The George Washington University Professional Psychology Program offers unique doctoral (PsyD) and postdoctoral clinical Psychology training, embracing a broad, contemporary psychodynamic focus and service to the diverse, urban community in which we are located.

We offer a postdoctoral fellowship program based in our Center Clinic and focused on administrative and clinical responsibilities in our externship program. The fellowhip is particularly suited for applicants who envision academic or clinical leadership career trajectories, and are an excellent springboard to psychoanalytic institute training and/or academic positions.

Postdoctoral fellows have ample opportunity to develop advanced clinical skills in assessment and in various modalities of psychotherapy through supervised direct service in our Center Clinic. Fellows can also develop advanced skills in research, teaching, supervision, and clinic administration. The design of the Fellowship is somewhat flexible, and can be tailored to the interests of the fellows selected in any given year. Our entire program faculty, whose backgrounds and areas of interest are detailed on our website, are potentially available to supervise and to collaborate with the postdoctoral fellows.

Our Center Clinic provides more than 200 contact hours per week to patients of all ages and diverse backgrounds and with a wide variety of diagnoses. Regular team meetings and practica offer a rich teaching-learning environment, as do our ongoing didactic curriculum, colloquia, and the research activities being conducted in our clinic. Grand rounds and other teaching conferences at George Washington University and at other institutions throughout the Washington, D.C., area provide additional learning opportunities.

Terms of Fellowship Appointment:  

The Professional Psychology (Psy.D.) Program at The George Washington University invites applications for our post-doctoral fellowship program for the preferred starting date is in August, although we can be flexible depending on selected fellows’ needs.

The Psy.D. program has a psychodynamic and community-service orientation, and the post-doctoral fellowship seeks to attract emerging professionals aspiring to careers in academic, clinical, or research leadership in psychodynamic or psychoanalytic clinical psychology. 

All fellows play active roles in the leadership of the Center Clinic, our program’s training clinic and a large community mental health center serving the District of Columbia and neighboring jurisdictions.  Fellows co-lead clinic teams, develop and conduct trainings for student clinicians, and supervise clinic externs in psychological assessment and various modalities of psychotherapy.  They participate in a weekly didactic seminar.  Fellows also undertake a mixture of other activities, depending on their interests and on program needs, often including advanced clinical work, research, teaching, and development of new program initiatives.

Fellows are mentored and supervised by Psy.D. program core faculty members, several of whom are graduate psychoanalysts.  Our faculty is collegial and diverse in our backgrounds, training, and psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theoretical orientations.  Faculty interests include family therapy, group therapy, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapies, psychodynamic treatment of severely disturbed patients, psychoanalytically informed approaches to psychological assessment, work with children and adolescents, integrative clinical approaches, neuropsychology, and clinical and theoretical scholarship.  Most members of our core faculty have active programs of quantitative or qualitative research.  

We welcome applications from potential fellows with doctoral degrees in clinical or counseling psychology from APA-accredited programs, or who have completed re-specialization programs in clinical or counseling psychology that will qualify them for licensure.  An additional requirement is expertise, sufficient to supervise doctoral students, with the Comprehensive System and/or R-PAS approaches to the Rorschach; applicants who lack sufficient Rorschach experience may be considered if they are willing to develop these skills through tutorial work with a member of our program faculty in the spring and summer before beginning the fellowship.  We equally welcome applications from graduates of psychoanalytically or psychodynamically oriented doctoral programs and from graduates of other doctoral clinical or counseling psychology programs equipped with strong psychodynamic backgrounds and interests.

Fellows may be eligible to receive academic appointments as a professorial lecturer in clinical psychology to participate as active members of our program faculty.  Depending on interest and performance, fellowships can sometimes be extended for a second year.  First-year fellows receive a competitive salary, vacation, a contribution towards health insurance, travel support for presentations at professional meetings, and a generous package of other university benefits. The number of first-year fellowhips available varies from year to year. Please contact Dr. Gedo regarding current availability.

To apply, please submit the following materials via email to Paul M. Gedo, PhD, Director of the Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program, at pmgedo@gwu.edu, by application deadline December 15:

• Letter explaining your interest in the post-doctoral fellowship program and your career aspirations
• Complete and updated curriculum vitae
• Official copy of your doctoral transcript (this can be sent by mail to Dr. Gedo, address below, if your university prefers the transcript be mailed directly)
• A sample treatment report
• A sample de-identified comprehensive psychological evaluation, including both cognitive assessment and personality assessment (this must include the Rorschach)
• Contact information for three references, including your dissertation chair or doctoral project director and supervisors familiar with your psychotherapy and psychological assessment work

More information about the fellowship can be obtained from Paul M. Gedo, PhD, The George Washington University, 1922 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052, (202) 994-1835, pmgedo@gwu.edu.

The George Washington University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer that does not unlawfully discriminate in any of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity expression, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.  The Professional Psychology Program core faculty includes psychologists of diverse racial and ethnic minority identities and sexual orientations and persons with disabilities, and actively welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds.