Dear Applicants and Visitors,

On behalf of our program and departmental leadership, I am thrilled to welcome you to the Thomas Jefferson University Adult Psychiatry Residency website. We hope you will see what makes Jefferson such a special place to learn and practice psychiatry.

Our program continues a long tradition of service to the diverse communities of Philadelphia and surrounding areas. Philadelphia has been at the forefront of psychiatry since the earliest days of the field: Benjamin Rush wrote the first modern textbook of mental health conditions in Philadelphia, the American Psychiatric Association established its first headquarters in our city, and Philly psychiatrists were among the first to pursue forward-thinking approaches that created humanistic approaches to care for people with mental health conditions. Today, expert Jefferson psychiatrists deliver person-centered, thoughtful, and evidence-based general and subspecialty care to people with a wide range of mental health conditions and life histories. We strive to understand each person as an individual and to understand their experiences within the context of medical, psychological, cultural, social, and structural factors that impact their lives. Some of our areas of strength include:

Expert Faculty

Our department has cultivated a faculty comprised of talented career educators spanning the field of psychiatry: academic chairs, section chiefs, journal editors, funded researchers, and clinical leaders. We have subspecialists in child and adolescent psychiatry, substance use disorders, pain medicine, consult-liaison psychiatry, psycho-oncology, sleep medicine, geriatric psychiatry, student mental health, suicide prevention, psychotic disorders, and women’s mental health. Residents may join ongoing faculty research projects in the neuroscience of early-onset psychosis, schizophrenia, and mood disorders, as well as population health projects such as suicide prevention. Our trainees benefit from the faculty’s broad networks and connections as they create their own professional futures.

Clinical Training & Supervision Focused on Resident Development

Our residents participate in a longitudinal curriculum consisting of clinical experiences, case conferences, weekly seminars, and individual supervision that spans all four years. Through progressively advanced topics and greater independence, residents are prepared for independent practice or further fellowship training. At the same time, residents develop clinical sophistication, discover particular talents and interests, develop professional identities, and also continue personal life trajectories launched prior to residency. A weekly developmental group helps them to process and contextualize these experiences along the way, and faculty mentors assist residents in thriving both during residency and beyond.

Comprehensive Psychotherapy Training

Our program offers a balanced curriculum that includes both psychopharmacology and intensive psychotherapy training. Patients come to psychiatrists for help with troubled relationships, entrenched behavioral patterns, and conflicted views of themselves. To be most successful we believe residents must learn from their first patient contacts to approach problems broadly, in biological, behavioral, and human terms. The outpatient years offer intensive supervision and didactics covering the spectrum of psychotherapies, from psychodynamic approaches to cognitive and dialectical behavioral therapies. An understanding of these techniques is invaluable across patient encounters, whether providing individual psychotherapy or working with a distressed patient on the Consult-Liaison service.

Diverse Patient Populations

Our hospital attracts patients from all over Philadelphia and the region for high-quality medical care. Our location in Center City, Philadelphia, at the hub of a large transportation network and amid a cosmopolitan residential neighborhood, ensures a rich breadth of clinical experience. Philadelphia is an incredibly diverse city and we serve people with rich intersectional identities in terms of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, religious beliefs, and immigration status. We are steps from Philadelphia’s vibrant Chinatown, the thriving LGBTQ+ communities of Washington Square West, and upscale Rittenhouse Square, and patients travel from all over Philadelphia and surrounding areas to receive care with us. Residents have opportunities to learn about psychiatry through the lens of their patients’ lived experiences, while also learning about individual, social, cultural, and str factors that influence mental health and healthcare delivery.

Fellowship Opportunities

Our residents gain broad exposure to subspecialty areas of psychiatry during their training, with ample opportunity to deepen their experience during electives. For those who want to continue on to fellowship, our department has fellowships in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Consult-Liaison Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, Sleep Medicine, and Integrative Medicine. 

Philadelphia Cultural Opportunities

Center City Philadelphia offers all of the advantages of a major metropolitan area, with a rich cultural heritage and relatively affordable cost of living. Our neighborhood has wonderful restaurants, clubs, parks, and historic districts. Philadelphia’s world-class zoo, museums, and concert venues are within short commuting distance, and we have a well-developed public transportation system. New York and DC are within two hours by train, and the Jersey shore and Pocono Mountains are less than two hours away by car.

We are fortunate to have expert faculty, an exciting setting in a major academic medical center, a diverse patient population, and numerous academic opportunities. We are honored to work with our patients toward their personal goals, using our capabilities as physicians and mental health experts. Philadelphia is an amazing place to live and practice psychiatry, now and in the future. If you are interested in joining our community and mission, we look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Adrienne T. Gerken, MD
Director, Residency Training Program
Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior

John Lauriello, MD - Chair, Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior
Karin Borgmann-Winter, MD - Associate Director, Residency Training
Zachariah Pranckun, DO - Associate Director, Residency Training