BWH Women’s Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry Fellowship

Overview

The Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital provides a unique and robust setting for women’s mental health and reproductive psychiatry training with rich and varied clinical exposure across a variety of settings including subspecialty ambulatory clinic, consultation liaison, and co-located clinics in obstetrics, and NICU settings as well as exposure to multiples areas of subspecialty within women’s mental health including reproductive psychiatry, mental health at midlife and beyond, perinatal addiction psychiatry, women’s mental health at the intersection of forensics/ethics as well as elective rotations through McLean Hospital, where the fellow will be exposed to diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders, eating disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder across varied settings.

The program provides exciting subspecialty training opportunities for potential applicants interested in the ways sex and gender can exert a major influence on the course, expression and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Fellows will develop expertise in the psychiatric care of women, and in the assessment and treatment of psychiatric symptoms linked with female reproductive cycle transitions. The fellowship emphasizes clinical experience, but also includes a scholarly project, the nature and scope of which depends on the fellow's interests. For those who are interested, there may be opportunities to expand the academic project to include a larger amount of protected research time throughout the course of the fellowship.

Requirements

• Applicants must have completed or plan to complete an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited psychiatry residency by the fellowship start date (July 1).
• They must be able to be licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts by the start date.
• Potential applicants who do not have US citizenship or permanent residency in the US should contact us before submitting their application.

Curriculum

Weekly Women's Mental Health Rounds: A one-hour, multi-disciplinary case conference during women's mental health trainee clinic. The fellow has an opportunity to discuss cases and review literature. Rounds also gives the fellow an opportunity to teach trainees at various levels of learning.

Journal Club: monthly fellow presentation of key journal articles with focus on learning how to critically assess and interpret the literature

Consultation-liaison Psychiatry Didactics: The fellow is welcome to join our consultation liaison fellows on Friday mornings for didactic learning.

Supervision: The fellow has approximately two to four hours of individual supervision per week with the core faculty of the fellowship. More supervision is available with adjunct faculty, as determined by fellows interest.

Academic Project: This fellowship emphasizes clinical experience, but also includes a scholarly project, the nature and scope of which depends on the fellow's interests. These projects can range from conducting an independent research project and publishing the results, to collaborating on an ongoing research project, to co-authoring a journal article or book chapter, to peer-reviewing others' research or publishing a book review. For those who are interested, there may be an opportunity to expand the academic project to include a larger amount of protected research time throughout the course of the fellowship. Those fellows anticipating a career in academic psychiatry will be encouraged to submit a paper for publication and/or present at a regional or national conference.

Integrated Conferences: conferences with other specialty trainees provide opportunity for collaborate interdisciplinary scholarly work with colleagues in OBGYN, MFM, Family Planning.

Evaluation: Fellows will meet weekly with their supervisor at the clinical sites for case review as well as general feedback. These weekly meetings also provide an opportunity for discussion of strengths and weaknesses and to formulate constructive plans for improvement, and meeting fellows' career goals. More formal career mentorship and counseling will occur between the fellowship director and the fellow as the year progresses. At the conclusion of the fellowship the program, the supervisor fills out a formal written review that evaluates the skills and attitudes of the fellow. Fellows will also have an opportunity to provide feedback about their experience through evaluation forms of the program and faculty. The feedback gathered from these evaluations is discussed at the next quarterly meeting of the program leadership and used to adapt and improve the program year to year.

Fellowship Structure: This is a full-time clinical fellowship. The fellowship begins July 1st and lasts one full calendar year.

Fellowship Benefits: Fellows are eligible for all benefits afforded by MGB GME at PGY5 level.

Academic Appointment: Successful applicants must qualify for a Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital clinical appointment.

Research Experience

All fellows are expected to complete an academic project of their choosing.

How to Apply

• A completed application
• CV
• Personal statement
• Medical school transcript
• United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) results
• Three letters of recommendation

Fellowship and Faculty Contacts

Polina Teslyar, MD
Director Women's Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry Fellowship
Associate Psychiatrist
Medical Director Women's Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry Clinic
Consult-Liaison Psychiatry, Women’s Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry Clinical Lead
Department of Psychiatry
Instructor, Harvard Medical School

Natalie Feldman, MD
Assistant Fellowship Director, Women's Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry Fellowship
Associate Psychiatrist, Division of Women's Mental Health and Reproductive Psychiatry
Department of Psychiatry
Instructor, Harvard Medical School
Research Scientist, Connors Center for Women's Health Research