Seminars and Didactic Training
All Residents attend three year-long seminars: Process Seminar, Professional
Issues Seminar, and the Diagnostic-Treatment Seminar. Attendance is also
required at the MCG Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior's Grand
Rounds series, which features speakers of regional and national prominence.
Diagnostic/Treatment Seminar
The Diagnostic/Treatment Seminar meets weekly for nine months of the year and applies a “Problem-Based Learning” (PBL) model. This is an approach to learning that employs a clinical case/problem as the vehicle of learning and demands scientific thinking. A case is presented in a progressive and stepwise manner, and the Residents are guided to engage in self-directed learning around salient issues of clinical practice. It focuses explicitly on the development of the central components of the Empirical Clinical Model of training: attitudes of empiricism and reflection. Learning results from both the content of the issue at hand and the process of working towards the understanding of the clinical problem. The goal is an active participation in learning by gathering, accessing, organizing and sharing information as well as participating in the evaluation process. Distinct teaching modules (e.g., depression, anxiety disorder) with their associated clinical cases are identified, and the exploration of the case and pertinent clinical issues is facilitated by the course directors and by the module “expert.” Each module is a ten hour teaching program that is self-contained but maintains the fundamental 
learning principles of PBL (i.e., understanding is developed through the scrutiny of the data available, development of hypotheses and the additional data desired, and identification of learning needs). Each Resident participates in PBL by way of group interaction, development of learning issues, and feedback to others regarding what can be learned from research data relevant to the case/problem. The module “expert” supplements the understandings developed through the processes of empiricism and reflection with didactic material pertinent to the assessment and treatment issues at hand. In addition to the PBL modules, early in the training year this seminar facilitates a 10-12 week course (two hours per week) in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (Beck Institute Model) in a joint psychology and psychiatry Residency training activity. The CBT training consists of didactic materials, lectures, treatment skill exercises, and live supervision of therapy cases.
Psychotherapy Process Seminar
The Psychotherapy Process Seminar meets weekly for nine months of the year and provides a laboratory to develop skills of empiricism and reflection in the nonparticipant mode of peer supervision and in the participant mode of a live therapy session presentation. Each Resident takes a turn presenting a psychotherapy case live. The Resident brings a brief (one-two page) summary of the patient’s history, formulation, and progress to date and issues where feedback is requested. The Resident then conducts a 50-minute therapy session breaking for 
feedback from the “team.” This feedback is given to the patient by the therapist or by a reflecting team (seminar participants). The first 50 minutes of the second hour are used to discuss the interpersonal and conceptual issues of the case. The Psychotherapy Process Seminar maintains an awareness of all the pertinent data in this reflection on the case; however, there is a specific emphasis on the integration of the idiographic patient and clinician data. Particular attention is devoted to the capacity to reflect while in action. The last ten minutes of the second hour are used to comment on what took place during the supervision time. This “step back” allows participants to discuss the process of supervision as well as to voice personal reactions. The Residents are given the opportunity to observe each other and the faculty conducting a therapy session, followed by peer and faculty supervision. Thus the Psychotherapy Process Seminar gives the Residents a graduated exposure to supervision and allows them to expand their repertoire of supervisory skills.
Professional Issues Seminar
The Professional Issues Seminar is intended as a complementary endeavor to be devoted to the task of the professional development of the Resident. This seminar meets weekly for ten months of the year and insures that the following issues are adequately addressed during the year: A. Professional roles in medical Settings including principles of consultation/liaison work, effective communication strategies, and proper documentation; B. Military Settings; C.Rural/Underserved populations; D. Ethics; E. Preparation for postdoctoral/first job search; F. Licensure/Career planning; G. Cultural Competence issues - race/ethnicity, sexual orienation, spiritual/religious world views; H. Psychopharmacology; I. Self-care – including the need for psychologists to develop certain practice habits to prevent professional burn-out (e.g., compassion stress/fatigue in working around trauma) and also entails discussion of peer relationships and values of professional organization involvement; J. Advocacy work.
Psychiatry Grand Rounds
Psychiatry Grand Rounds involve three presentations per month and represent a department wide grand rounds that features guest speakers of prominence from the region and nation providing continuing education reviews of important clinical topics. The MCG-VAMC Consortium provides a case presentation for five of these grand rounds presentations per year. These case presentations are identified from each of the three specialty tracks within the consortium and entail a Resident presentation of a clinical case followed by a psychology faculty discussant.
Additional Workshops
During the training year, Residents can expect to attend a few day-long Psychology Workshops. These are typically a joint activity of the MCG-VAMC Psychology Residency Consortium and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center Clinical Psychology Residency Program (DEAMC). Workshops emphasize empirically validated treatments, objective assessment techniques, cultural diversity issues in psychology, psychopharmacology and ethical issues in psychology. Some optional workshops may also be available.