The Residency Program
at Dougan and Walden Wellness, PLLC

Practice Overview:

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Dougan and Walden Wellness, PLLC is an outpatient private practice with two locations in the greater Richmond area. Both clinic locations offer a full range of mental health care services including individual, couple, and group therapy, psychological assessments, psychopharmacology consults, and supportive services. The clinic consists of over a dozen providers with a wide range of specializations and theoretical orientations.

Holistic Care:

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Our holistic approach to clinical practice is based on the view that psychological concerns must be understood as comprising many interacting contributing factors. An individual’s presenting concerns are seen as multiple and determined by biological, psychological, and sociocultural experiences and identities. While these components can be explored individually, each person can only be comprehensively cared for by their provider as far as they are understood as a complex whole that is more than the sum of their parts. This is reflected in our incorporation of physical, pharmacological, spiritual, and community-based approaches to mental health treatment planning.

Training Model:

Our program is built on a practitioner-scholar model of training. We believe good clinical practice integrates evidence-based theory and innovative scientific knowledge with a breadth and depth of direct clinical experience. We encourage our residents to develop both theoretical knowledge and research-driven practical strategies for providing culturally appropriate care. This means educating oneself on diverse cultures and identities while maintaining an accepting curiosity for the unique individual and avoiding making assumptions based on normative data. This approach goes beyond minimizing harm to traditionally underserved populations to taking a stance of active allyship and promoting empowerment. While residents may ultimately pursue careers that favor either the practitioner or scholar aspect of the model, we believe either career path is best built on a combination of scholarly and clinical sensibilities and skills.

Our providers treat patients with a variety of backgrounds and presenting concerns. We believe that awareness of and sensitivity to diversity and unique cultural contexts is necessary for responsible professional functioning. Understanding how these factors interact to influence an individual’s desired outcomes is a critical facet of holistic care. Thus, we incorporate diversity and cultural sensitivity training into all aspects of our program, from supervision to didactics. We focus on training residents to assist clients in understanding all aspects of themselves and achieving optimal psychological, physical, and sociocultural functioning. Successful residents will demonstrate an integration of best-practice knowledge with their clients’ unique needs and collaborate to create and implement treatment plans with their clients and other providers across disciplines.

Residents receive training with clinical populations across the spectrum of outpatient concerns, including those experiencing trauma, comorbid health issues, and complex sociocultural issues.

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Expected Training Outcome:

The objective of the training program is to prepare residents for licensure at a master's or doctoral level within a practitioner-scholar training model, with special emphasis on holistic care and culturally competent practice. Training in holistic psychology focuses on the practice of assisting individuals in achieving optimal psychological, physical, and social functioning. Our graduating residents will be able to provide competent care and consultation in clinical psychology at a level of independent practice (not requiring supervision), as well as exhibit behavior that is consistent with professional standards. Graduating residents will possess the requisite skills to bring clinical literature to bear on their applied work and to communicate and collaborate across and within disciplines regarding clinical care and professional interests.

Satisfactory completion of the Dougan and Walden Wellness, PLLC Residency Program fulfills the licensure requirements for supervised practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia, whether at a doctoral or master’s level. Residents considering licensure in another state(s) may want to study the licensure requirements of the state(s) of interest or investigate their options for interstate compact licensure and plan accordingly.

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Doctoral Level Residency Expected Outcomes

Graduating postdoctoral residents will provide competent care in the following areas, consistent with the standards for licensure in the Commonwealth of Virginia as well as board certification in Clinical Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP-CP): Assessment, intervention, consultation, ethical and legal standards/professional behavior, as well as applying scientific knowledge to practice.

Master’s Level Residency Expected Outcomes

Training is consistent with the competencies outlined by ACA (American Counseling Association). For those seeking licensure as a professional counselor, the training is consistent with the standards outlined by the NBCC (National Board for Certified Counselors), and residents are encouraged to pursue their National Certified Counselor certification upon completion of the program and obtaining their license. Subsumed under these overarching goals are the following training competencies.

