Post-Baccalaureate Clinical Fellowship Program
McLean Hospital and Mass General Brigham offer a two-year Post-Baccalaureate Clinical Fellowship Program (PBac) for college graduates interested in pursuing a career in mental health. The professional experiences and educational opportunities are hosted within McLean’s Simches Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and additional adult and pediatric programs across the Mass General Brigham system.
This guided, entry-level professional experience is shaped by the hospitals’ missions: excellence in clinical care, groundbreaking state-of-the-art scientific investigation, training the next generation of mental health professionals, and serving the hospital and our communities.
Led by Fairlee C. Fabrett, PhD, the PBac Fellowship Program includes a two-year, full-time paid position in one of the following programs:
- McLean-Franciscan Child and Adolescent Inpatient Program, located in Brighton, Massachusetts, provides acute stabilization and treatment for children and teens
- McLean-Franciscan Community Based Acute Treatment Program, located in Brighton, Massachusetts, offers short-term residential mental health care for children and teens
- 3East DBT Intensive Residential Programs, located in Arlington, Massachusetts, specialized residential care for teens struggling with self-injury, emotion dysregulation, and suicidal ideation
- 3East DBT Partial Hospital Program, located in Arlington, Massachusetts, provides specialized care for adolescents struggling with self-injury, emotion dysregulation, and suicidal ideation
- OCDI Jr., located in Belmont, Massachusetts, a specialized residential program for children and teens who have a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder
- Belmont Adolescent Partial Hospital Program, located in Belmont, Massachusetts, a day program for adolescents struggling with mood and anxiety, and other diagnoses
- Child Partial Hospital Program, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a day program for children 7-13 struggling with irritability, impulsivity, and anxiety
- McLean SouthEast Adolescent Acute Residential Treatment Program, located in Middleborough, Massachusetts, a residential program for teens who struggle with everyday functioning, such as going to school, difficulty maintaining friends, sadness, substance misuse, etc.
- McLean SouthEast at Oak Street Child and Adolescent Inpatient Program, located in Middleborough, Massachusetts, for teens who need crisis evaluation and stabilization, including medication management
- Salem Hospital Child and Adolescent Inpatient Unit, located in Salem, Massachusetts, for children and adolescents 3-17 years old experiencing depression, anxiety, psychotic disorders, trauma, etc.
- McLean’s Short Term Unit, located in Belmont, Massachusetts, for adults struggling with severe symptoms related to mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety
Watch Now
McLean’s PBac Clinical Fellowship: What You Want To Know
While the programs share the mission of caring for children, adolescents, and their families, each has a different approach to treatment and set of interventions based on the population and diagnoses they treat. Some of our programs are known for their fast-paced, acute environment with quick decision making. Other programs, while also acute, offer different levels of care and rely on other, more specialized therapeutic interventions.
Each program also has a different set of expectations and schedules. Inpatient programs have day, evening, and overnight shifts, while other programs are a mix between day, evening, and weekend shifts.
Based on the applicant’s interest and interview process, accepted fellows are assigned to a program where they spend the two years of the fellowship.
All fellows are expected to work 40 hours (unless specified by their program).
Salary, health insurance, scheduling, and specific benefits, like paid time off, depend on the hospital of the assigned program. For example, those fellows interested in McLean-Franciscan Community Based Acute Treatment Program will be hired by Franciscan Hospital follow their benefits, salary, etc.
At the beginning of the fellowship, the fellows participate in a week-long bootcamp where they learn about a variety of topics such as the different levels of care in a mental health environment, understanding how to work with a multidisciplinary team, essentials of group therapy, and professional boundaries and ethics.
Throughout the year, the fellows participate in program-specific training and supervision along with other program colleagues.
In addition to opportunities within their program, fellows join in an in-person monthly professional development and education seminar where they learn from world-renowned clinicians about different therapy modalities, therapeutic strategies, and diagnoses. The seminars also provide professional development guidance, exposure to professionals of different disciplines, and support around graduate school applications.
If interested and available via their assigned program, fellows can also participate in scholarly activities which may include a poster presentation in a conference, collaborating in manuscript writing, and other exciting opportunities.
This fellowship relies heavily in mentorship, as it is very important for academic and career development. We offer a peer mentorship program where our second-year fellows mentor first-year fellows, offering support and guidance. In addition, fellows are also matched with a clinician within their program who provides career-related mentorship as well as supervision, if needed.
Finally, fellows participate in community service, or even help plan, events in coordination with the NAACP, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and McLean’s own nationally recognized Deconstructing Stigma project—to name just a few of the exciting opportunities.
A crucial mission of the PBac Fellowship Program is to play a part in diversifying the field of mental health professionals to be better prepared and able to meet the needs of patients of color.
Fellowship leadership have gathered a group of committed psychologists to support mindful and thoughtful recruitment of students of backgrounds typically underrepresented in medicine.
Our group of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) advisors include:
- Alessandro S. De Nadai, PhD, McLean Hospital
- R. Meredith Elkins, PhD, McLean Hospital
- Freda Liu, PhD, University of Washington School of Medicine
- Diana Naranjo, PhD, Stanford University
- Marcus A. Rodriguez, PhD, Pitzer College
How To Apply
Interested applicants should submit a cover letter/personal statement indicating your programs of interest and a bit about yourself, a resume, and a letter of recommendation from a current supervisor, professor, or anyone who might be able to talk about your work ethic and/or experience.
Interviews take place in February/March, with offers extended in April/May. The fellowship begins in early June.
For more information, please contact Fairlee C. Fabrett, PhD.
