Community Services at CUCARD

The Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders offers community workshops and presentations for parents, educators, and healthcare providers to provide support and resources for individuals and families coping with stress and anxiety.

Receive expert advice on how to:

• Identify the symptoms of anxiety and stress
• Learn strategies for you and/or your child to help manage stress and reduce anxiety
• Effectively communicate about anxiety and stress
• Collaborate with educators, family members, or others to provide support
• Learn to address anxiety and behavioral challenges in the home or classroom
• Support optimal emotional and social development

Workshops and presentations will be announced on the News section of our website.

If you are a school, healthcare center, or a business and would like to request a workshop or presentation, please call our general CUCARD line at 212-342-3800.

Anxiety issues are common in school-aged children. Often, teachers and school personnel are the first to recognize problematic anxiety in a child, as anxiety may interfere with the child's level of comfort in class and other school settings, with peer relationships, and in the child's ability to profit from their educational experiences. Complaints of headaches or stomach aches, frequent requests to visit the nurse or to call home, difficulty separating from parents, preferring to stay alone during recess and lunch periods, the need to be "perfect" along with excessive anxiety over grades, and tears or the need for frequent reassurance may be signs of anxiety in children and adolescents.

The Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders is pleased to announce workshops for teachers, guidance counselors, and school social workers.

This workshop provides an overview of the signs of anxiety in children and adolescents, along with offering strategies to school personnel for providing feedback to parents and ways to manage anxiety in the classroom. Participants will learn how to:

• Identify anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents
• Talk to students about anxiety
• Develop strategies to reduce anxiety during the school day
• Talk to parents about their anxious child

If your school is interested in setting up a workshop with our psychology staff, please contact us at 212-342-3800 for more information.

The training and dissemination of evidence-based treatments is central to CUCARD's mission; our clinicians are also committed to providing a positive and high-quality learning experience for volunteers, Master's-level clinicians (through our externship program), and postdoctoral fellows.

The training program includes three major components:

• Clinical Experience
  Trainees will learn about the implementation of cognitive behavioral therapy in both individual and group formats, as well as through other specialized experiences including observation of senior staff, engagement in didactic training, role plays, participating in in vivo exposures outside the clinic, and assisting with school observation visits. In addition to their individual case requirements, trainees co-lead or lead at least one group during their time at the clinic. Trainees also participate in weekly group and individual supervision, giving the opportunity for intensive training on their own cases as well as exposure to challenges that senior clinicians encounter in implementing and adapting evidence-based practice to meet the needs of their patients.
• Didactic Experience
  CUCARD enhances training through ongoing seminars and supervision sessions focusing on a variety of topics, including evidence-based treatment for anxiety and related disorders, parent-child interaction therapy, ethics, special considerations in working with adolescents, and a variety of other theoretical and practical topics focusing on the development of young professionals. CUCARD also features regular guest speakers addressing issues outside the core experiences of the clinicians; recent guest speakers have spoken on issues ranging from insomnia in teenagers to helping bereaved children.
• Research Experience
  Research and the conduct of empirically-supported treatment is a core value of the clinic. Students will be encouraged to prepare a case study for publication as part of their responsibilities in the clinic. Additional writing opportunities and research involvement may also be available for interested trainees.

Applying for a Training Experience at CUCARD

For interested externs—CUCARD participates in the externship match program run by the Psychology Directors of New York State and the New York and New Jersey Directors of Training. Interested individuals from the New York/New Jersey area should consult their training directors for more information. Additionally, you may wish to consult our wiki.

Postdoctoral Fellow positions are limited and highly competitive. Announcements for available positions are generally made through the listservs of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and Division 53 of the American Psychological Association. For more information about position availability and how to apply, please contact Dr. Jiayi Lin-Imada at jkl2187@cumc.columbia.edu.

Nonclinical Volunteers

CUCARD frequently offers volunteer positions for individuals who are in the process of achieving a Bachelor's or Master's level degree. Volunteers are not eligible to provide direct clinical services, but participate in many of the core training and research experiences. For more information about volunteer position availability, please call 212-342-3800 for more information.

Professional Development

In addition to working with trainees, CUCARD also works with mental health practitioners from a variety of backgrounds who want to learn more about CBT and implementing evidence-based methods in their own practices. Staff members are available for in-service talks and one-on-one or group supervision. If you are a practicing psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker who is interested in specialized training, please contact us at 212-342-3800 for more information about available programs.