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Program Aims and Competencies

Our overarching aim is to prepare residents for independent practice as licensed professionals with training experience that meets the criteria to pursue licensure and board certification. Residents who complete this program will also be prepared for employment providing direct patient care and/or engaged in program evaluation and improvement in health care settings. 

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Doctoral Level Residency Competencies

Training is consistent with the competencies outlined by ABCP (American Board of Clinical Psychology) and residents are encouraged to pursue Board Certification as a Clinical Psychologist (ABPP) after completion of the program and obtaining their license. Subsumed under these overarching goals are the following training competencies (below):

Master’s Level Residency Competencies

Training is consistent with the competencies outlined by ACA (American Counseling Association). For those seeking licensure as a professional counselor, the training is consistent with the standards outlined by the NBCC (National Board for Certified Counselors), and residents are encouraged to pursue their National Certified Counselor certification upon completion of the program and obtaining their license. Subsumed under these overarching goals are the following training competencies:

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Competency 1: Residents will demonstrate proficiency in trauma-informed clinical care.

Objective 1: Residents will be able to apply principles of trauma-informed care across clinical settings, including direct client contact, case conceptualization, diagnosis and treatment planning, consultation and case presentation. Residents will exhibit a sound integration of these principles into their preferred theoretical orientation of practice. 

Competency 2: Residents will demonstrate proficiency in culturally humble care.

Objective 2: Residents will be able to apply principles of cultural humility to their clinical work with clients across diverse identities and backgrounds, demonstrating a balance between awareness/seeking out continuous learning and an approach of humility/curiosity for the individual. Fellows will exhibit a sound integration of these principles into their preferred theoretical orientation of practice. 

Competency 3: Residents will demonstrate proficiency in providing a holistic approach to mental healthcare. 

Objective 3: Residents will be able to demonstrate awareness of the multiple contributing factors to clients’ presenting concerns and collaborate across disciplines to address these various facets comprehensively. Fellows will exhibit a sound integration of these principles into their preferred theoretical orientation of practice. 

Competency 4: Residents will demonstrate professional behavior consistent with professional standards and ethical guidelines.

Objective 4: Residents will demonstrate actions consistent with an understanding of professional ethics, state laws of practice, laws related to and including the American Disabilities Act (ADA), awareness and sensitivity to cultural and individual factors, and issues related to client confidentiality and privacy. Residents will seek out additional consultation or supervision when faced with a clinical situation for which they are unprepared.

Competency 5: Residents will demonstrate proficiency in translating and applying science to practice.

Objective 5: Residents will demonstrate the ability to apply scientific knowledge to the clinical setting, be educated consumers of empirical research, and deliver empirically validated treatments. Residents are expected to think critically and evaluate research within the context of practical experiences and cultural factors. Residents will actively seek out relevant literature (in conjunction with consultation or supervision) when navigating new clinical presentations.

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Program Structure:

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Residents typically spend around 40-42 hours per week in training activities, divided into clinical practice (75%) and practitioner development (25%) hours. Residents have flexibility in devising their schedule, within the following parameters: 

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• Some workdays in each office location, at least one workday conducted virtually

• In-office workdays are divided between our two locations

• Residents work two evenings per week

• Residents can only see patients when a licensed clinician is in the building (if working in-person) or available virtually (if working via telehealth)

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Doctoral Level Residency Structure: 

The residency lasts for a period of 12 months (or until completion of license requirements), the start and end dates of which are determined by the resident and the Doctoral Training Director at the time of hire. Areas of professional development and concentration will be identified with the supervisor and Doctoral Training Director.

Master’s Level Residency Structure:

The residency lasts for a minimum of 21 months, and the start date is determined by the approval of the Board of Counseling and the Master’s Level Training Director. Areas of professional development and further areas of focus will be developed with the supervisor and Master’s Level Training Director.

