Outpatient Clinic to pediatric patients presenting with a variety of medically-based referrals, including children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and comorbid medical concerns. Common referrals include desensitization and procedural preparation for medical procedures, behavioral pain management, coping with new diagnoses, improving regimen adherence and disease self-management (i.e., SCD, POTS, diabetes), behavioral sleep management, mental health conditions (i.e., depression, anxiety) impacting medical conditions, addressing functional neurological symptoms, and shaping functional behavior in child and adolescent rehabilitation patients. Fellows will have the option of seeing outpatients at the main hospital campus in Baltimore or at a satellite clinic in Columbia, Maryland (located between Baltimore and Washington DC), based on their preference. Opportunities for outpatient caseload specialization in chronic pain, POTS, rehabilitation, neurodevelopmental disorders with comorbid medical concerns, and/or sleep are available, pending fellow interest.
  • Developing an emerging leadership role in an assigned pediatric subspecialty clinic (e.g., coordination of psychology services & referrals, consultation regarding inpatient admissions, liaison to medical providers and interdisciplinary team, administrative duties, mentoring of psychology doctoral interns).

Secondary components of this training position include:

  • Assisting with the training of doctoral interns (e.g., didactic presentations, scaffolded supervision, peer supervision, participation in group rounds).
  • Receiving in-depth supervision experiences twice per year in the outpatient setting the context of onboarding doctoral interns (i.e., case preparation, co-staffing appointments, providing clinical feedback to intern, providing written feedback on intern documentation, receiving structured feedback from interns and supervisor on supervisory experience).

Opportunities for individualization of the postdoctoral training year include:

  • Opting for a pediatric psychology focus vs. a pediatric rehabilitation focus
  • Choice of interdisciplinary clinics for staffing
  • Choice of spending a full year in chosen interdisciplinary clinics to support specialization or option of spending 6 months in a larger variety  interdisciplinary clinics to support a breadth of experience
  • Option for outpatient caseload specialization
  • Option for seeing outpatients at our main hospital campus or at our satellite, suburban location
  • Providing inpatient consultation-liaison services to the Kennedy Krieger Institute pediatric neurorehabilitation unit and assisting faculty psychologists with administrative duties and mentoring of psychology doctoral interns in this setting.
  • Training in and subsequently co-facilitating the Comfort Ability Program, a CBT-based workshop for youth with chronic pain and/or functional symptoms and their caregivers.  
  • Participating in current pediatric psychology research projects.
  • Opportunity for structured experience with the administrative aspects of running an inpatient C/L service