The Behavioral Health Division (BHD) Training Program is located within the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. With a commitment to cultural accountability, the Division of Behavioral Health (BHD) Training Program provides clinical and social services to children from birth to 18 years old whose circumstances put them at risk for social, educational, physical, or mental health problems. The BHD provides school, home, clinic-based, and in-patient psycho-therapeutic services to children, adolescents, and their caregivers. The BHD offers a comprehensive practicum placement, high-quality supervision, and didactic training, experience with a diverse client population, and work within a multidisciplinary team and agency. All trainees work alongside staff members and become integrated members of the BHD’s work.
Every aspect of training and mental health service delivery is held within a strong social justice, culturally responsive, and accountability framework. We view culture very broadly and see it as an integral contextual feature that is addressed in clinical assessment and treatment. We believe that the development of cultural responsiveness is a lifelong process. The program facilitates trainees' examination of how their own culture (as experienced in their families and "academic upbringing") has influenced them (who they are, how they see themselves, what they value in others, etc.). We facilitate self-reflection through supervision and the experiential based Culturally Responsive Clinical Practice seminar. Through supervision seminar, trainees learn to deconstruct their point of view and perspectives. The BHD’s goal is to introduce and increase awareness of these issues in clinical situations, actively engage in the reflective process, and tolerate the ambiguity and discomfort of stepping outside one's own construction of the world.
We value trainees from diverse backgrounds and strongly encourage applicants from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds to apply to our program. Students that complete our training program will be well rounded and broadly trained to provide mental health services involving complex systems (e.g., child welfare system, juvenile justice system, and the medical system), across diverse settings (e.g., in the home, juvenile detention facilities, school settings, hospital settings, etc.). In addition, trainees receive training in a variety of treatment approaches, (e.g., child parent psychotherapy, child play therapy, family systems, and trauma-focused therapies), treatment modalities (e.g., individual, dyadic, and family therapy), and consultation (e.g., to child welfare workers, child attorneys, probation officers, medical practitioners, teachers, and other service providers involved in the child's life).
For questions about the Behavioral Health Division Training Program, contact: [email protected]