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Training Experiences:

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Clinical Practice

Dougan and Walden Wellness, PLLC operates as an outpatient mental health treatment center for individuals with a wide variety of biopsychosocial concerns. This program admits individuals from the greater Richmond area and offers telehealth services to individuals anywhere within Virginia. This offers rich opportunities for residency training in the following:

• Trauma-Informed Care: Residents will provide psychotherapeutic services on an outpatient basis to individuals who have experienced trauma. The clinic also works with individuals with psychological needs due to prolonged stress, chronic health issues, and social stressors. These individuals require a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to optimally treat their complex needs. Thus, residents may coordinate and provide a wide variety of services to holistically address the sequelae of trauma, including psychotherapeutic interventions from psychodynamic, relational, CBT, DBT, and ACT orientations, psychological evaluations, interdisciplinary consults, and family conferences. Training will apply best practices for working with trauma to minimize the potential of recreating harm and to maximize the potential for healing and growth.

• Culturally Humble Care: Residents will serve a wide variety of clients from a diverse array of backgrounds and identities. Our training program strives to recognize the harm that the field of psychology has caused individuals and communities based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, ability, neurodiversity, socio-economic status, and more. Residents will be trained to adopt an approach of allyship, cultural humility, and curiosity, to minimize harm and maximize healing and empowerment for oppressed persons. This entails fostering an awareness of non-Eurocentric, anti-racist, non-cisheterosexist/monogamist, intersectional, holistic, and inclusive approaches to treatment. This may include working clinically from psychodynamic, multicultural, narrative-based, intersectional feminist, and/or emotion-focused theoretical orientations. Residents will participate in treatment planning and psychotherapeutic interventions based on research as well as the unique stressors and needs of the individual.

• Holistic Care: Residents will consider the wide array of factors that may contribute to clients’ presenting problems, including but not limited to biological, psychological, social, behavioral and spiritual components. Residents will be trained to integrate all components into treatment planning and to collaborate and consult as needed within the practice and across disciplines to meet patients’ needs holistically. As a part of this process, residents may gain experience with a variety of theoretical orientations, including Motivational Interviewing, CBT, ACT, DBT, Solution Focused Therapy, and Problem-Solving Therapy.

• Additional training experiences that may be available: Depending on the services available within Dougan and Walden Wellness PLLC at a given time within the training year, residents may have access to a variety of additional training experiences, including but not limited to: 

  • Designing, advertising and leading/co-leading a group therapy curriculum

  • Providing cognitive and personality assessment

  • Providing assessment for clients considering bariatric surgery and gender-affirming surgery 

  • Shadowing integrative services that may be offered in house (i.e., yoga, meditation and breathwork, Tai Chi, etc.)

Practitioner Development Activities

Residents will participate in structured educational activities, both as participants and as leaders, at Dougan and Walden Wellness, PLLC. Current required educational activities include the didactic series, below. Each series is an hour-long meeting that occurs on a rotating basis every other week. Didactics are required for residents, open to licensed clinical staff. Each meeting will include a presentation/discussion component, as well as an opportunity to build collaborative consultation skills with exposure to complex clinical cases presented by supervisors and peers. Recommended readings are provided in advance. Opportunities are available for residents to present topics of personal/professional interest.

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Residents may also have the opportunity to participate in Lunch & Learns and accredited continuing education courses as they are available.

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• Multicultural Care Didactic Series: Presentations from licensed clinical staff, invited guest speakers and residents on various topics of diversity as applied to clinical work with traditionally underserved and underrepresented populations. Discussion will foster personal awareness and multicultural sensitivity/humility. This seminar also provides an opportunity to review current APA and ACA guidelines on multiculturalism and clinical decision-making with diverse populations.

• Holistic Care Didactic Series: Presentations from licensed clinical staff, invited guest speakers, and residents on assessment, theoretical orientation and intervention, health and wellness allied intervention, and ethical/legal topics of interest. Discussion will foster understanding and integration of cross-cultural and non-Western methods of healing.

