Our Postdoctoral Clinical Psychology Fellowship

Community Health of Central Washington (CHCW) houses a postdoctoral fellowship program in all of its clinics (CWFM, Highlands Clinic, Naches, Ellensburg, and Yakima Pediatrics), all of which provide a robust Primary Care Behavioral Health experience. Overall, CHCW strives to provide quality healthcare through service and education.

About Community Health of Central Washington

CHCW is a nonprofit CHC network that spans across the Yakima Valley and serves over 30,000 individuals and families. Set in largely rural settings, CHCW operates five clinics: a pediatric clinic, a family medicine residency clinic, and three rural clinics.

Our patients come from culturally and economically diverse communities throughout the Valley.

Goals of Our Fellowship

View this short video to hear from our Behavioral Health Education Director, David Bauman, PsyD., as he provides a summary of the goals for the fellowship program!

About Our Integrated Behavioral Health Psychology Training Programs

CHCW operates a robust Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) program throughout its clinics.  Behavioral health consultants (BHCs) are fully integrated into the primary care clinics.  Behavioral health encompasses any condition that is impacted by behavior, including mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety, trauma, etc.) and physical health concerns (e.g., obesity, diabetes, hypertension, headaches, etc.).  BHCs work with patients across the lifespan (i.e., children/adolescents to geriatric populations, pre-natal care to end of life concerns).

Additional BHC services include running groups for a variety of health needs (e.g., chronic pain, pregnancy), developing pathways to systematically address specific concerns (e.g., smoking cessation), and preventive activities such as parenting education and stress management classes. In short, fellows will be exposed to any and all problems that fall into the health/mental health spectrum, from the straightforward to the very complex. There is no better place than a community health center to gain experience with a wide variety of patient health and wellness concerns!

BHCs also serve on the faculty of CWFM’s family medicine residency program. One of the major experiences of the fellowships will be working with family medicine residents and assisting the BH team in implementing a robust psychosocial medicine curriculum.

Due to CHCW’s emphasis on training, a major component of the fellowships will be providing evidence based interventions.  Fellows will have access to tools (e.g., UpToDate) that will allow them to quickly identify research regarding specific concerns and interventions.  CHCW’s behavioral health department emphasizes contextual behavioral approaches due to the strong evidence for a variety of concerns, focus on functional improvement rather than symptom reduction, and flexibility in delivery format (e.g., brief visits).  Orientations such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (FACT), Mindfulness based stress reduction, behaviorism, Motivational Interviewing and Positive Psychology will be encouraged and emphasized throughout the fellowship year.

To learn more about CHCW’s PCBH program, visit https://www.chcw.org/pcbh/

Location

CHCW’s administration offices are located in Yakima, WA, along with its family medicine residency clinic (Central Washington Family Medicine), pediatric clinic (Yakima Pediatric Clinic), and two partnering hospitals (Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital and Yakima Regional Medical Center). CHCW also has three outpatient clinics in Ellensburg, Naches and Tieton, WA, respectively. All clinics and hospitals are within a 40 minute drive of Yakima, WA.

Our Response to Covid-19

Listen to our Behavioral Healh Education Director, David Bauman, explain the steps our Behavioral Health Programs, along with CHCW, have taken to ensure that our staff remain safe.

Our Response to Covid-19

Listen to our Behavioral Healh Education Director, David Bauman, explain the steps our Behavioral Health Programs, along with CHCW, have taken to ensure that our staff remain safe.