Psychiatry Residency Program
The psychiatry residency program is a central component of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine. The program is supported by the School, University of Colorado Hospital (UCH), Denver Health Medical Center (DHMC), The Children’s Hospital (TCH), and the Veteran's Administration Medical Center (VAMC). The program is accredited for four years of residency training by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Residency Review Committee (RRC) for Psychiatry.
The program has attracted and trained top-notch medical graduates since the opening of the Colorado Psychiatric Hospital in 1925, one of the first psychiatry residency programs in the United States. This long tradition of innovative patient care, excellence in teaching, and internationally renowned research is at the foundation of today’s modern residency program, which maintains a balanced and integrated approach. The biological, psychological, and social aspects of mental health and illness are explored and taught with the developmental perspective as the underlying and unifying framework. The department’s large faculty consists of 167 full-time members and 366 volunteers, providing the breadth and depth of expertise to fully achieve this educational goal.
First Year Residents |
Second Year Residents |
The program is very strong in biological psychiatry, building on the resources of the Schizophrenia Center, the Developmental Psychobiology Research Group, the Biomagnetic Imaging Laboratory, the Neuropsychiatry Service, and others. The program has maintained its longstanding commitment to psychotherapy training, including a psychodynamic psychotherapy track and cognitive behavioral therapies for mood and anxiety disorders. The faculty of the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis is active in providing supervision and didactics. Excellent training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and group psychotherapy is also included.
Residents are trained in caring for diverse populations, ethnic minorities, and the underserved via rotations at Denver Health Medical Center, one of the nation’s premier public teaching hospitals, and community mental health partners, as well as cross-cultural didactics and electives.
The psychiatry residency offers early exposure to children and adolescents in primary care, neurology, and psychiatry settings. These options advance residents’ understanding of the developmental aspects of psychiatry, and for some will help determine whether to pursue advanced child & adolescent psychiatry training.
Our graduates are highly sought after by fellowships, academic departments, employers, and colleagues nationwide. An excellence success rate on the ABPN examinations is but one marker of the success of our educational mission. Colorado-trained psychiatrists are regional, national, and international leaders in patient care, administration, education, and research.