• Trauma-Informed Care Series: Presentations from licensed clinical staff, invited guest speakers and residents on topics including understanding the etiology and diverse presentations of trauma, principles of trauma-informed care, diverse approaches to working with trauma, and the intersections of identity and trauma. Discussion will foster the integration of trauma-informed care into all aspects of clinical practice.

• Professional Development Series: Presentations from licensed clinical staff, invited guest speakers and residents on professional identity development and various competencies requisite for a career in private practice. Topics may include skill-building in working with children, building, advertising and running psychotherapy groups, integration of self-care, and support for pursuing licensure, as well as topics of interest requested by residents.

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Telework:

The Dougan and Walden Wellness, PLLC Residency Program is dedicated to providing an accessible training experience to all. While this program is intended as a hybrid experience, should circumstances warrant residents work from home, all supervisory and didactic meetings can be made available online. If telework is necessary on a longer-term basis, the Clinical Director and rotation supervisors will work with residents to modify their individual training plans to maintain continuity of care for clients as well as continuity of training for residents.

The clinic offers a secure telehealth option for clients, which can also be used by residents working remotely. Telehealth services are a growing area of practice, and residents may expect a proportion of their caseloads to be virtual.

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Supervision:

Residents are guaranteed one hour of individual supervision per week from their primary supervisor or a member of the training team. All residents also attend weekly group supervision for two hours to augment individual supervision. This supervision is intended to foster professional development and can be used to fulfill licensure requirements in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Requirements for Completion:

To successfully complete the program, residents must:

1. Successfully meet or exceed expectations in the above competencies, as determined by supervisor evaluations.

2. Not be found to have engaged in any significant ethical transgressions.

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Pay Structure and Benefits:

The Dougan and Walden Wellness, PLLC Residency Program offers competitive compensation and benefits:

1. Pay structure (40% PhD/PsyD; 35% MS/MA/MEd)

a) Doctoral Level Pay Structure: Commission based, varies; however, an estimated range of $60,000 – 80,000.

b) Master’s level Pay Structure: commission based, varies; however, an estimated range of $45,000 – 65,000.

1. CEU stipend

2. Bonus Opportunity

3. Health Insurance & Aflac

4. Provided supervision (no cost)

Administrative Policies and Procedures: 

This program supports and adheres to Equal Employment Opportunity policies and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Applications from racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities and women are strongly encouraged. No applicant will be discriminated against based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, place of national origin, age, or ability status. We do not require self-disclosure. We actively recruit potential residents from diverse backgrounds. Our full diversity recruitment and retention plan is available upon request.

Resident’s Evaluation of Program:

To ensure the program meets the training needs of residents, ongoing evaluations of the program will be performed. The protocols for these evaluations are as follows:

1. At the outset of the residency, residents are informed that they may schedule a meeting with their Training Director at any time to discuss concerns or provide feedback regarding their training experiences. Residents are also supplied with formal rating scales (see below).

2. Residents will complete formal rating scales every six months in the program (after 6 and 12 months for all residents, in addition to 18 and 24 months for Master’s level residents) until completion of license requirements to indicate their satisfaction with their training experiences and outcomes, quality of supervision provided, didactic experiences, and available resources.

3. The Training Directors will review the residents’ satisfaction ratings and meet with residents individually to discuss. The evaluations will also be shared with the residents’ supervisors and training committee. Reasonable steps will be taken to address any areas of concern.

4. Separate exit interviews are conducted with the resident’s Training Director and, if requested, the Co-Training Director at the completion of the residency. Exit interviews are non-evaluative, and the information and impressions shared will be presented anonymously to the Training Team to promote improvements in our program.

