Post Doctoral Fellow - Psychedelic

Emory University is a leading research university that fosters excellence and attracts world-class talent to innovate today and prepare leaders for the future. We welcome candidates who can contribute to the excellence of our academic community.

Program:
Psychedelic Therapy Research and Emory Healthcare Veterans Program (EHVP)
This position is a two-year dual-focused research and clinical fellowship. This postdoctoral fellowship position would be a 50/50 split position between psychedelic clinical research and the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program (EHVP).

Psychedelic clinical research components (50%) will include involvement on Department of Defense funded clinical research investigating MDMA assisted massed exposure therapy for PTSD, and funded research investigating psilocybin support for PTSD as well as psilocybin assisted massed exposure therapy for PTSD. The fellow would be involved in study assessments and treatment and would also be involved in data analysis and publications and have opportunities for grantsmanship if interested.

Data components being collected in the studies include brain imaging paradigms, psychophysiology (including fear potentiated startle model of fear extinction learning), blood-based biomarkers, and self-reported and clinical variables. The fellow would also have access to many large clinical research datasets for potential secondary analysis. We are members of the Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality ( with many ongoing collaborations. As such, there are opportunities to collaborate in this research as well, including in areas of diversity considerations within psychedelic care, spiritual health informed psychedelic care, assessing and tracking adverse events within psychedelic use, and many other emerging areas.

EHVP clinical fellowship components (50%) provides advanced clinical training to prepare fellows to assume a variety of roles as professional psychologists, with in-depth training in serving the mental health needs of our nation's military and veteran population. Fellows obtain outstanding training in the practice of clinical psychology under the direction of Drs. Barbara O. Rothbaum and Sheila

A. M. Rauch. EHVP provides a two-week intensive outpatient treatment program (IOP) for post-9/11 active-duty military service members and veterans struggling with conditions including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, co-occurring substance use disorders (SUD), military sexual trauma (MST), and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Fellows practice within an interdisciplinary team, train within a scientist-practitioner framework, contribute to the leading edge of clinical care, and are valuable members of our treatment team.

Fellows receive cutting-edge clinical training in massed evidence-based treatments including Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy and Unified Protocol (UP), as well as evidence-based intake assessments including the CAPS-5-R and DIAMOND. Fellows carry a caseload of one or two individual IOP patients providing daily 90-minute massed treatment (e.g., PE or UP), as well as one or two intake assessments per week. Fellows receive ample supervision and consultation given our team approach to patient care, including individual and group supervision, as well as formal trainee didactics.

Additional clinical training opportunities include massed Unified Protocol group therapy; massed In-Vivo group therapy; individual and group family services based on the FOCUS model; individual and group wellness interventions; and individual SUD interventions (e.g., relapse prevention, COPE). Research interests among EHVP faculty include, but are not limited to: PTSD, anxiety, chronic pain, mental health disparities and access to care, psychotherapy outcomes, virtual reality-based exposure therapies (VRET), psychedelics and adjunctive pharmacological therapies (e.g., MDMA, psilocybin, cannabis/THC), neurobiological predictors/outcomes of treatment, and early intervention/prevention of PTSD.

Participation in research provides opportunities to gain a breadth of practice and collaborate with colleagues across the Emory community and nationwide, and internationally.

As a program housed within Emory University and Emory Healthcare, the full and rich resources of this thriving community are available to fellows, including access to events, museums, and scholarly fellowship. The program actively fosters professional development, with support for licensure and frequent opportunities for specialized training, consultation networks, and community outreach. The stipend is currently $62,232 and will be updated in line with any changes to the NIH postdoctoral fellow stipend levels.

The Atlanta metropolitan area is the largest in the state of Georgia, ninth largest in the United States, and home to a diverse population of more than five million residents. Atlanta is home to numerous museums, art galleries, and cultural landmarks, as well as thriving music, film, and sports scenes.…