Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture Externship

The Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture (PSOT) provides multidisciplinary care for survivors of torture and war trauma. Since its inception in 1995, the program has served more than 1,500 men, women, and children from more than 80 countries, providing psychiatric, psychological and medical services, as well as basic social services (including food, clothing, vocational training, legal support, and English classes). The mission of the Bellevue/NYU PSOT is to enhance the resources and strengths of its clients by providing culturally sensitive care that recognizes the unique needs of each individual it serves.

PSOT offers a 12-month long, doctoral-level externship focusing on clinical work with survivors of torture, war and refugee trauma. PSOT is dedicated to providing high-level training in the treatment of trauma to qualified doctoral students. A rich array of research opportunities is also available for externs. The Program’s multi-disciplinary staff provides training and supervision in assessing and treating severely traumatized patients, addressing issues of refugee and war trauma, and providing care that is culturally relevant and appropriate. In terms of psychological services, the PSOT provides individual, family and group therapy for clients of all ages. Externs are exposed to a multi-disciplinary team approach to caring for torture survivors.

Patient Population

Patients at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture include immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and people who have received asylum, who are living in the New York metropolitan area and have experienced torture or war trauma in their home countries and are seeking mental health and/or medical care.

Extern Responsibilities on the PSOT Service

Individual Psychotherapy

Each extern is assigned as the primary therapist for four therapy cases. Cases represent a variety of countries and languages. Interpreters are often used in the sessions. Individual therapy modalities available at the program include psychodynamic, supportive, child and family therapy, and cognitive-behavioral treatment. Many clients at the program are in the process of applying for political asylum, so externs often have an opportunity to write a report in support of this application and testify in immigration court. Externs receive two hours of supervision for their individual cases, and extra supervision on an as-needed basis. Externs present a case once during the year at the Program’s multi-disciplinary case conference.

Group Psychotherapy

Group therapy opportunities are also available for externs, depending on scheduling and patient needs. Two types of groups are offered at PSOT: short-term, problem-focused groups and long-term, supportive groups for survivors of torture. Some groups currently running at the Program are a Tibetan survivors group, a French-speaking African survivors group, an English-speaking African survivors group, an Albanian survivors group and a psycho-educational orientation groups for new clients.

Intake Evaluations

Externs conduct two weekly intake evaluations with patient who are first presenting to the program. Intake evaluations involve a comprehensive interview, including a trauma history and mental status exam. After the interview, the extern formulates a diagnosis and a set of recommendations for the case. This information is presented to a supervising psychologist at a weekly conference to determine if the patient will be admitted into the program or referred to another agency.

Didactics

Externs attend a bi-monthly case conference in which trainees and supervisors will present and discuss active cases. In the beginning of the externship, these conferences are used for specific training topics. These include: intake interviewing with severe trauma survivors, culturally competent treatment, working with interpreters in a clinical context, cognitive-behavioral methods of treating trauma, and psychotherapy and countertransference with trauma survivors. Additionally, externs participate in a bi- monthly discussion of journal readings designed to enhance their understanding of the field of trauma research and treatment.

Supervision

Externs receive at least two hours of weekly supervision for their therapy cases. They also attend a weekly supervision seminar focusing on the intake process. Those externs who co-lead a group receive an additional hour of supervision as well.

In addition, externs attend a bi-monthly process group led by a psychologist outside the Program. Work at PSOT can be emotionally intense and challenging, and the purpose of the group is to encourage trainees to reach out to each other to process the experience.

Psychological Assessment

PSOT does not offer specific psychological and neuropsychological assessment opportunities, but assessment cases can be arranged in coordination with the Hospital’s Neuropsychological Assessment Service in some cases.

Evaluation

Externs are evaluated by their direct supervisors and senior staff using a standard evaluation form. This form is shared with the extern and with the graduate program in which the extern is enrolled.

Research

Research opportunities may arise depending on an extern’s ability to make a commitment to extra time beyond the clinical requirements of the established program. Research interests should be discussed with the Research Director of PSOT.

Core Supervisory Staff
(all are New York State licensed psychologists)

Adeyinka M.A. Akinsulure-Smith, Ph.D., RPT-S
Psychologist/Psychology Supervisor
Dr. Adeyinka M. Akinsulure-Smith is a licensed Psychologist who is originally
from Sierra Leone. She has extensive clinical experience working with war trauma survivors, refugees, asylees and asylum seekers, survivors of sexual violence, persons afflicted with and affected by HIV/AIDS and culturally diverse populations. Dr. Akinsulure-Smith has been conducting individual and group psychotherapy as well as psychological assessments with clients in the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture since 1999. She has been involved in human rights investigations in Sierra Leone with Physicians for Human Rights and the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, Human Rights Division.
Dr. Akinsulure-Smith is also the Co-Chair and Co-Founder of Nah We Yone, Inc., a
nonprofit organization that provides social and psychological services to displaced African war victims in the New York Metropolitan area. Dr. Akinsulure-Smith and her co-founders at Nah We Yone are 2003 winners of New York City’s prestigious Union Square Awards.