Program’s Evaluation of Residents:

An ongoing evaluation of the resident is conducted to track progress and ensure compliance with licensure requirements. The protocol for these evaluations is as follows: 

1. At the outset of the residency, all evaluative rating scales and criteria for successful completion of the program will be made available to the residents, per the program and relevant licensure standards. Methods of evaluation include the use of rating scales and interviews with the residents, their supervisors, and affiliated staff members. Residents will be rated on their level of competence in the core areas of the goals described above.

2. Supervisors will evaluate residents’ progress with the above measures every three months throughout the training program (at the end of months 3, 6, 9, and 12 for all residents, in addition to months 15, 18, and 24 for Master’s level residents).

3. After each review, the residents will meet with their supervisors to review the ratings and discuss goals for further development. The Training Director receives copies of the evaluations and meets with each resident to review the performance ratings and provide any additional guidance or recommendations. Residents’ ideas or concerns will be addressed by their supervisor and/or their Training Director to ensure the best possible training is provided.

4. Monthly training meetings: Co-Training Directors and supervisor will review residents’ progress in Management meetings.

5. Private, scheduled meetings: If needed, additional meetings may be scheduled with the residents to address concerns or developments. Based on needs, the meeting may include their supervisor and/or their Training Director.

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Application and Selection Procedures:

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The Dougan and Walden Wellness Residency Training Program seeks to select residents who demonstrate the strongest match with the program’s aims and values. Candidates selected into the program have demonstrated strong clinical knowledge and exhibited global traits that include motivation, dedication to the field and training, and perseverance.

Doctoral Level Applicants:

It is required that applicants have successfully completed an APA/CPA-accredited and regionally accredited doctoral program in clinical, counseling, or school psychology prior to beginning their postdoctoral training. It is required that applicants have successfully completed an internship (preferably APA/CPA-accredited) before beginning their postdoctoral training with Dougan and Walden Wellness PLLC. Applicants from non-APPIC listed internships are required to submit a detailed description of the structure and content of their internship. The submitted description is reviewed by the Clinical Training Director and compared to APPIC internship criteria. Based on this review, a brief summary is written and shared with program supervisors.

Please submit the following application materials to info2@dwwellness.org:

1. A cover letter that includes your relevant clinical/professional experience and how it aligns with your interest in the DWW Residency Program

2. Curriculum Vitae

3. Three reachable references who can outline the following:

a) Your clinical training and professional development.

b) Your academic training and development.

c) Your internship experience.

Master’s Level Applicants

It is required that applicants have successfully completed a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) or Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) and regionally accredited graduate program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling before beginning their residency training. It is required that applicants have successfully completed an internship before beginning their residency training with Dougan and Walden Wellness, PLLC.

Please submit the following application materials to info2@dwwellness.org:

1. Curriculum Vitae

2. Three reachable references who can outline the following:

a) Your clinical training and professional development.

b) Your academic training and development.

c) Your internship experience.

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PLEASE WAIT FOR AN EMAIL REPLY FROM info2@dwwellness.org TO CONFIRM YOUR APPLICATION IS COMPLETE..

Upon receipt of a completed application, the training team will meet to review the application and contact the applicant to schedule an interview should the application demonstrate fulfillment of requirements. Interviews can be conducted virtually or in person, depending on the wishes of the applicant. Following the interview, the training team will meet to determine the goodness of fit and extend an offer if appropriate. 

Selected candidates who have completed all degree and application requirements will be able to begin the residency, as well as selected candidates who have a documented date of anticipated completion of all requirements. Please note that the anticipated completion date may be after the start of residency if the candidate is able to supply documentation to ensure they will have a conferred degree within a reasonable time from the start of the residency.

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Psychology Training Team

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Clinical Training Director of Doctoral Residents

Celeste Kelly, Psy.D.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Clinical Training Director of Master’s Residents

Jorden Anne Elliott-Mixon, MS

Licensed Professional Counselor

Questions regarding the program may be directed to Dr. Kelly or Ms. Elliott-Mixon at info2@dwwellness.org or at 804-893-5555.