A Tale of Five Applicants With a Passion for Psychotherapy

How is it possible that residency applicants from different cities could join forces and mobilize resources to create the successful online Psychotherapy Residency Fair to guide over 200 psychiatry applicants to residencies with robust psychotherapy offerings? Here is our story.

When the COVID-19 pandemic became a global crisis, the 2021 residency match process became virtual, and applicants were left to their own devices, searching Google Maps and pouring over program websites. For some, applying to residency has meant finding a new place to call home, a new community to serve, and new friends and mentors. For others, it is an opportunity to return home and serve the community that shaped them. The medical students who contributed to this article—all with different experiences, passions, and journeys—found each other and united around the same goal: to find a psychiatry residency program that would provide the best psychotherapy training.

In preparation for the 2021 match cycle, Dinorah had spent countless hours researching the psychotherapy curricula at residency programs that would provide psychotherapy for the Spanish-speaking community. She quickly realized how difficult it was to get real answers from websites. Then Anita invited her to participate in the Meet the Program Virtual Residency Diversity Fair, hosted by the APA Caucus of Black Psychiatrists. The format allowed applicants to ask questions and meet training directors and residents in a small-group setting. Dinorah had already seen that APA Psychotherapy Caucus members were helpful to students who reached out with questions. Caucus members offered honest answers, different points of view, and, most importantly, support.

Dinorah then reached out to Dr. Mintz with the idea of developing a Psychotherapy Fair modeled after the Diversity Fair. Within weeks, the fair had over 500 students (speaking 38 native languages!) and 36 programs expressing interest. It quickly became apparent that a larger team would be needed to plan such a large event. The Austen Riggs Center provided resources such as a Zoom account and IT staff to help with logistics. The Caucus on Psychotherapy provided mentorship and support from a diversity of its members.

A team of two students quickly became a team of five. Tom has a passion for people and their unique stories and took on the role of event coordinator. Within the next few days, the event schedule, applicant groups, and rotation cycles were complete. His goal was to expose applicants to an aspect of our specialty that they may not have known about or considered before. Another goal was to encourage residency programs to respond proactively to residents with an interest in psychotherapy.

Anita, an aspiring child and adolescent psychiatrist, had witnessed the stigma surrounding mental health in her native Nigeria, but she had also seen a slight shift toward greater acceptance of psychotherapy. Among her friends, she heard how they lamented being unable to find a psychotherapist of color with whom they felt comfortable. Thus, she sought a residency program with a strong psychotherapy identity. Her charismatic personality and her passion for creating an inclusive community made her the perfect moderator for the fair.

Within a few weeks, a team of trained moderators was excited and determined to provide applicants with a unique opportunity to flourish in their interest in psychotherapy.

Grace read about the fair from Psychotherapy on the Move, the Caucus on Psychotherapy’s newsletter. As a naturalized Korean physician with an interest in psychotherapy, she wanted to inspire confidence in applicants during their journeys into psychiatry and psychotherapy. Due to her editorial experience and attention to detail, she became editor-in-chief of the Ψ Program Snapshot, an e-publication that highlighted the psychotherapy curriculum in the programs represented in the fair.

In the early spring, Christian learned that members of racial minorities are more likely to prefer nonpharmacological therapies for depression. As the son of Colombian immigrants, he found that this observation resonated with his experience as a medical student called to serve Hispanic patients in their native language. He joined the new committee as the director of strategy in hopes that the fair would increase the number of residents committed to the practice of psychotherapy.

The two-day-event, held in September 2020, hosted more than 200 match applicants from all over the world.

Donna Sudak, M.D., program director at Tower Health-Brandywine Hospital, said, "Having the opportunity to meet such a diverse and enthusiastic group of students so clearly interested in learning and performing psychotherapy reaffirmed our commitment to provide broad training in multiple therapy modalities. Psychiatry has a bright future indeed!"

Sallie G. De Golia, M.D., associate residency director at Stanford University Department of Psychiatry, stated, “As a program director, I was able to describe our offerings in far greater detail than provided on our website while hopefully communicating the spirit and character of our program and its leadership.”

After the event, 94% of the participants who responded to a survey said they were likely to consider programs with a strong psychotherapy curriculum. Over 65% of participants stated they planned to apply to programs they had not considered before the event.

We owe the success of the event to more than 80 program representatives from 37 programs who joined forces and donated their time to support applicants and show them that they are not alone in this journey. This was particularly important for those who experienced an unprecedented virtual residency match in the midst of a global pandemic. The experience empowered applicants to identify a need and reach out to programs, knowing that they are supported by a field filled with physicians who wish to see them succeed. ■