Pacific Northwest Information
Madigan Army Medical Center is located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Seattle, Olympia, and Tacoma are each within an hour drive of the installation. Additionally, the cities of Portland, OR, Vancouver, BC, and Victoria, BC offer locales for convenient weekend trips. Nestled between the Puget Sound, Mount Rainier, and the Olympic Mountains, a plethora of outdoor activities on the water and in the mountains abound. The climate tends to stay moderate throughout the year, with the temperature typically falling between 40–80 degrees.
While portraying a small-town feel, the surrounding area offers many big city amenities including museums, casinos, cruises/ferries, festivals, and theaters, as well as a large variety of dining and entertainment options. Fresh seafood, local breweries, and coffee roasteries are staples in the area. Major tourist attractions include the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Chittenden Locks, Mount Rainer National Park, and Olympic National Park. For sports enthusiasts, Seattle has several professional sport teams, including the Seattle Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders FC, and the Kraken. Additionally, Tacoma is home to the Tacoma Rainiers, the triple-A baseball affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. At the collegiate level, the University of Washington Huskies field a full complement of engaging collegiate sports in the PAC-12.
JBLM is conveniently located along the Interstate 5 corridor, with easy access to the Seattle-Tacoma (SEA; 30 minutes) and Portland (POR; 2 hours) International Airports. Amtrak train service and bus lines are also available.
Wellness and Resilience
Wellness discussions are incorporated throughout program activities. Individual and group supervision provides dedicated time for supervisors to check in with their interns about how they are doing personally, and if they need additional support. Group supervision also offers an opportunity for interns to provide peer feedback to each other about wellness or concerns related to performance or burnout. The Program Director regularly checks in with each intern and has a more focused discussion about wellness and burnout during quarterly counseling’s. The interns can rely on their Chief Intern (two-month rotating term) and Chief Resident (year-long term) for additional support and to provide feedback to the program/faculty in a variety of formal or informal ways. We have a Social Committee where interns create events for their cohort and family members that reduce stress, promote resilience, and improve comradery within the cohort. Interns are afforded various opportunities throughout the year to attend wellness-based events including team-building activities on their respective rotations and social gatherings including the residency graduation celebration and internship hail and farewell. Quarterly military training activities are also team-oriented and involve getting out of the office for events like paintball, hiking, and military-specific skills such as convoy simulation or the Engagement Skill Trainer 2000. Interns participate in a mindfulness didactic series, which focuses on both patient care and self-application of these skills. Interns receive information about wellness resources available to them.
Commitment to Individual Diversity and Non-Discrimination Policy
Our nation, our Army, and our local communities are made up of diverse individuals. We believe that recognizing our differences and diversity and engaging in thoughtful reflection, careful study, and deliberate practice of ethical and competent psychology gives us the strength to solve problems and meet challenges. Diversity training occurs throughout our training year and includes topics such as implicit bias and practicing cultural competence and humility. Our Diversity Committee is made up of trainees, faculty, and program leadership. This group meets regularly and works to assist the program (and the post-doctoral residency program) in meeting our aims with respect to diversity and inclusion. The Madigan CPIP has a policy outlining our commitment to respect individual differences, cultural diversity, and non-discrimination.
Madigan, the Behavioral Health Service Line and CPIP emphasize the importance of respecting, seeking out, and valuing diverse perspectives and opinions. As future psychologists, interns are expected to be culturally competent and able to work with a variety of populations and individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds and our training program is committed to fostering this competency among all interns.
Madigan CPIP does not discriminate based on age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, language, national origin, race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Our program is committed to providing a learning environment for interns, faculty, and staff that is supportive and encouraging for all interns and that values individual differences and diversity factors.
Didactic and experiential training activities and supervision emphasize an understanding of cultural and individual differences and diversity as it relates to the profession of clinical psychology. As such, these areas of competency are interwoven throughout the educational activities in CPIP and are evaluated on each rotation.
Madigan, BHSL, and CPIP fall within federal regulation prohibiting discrimination. As such, several policies apply which dictate nondiscrimination in employment. These are described below and can be found on the Office of Personnel Management website.
There are several Department of Defense, Army, and federal regulations regarding non-discrimination and equal opportunity employment.
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