Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Clinical Health Psychology - Department of Psychiatry

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry

In the Division of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, we care for patients at the intersection of psychiatry and medicine. In collaboration with physicians across the full spectrum of medical specialties and subspecialties, we provide thorough, compassionate consultations for patients in need of both psychiatric and medical treatment.

Faculty and trainees in our division consult on some of the most complex patients in the hospital, who have any number of the following issues:

Psychiatric symptoms caused by a medical illness or its treatment (e.g., a brain tumor causing hallucinations, high doses of steroids causing depression or psychosis)
Hospital admission after a suicide attempt
Complicated substance abuse withdrawal
Preexisting psychiatric problems making medical management more difficult (e.g., patients with personality disorder or dementia)

"I wanted to be either an internal medicine physician who knew a lot of psychiatry, or a psychiatrist who knew a lot of internal medicine. Consultation-liaison is the subspecialty that operates at that margin."

James Levenson, M.D.

Division Chair

Clinical Health Psychology

In the Division of Clinical Health Psychology, housed within the Division of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, we provide care at the intersection of medicine and psychology. By applying scientific knowledge of the interrelationships among behavioral, emotional, cognitive, social and biological components in health and disease, we provide evaluation and treatment for our patients with a compassionate, holistic approach.

Often working within an interdisciplinary team, we provide specific services for patients in the following areas:

Transplant psychology
Bariatric surgery evaluations
Trauma and burn care
Pain management
Adjustment to medical illness
Weight management
Eating disorder (e.g., binge eating disorder)
Smoking cessation
Cancer survivorship
Disorders of brain-gut interaction
Neuropsychological assessment

Education

Residency

Psychiatry residents rotate through our division full-time for a month during PGY-2, and part-time for four months during PGY-4. The comprehensive training program includes active clinical learning alongside all our faculty and fellows, exposing each resident to multiple teaching styles and approaches to patient care.

Learn more about our residency ⟶

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship

As one of the first programs of its kind accredited by the ACGME, our fellowship provides robust, individualized training in consultation-liaison psychiatry. Fellows choose from numerous clinical and research areas, have the opportunity to teach medical students and psychiatry residents and can rotate at our sister training facility, the Richmond Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Learn more about our fellowship ⟶

Post-Doctoral Clinical Health Psychology Fellowship

Accredited by the American Psychological Assocation, this one-year program focused in clinical health psychology provides robust training for psychologists through direct patient care, regular supervision from VCU faculty and weekly didactic learning opportunities. We encourage fellows to participate in research and other scholarly activities as well.

Learn more about the fellowship ⟶

Other Training and Clinical Experiences

Faculty in our division offer observational experiences or select supervision on an as-needed basis. This is often available to graduate psychology and medical students, psychiatry residents and fellows. For more information, please contact Stephan Weinland, Ph.D., at stephan.weinland@vcuhealth.org.

Research assistantship placements may also be available in faculty-led labs. Please contact the specific faculty member in your area of interest — more information about our team is available below.