American Psychological Association Division 50
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News Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2025 - 16:15
The Palo Alto VA is pleased to announce a postdoctoral opportunity with the APA-accredited Clinical Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) specializing in the treatment of addictive behaviors, trauma, and co-occurring disorders.
The Trauma and Substance Use Treatment (TST) Fellowship formerly the Continuum of Care for Addictive Behaviors, Trauma, and Co-Occurring Disorders includes training opportunities across many settings and levels of care. Addiction-related issues affect a massive proportion of our Veterans across all ages and demographics. Our team is passionate about advocacy and combating stigmatization and disenfranchisement of individuals with histories of substance use and comorbidly occurring conditions through direct work with Veterans and dissemination within our healthcare system and in the community at large. Much of our work involves interaction with the legal system and historically criminalized individuals. Fellows will have the opportunity to hone their clinical skills while gaining advanced experience in the treatment of substance use disorders and frequently co-occurring illnesses, practice in respecting the autonomy of the individuals with which we work and enhancing motivation towards Veterans’ goals through effective collaboration. This fellowship is an ideal training experience for professional development through liaison, management of and advocacy surrounding systems-related issues, consultation with professionals from various backgrounds, and cultivation of opportunities to provide evidenced-based training and perspectives through program development and dissemination. The successful fellow will learn to function skillfully and as a leader in a large, interprofessional team, enhance the skills of other professionals through mutual learning, participate in program development, advocate for Veterans across systems to reduce addiction stigma, respond functionally to emergent situations, and creatively navigate systemic roadblocks while providing evidence- based treatment, evaluations, and assessments.
Treatment within the primary rotation is offered as part of a rich community of Veterans who contribute and enrich the program in various ways such as committees (e.g., volunteer, garden, activities, outreach), programming (e.g., compensated work therapy peer support, alumni), community reinforcement and connection. This allows for a truly unique experience bearing witness to meaning making, post traumatic growth and tiered leadership, consultation and supervision. One of the goals of the fellowship is to create the opportunity for fellows to provide evidenced based treatments across the broad spectrum of VA intervention from the most intensive (e.g., ICU admission for medically supervised withdrawal) to the community level (e.g., Veteran’s Justice Outreach, HUD-VASH, Compensated Work Therapy) and all the steps along the way (e.g., residential, intensive outpatient, outpatient etc.). During the fellowship year, the expected competencies to be acquired will closely follow the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines for Substance Abuse Treatment (developed with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment) and VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines for co-occurring disorders and PTSD including concurrent and phase based approaches for dual diagnoses and trauma focused treatments (e.g. ACT, CPT, DBT/PE, DBT-PTSD, MI/MET, PE, WET, etc.). These competencies form the basis of the fellowship program focus area aims and competencies.
This fellowship involves training in the following areas:
therapeutic and programmatic efficacy
consultation in a variety of venues, and making appropriate referrals
VAPAHCS is a teaching hospital and is affiliated with the Stanford University School of Medicine and associated training programs. The TST Fellow will spend roughly 70% time in clinical service, 10% time in program development/research, and 20% time attending didactics and providing teaching and supervision contingent on the specific fellows training plan/goals. The individualized training plan for the TST Fellow will be developed with the assistance of their Primary Preceptor who will collaborate with the fellow to plan the fellow's overall program, ensure sufficient depth and breadth of experience, and which of the faculty will serve as supervisors during the fellowship year. The Training plan will specify in which of the many possible training venues the Fellow will have comprehensive rotations with options of mini-rotations (e.g., DBT, ACT, CPT, Motivational Enhancement Training, etc). The aim is to ensure attainment of general clinical competencies as well as to provide experience in each of the focus area-specific competencies.
Outpatient training will occur in the Addiction Consultation & Treatment (ACT) team, which provides group, individual and community reinforcement evidenced based psychotherapy as part of our Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP). ACT IOP serves Veterans from a harm reduction standpoint, as an outpatient, step-down and step-up service with our residential treatment programs. Psychologists provide telehealth and in person services, including groups, individual sessions integrating motivational and behavioral treatments within a trauma informed lens. Psychologists lead ATS case conferences discussing complicated cases and enhancing team collaboration to facilitate case conceptualization and derive individualized treatment plans for Veterans. Fellows have the unique opportunity to participate as an integrated member of a comprehensive EBT/Trauma informed team providing trauma informed and motivationally based interventions. In addition, psychologists collaborate in various sociocontextual dialogue spaces, including monthly consultation based on an ecological framework, veteran facilitated IOP community “being and belonging” committee, and staff facilitated morning discussions on how systemic context affects our clinical work.
Psychologists are involved in consult triage for the hospital fielding and responding to all requests for addiction treatment throughout the entire VAPAHCS VISN. Psychologists also assess for and implement emergent and planned hospitalization to provide ambulatory, medicine and psychiatric medically supervised withdrawal. ACT is an ideal rotation for professional development through liaison, management of systems related issues, administration and leadership and cultivation of opportunities to provide evidence-based training and perspectives.
Residential treatment training can occur in the residential rehabilitation programs: Foundation of Recovery Program (flexible length of stay, Addiction Treatment Program with 19 beds) and the Domiciliary Rehabilitation Residential Program (180-day National Center of Excellence in the treatment of the unhoused with 70 beds, described in more detail below). The residential programs all provide 1) EBT-based milieu treatment; 2) Small group therapy; 3) Case management; 4) Psychoeducational skills-building classes 5) Trauma informed integrated treatments; and 6) Weekly aftercare outpatient groups. There are also opportunities to be a member of the providers who offer services within the trauma specific treatment providing treatments such as Cognitive Processing Therapy, WET and Prolonged Exposure and participating in trauma specific consultation. Other training opportunities are offered through the Veterans Justice Outreach Program, the outpatient PTSD Clinical team and the residential Trauma Recovery Program. Finally, the Fellow will also have the opportunity to work with researchers in the HSR&D Center for Innovation to Implementation on new or ongoing research relevant to the focus area and the fellow’s clinical and research interests.
We are deeply committed to training and cultivating the professional development of postdoctoral fellows, many of whom following graduation have become members of our treatment team. The fellowship includes myriad opportunities to supervise within and across disciplines and to receive supervision specific consultation and guidance.
There are a wealth of opportunities to engage in administrative processes, program development and hospital leadership. Foundational aspects of the fellowship involve access to care, evidence-based treatment for addiction and trauma-related disorders, systems and community-focused interventions, complex trauma and traumatic stress in the context of disenfranchisement, and dismantling shame and stigma that perpetuate harm.
How to Apply: The Trauma and Substance Use Treatment (TST) Fellowship (formerly the Continuum of Care for Addictive Behaviors, Trauma, and Co-Occurring Disorders) postdoctoral brochure, eligibility requirements, and application instructions are available at the Psychology Training Program | VA Palo Alto Health Care | Veterans Affairs. Application deadline is December 15, 2025. Interviews will be held in January 2026. We will follow APPIC Postdoctoral Selection Guidelines and the APPIC Common Hold Date procedures.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions! Kimberly.brodsky@va.gov
Resources are available for those struggling with addiction and numerous effective treatments exist. Whether you are looking for help for yourself or a loved one, we encourage you to seek out help.