Ilene Cohen, Ph.D.
Director, Psychological Services
Dr. Cohen is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Director of Psychology at Bellevue Hospital Center. She oversees psychology services for the Program and is responsible for psychology interns and externs placed with the Program. She has been with the Program since its inception. In addition to her work with our program, Dr. Cohen helped to coordinate a city-wide response to the psychological impact of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, through her work with "Project Liberty."  Dr. Cohen has written about the effects of secondary trauma in working with survivors of trauma.

Lucia Kellar, Ph.D.
Senior Psychologist/Psychology Supervisor
Dr. Kellar is a Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at NYU Medical Center and a Senior Psychologist at Bellevue Hospital Center. She is a member of the core faculty and a supervisor at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture. In addition, she is the Director of the Neuropsychology Assessment Service at Bellevue Hospital Center. Dr. Kellar’s interests are psychoanalytic psychotherapy, body-oriented psychotherapy, and neuropsychology.

Leanh Nguyen, Ph.D.
Psychologist/Psychology Supervisor
Dr. Leanh Nguyen received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from New York
University, where she is currently pursuing a postdoctoral training in psychoanalysis. Dr. Nguyen’s clinical work specializes in Southeast Asian mental health, immigration issues, cultural identity, and sexual identity. She is actively involved in the advocacy and care for gay/lesbian/transgendered immigrants and asylum seekers.
At the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, in addition to her work with Vietnamese and Francophone patients, Dr. Nguyen has founded a therapy group for LGBT asylum seekers. Unique in its combination of gay-affirmative therapy, trauma treatment, and identity-formation issues, the group has been running since 2002 and has proven successful in caring for the mental health and immigration rights of individuals fleeing homophobic persecution.

Maile O’Hara, Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Psychology Training/Psychology Supervisor
Dr. O’Hara received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the New School for Social Research, where her research focused on attachment in foster care and adoptive communities from a psycholinguistic perspective. For ten years she was a New York City high school history teacher and has continued to seek out opportunities to work with young people. Her extensive child experience has spurred a particular interest in the effects of attachment ruptures in relationally oriented therapy. Dr. O’Hara completed her internship at Lenox Hill Hospital and her postdoctoral fellowship at Bellevue/ NYU Program for Survivors of Torture. She is additionally engaged in community outreach on how to work with refugee children and families as well as how to best work with interpreters.

Katherine Porterfield, Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Services/Psychology Supervisor
Katherine Porterfield received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1998, where she specialized in Child Clinical Psychology. She received a fellowship at the University of Michigan to focus her clinical and research training on the needs of children who have suffered loss, either through death, divorce, or other trauma. Dr. Porterfield was a postdoctoral fellow at the NYU Child Study Center.
In her work with the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture since 1999, Dr. Porterfield has developed an outreach program to schools and other agencies serving children in the New York Metropolitan area to publicize the needs of youth traumatized by war. She provides individual and family therapy to children and supervises trainees working with survivors of torture in the Bellevue Program. She has also presented extensively in the New York area and nationally on topics such as the effects of war and refugee trauma on children, clinical work with traumatized refugee families, and the psychological effects of torture.

Hawthorne E. Smith, Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Services/Psychology Supervisor
Dr. Smith is a licensed psychologist who received his doctorate in Counseling Psychology (with distinction) from Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Smith had previously earned a B.S.F.S. from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, an advanced certificate in African studies from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, and a Masters in International Affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
Dr. Smith provides therapeutic services for individuals, groups and families who are survivors of torture and refugee trauma from throughout the world (with a particular focus on clients from Africa). He is one of the founding members of Nah We Yone, Inc., a nonprofit organization working primarily with refugees from Sierra Leone and other African countries. Dr. Smith is also a professional musician (saxophonist and vocalist) with international experience.

Application Information

Qualifications:  By the start of the externship, applicants must have completed at least their first year of academic study in a doctoral program (either Ph.D. or Psy.D.). Prior externship experience (at least a year in duration) is required, with preference given to applicants who have had experience in conducting psychotherapy, as well as conducting outpatient intake interviews and Mental Status Exams and working with traumatized patients. Bilingual English/French speaking candidates are strongly encouraged to apply as are other applicants with foreign language fluency.

Time Commitment:  Externs must be able to work two days per week (16 hours) for a period of 12 months starting mid July. All externs must be available on Tuesdays. The selection of the other day on site is flexible.

Application:  A completed application must contain: 
(1) A cover letter detailing your interest in training at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture. Briefly discuss your educational background and clinical experiences that are particularly relevant to psychotherapy with traumatized patients.
(2) A current Curriculum Vitae.
(3) TWO letters of recommendation attesting to your clinical and assessment abilities and/or your potential and work ethic. ONE of the letters must be from a clinical supervisor from a practicum/externship site.
(4) An OFFICIAL transcript from your doctoral program.

Deadlines: The application deadline is February 1. Applications should not be submitted before January 15. The training staff will review submissions and invite selected applicants for interviews beginning in mid February.

Please mail application materials to:
Maile O’Hara, Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Psychology Training
Bellevue/ NYU Program for Survivors of Torture
462 First Avenue, C & D Building, Rm. 740
New York, New York 10016