Young teenager speaks with medical provider.

Psychological Services

Psychological Services at UVM Health

At University of Vermont Health, highly skilled clinical psychologists provide compassionate, comprehensive mental health care. We deliver leading-edge evaluation, consultation and treatment in hospitals and clinics throughout Vermont and northern New York.

Our psychologists provide clinical assessment, consultation and psychotherapy to patients hospitalized on our medical, surgical and rehabilitation units. In addition, we provide assessment and psychotherapy in a variety of outpatient settings, including hospital outpatient, specialty clinic and primary care settings.

Why Choose UVM Health?

As one of the leading mental health services providers in the region, we offer:

Effective psychotherapy (talk therapy): Our clinical psychologists are trained and experienced in a wide range of talk therapy techniques. As part of an academic medical center, many of our clinicians are clinical supervisors and teachers, training the next generation of experts.
Expert medical psychology services: The mind and body are closely related, and they often affect each other. We offer medical psychology care for people experiencing acute or chronic physical illnesses that may impact their mental well-being. We also provide support to medically hospitalized patients whose psychological challenges might impact their medical care and condition. Our interventions are aimed at treating the whole person and improving health outcomes.
Coordinated, accessible care: Our psychologists are embedded across many specialties, including developmental behavioral pediatrics, sleep medicine, pediatric primary care, pediatric specialty care, adolescent medicine, cancer care, rehabilitation, memory care, comprehensive pain and general outpatient clinics. With services at UVM Health locations across the region, quality care is within reach.

Psychological Services

At UVM Health, we provide comprehensive psychological services to people with all mental health conditions. We serve people in various settings, including our hospitals, clinics and rehabilitation facilities.

Psychological Services During Hospitalization

While you're in the hospital for a physical illness, your emotional health might need care, too. Our medical psychologists help adults, adolescents and children in the hospital with a range of services, including:

Medical Psychology: Our services include brief psychotherapy and/or psychological interventions for patients who are medically admitted to the hospital. We typically see patients in need of support adjusting to hospitalization, and/or diagnosis as well as those whose mental health challenges impact their care. When our team meets with patients and their loved ones, we assess for current psychological needs, provide support for coping with hospitalization and connect patients to needed resources both inside and outside of the hospital.
Pediatric Psychology: Psychological support and consultation to families and caregivers with children or adolescents admitted to the hospital.
Rehabilitation Psychology: Psychological support and consultation for patients admitted to rehabilitation units for injury, illness or trauma from illness or injury, including traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury.

Outpatient Psychotherapy

Adults, adolescents, children and families can access compassionate evaluation and psychotherapy in one of our clinics. We provide individual, group, couples and family psychotherapy. Our skilled psychologists provide care and support for a variety of conditions, including, but not limited to:

Acute and chronic illness or injury
Acute and chronic pain
Anxiety
Bereavement and loss
Eating disorders
Gender-related concerns, such as gender dysphoria
Memory concerns
Mood disorders
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Parenting challenges
Relationship and behavior problems
Sleep problems
Substance use disorders
Trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Neuropsychological Services

Neuropsychological evaluations help us understand how the brain influences behavior. We provide evaluation and treatment recommendations for conditions such as:

Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia
Multiple sclerosis
Parkinson's disease
Stroke
Traumatic brain injury
Other medical conditions that can impact attention, memory, learning and problem-solving

What to Expect

At UVM Health, we know that mental health care is not one-size-fits-all. Your psychologist will listen to your story and ask the right questions to understand your needs.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is a collaborative process. You and your psychologist will develop a treatment plan to help you reach your goals. You may be:

Helped to understand the ways in which thoughts, feelings and behavior interact and impact your coping, relationships and sense of well-being.
Learn about the ways in which your experiences have shaped your view of yourself and others.
Introduced to a variety of tools and strategies designed to promote change and modify unhelpful patterns of behavior.

Greater self-awareness, compassion, skills and practice may result in increased resilience and fortitude for navigating life’s challenges.

Neuropsychological Assessment

A neuropsychological assessment helps us gain a clearer understanding of who you are. We begin the process by interviewing you to collect information about your background, how you function and your concerns. We encourage you to bring a friend or family member who knows you well to join that conversation.

During the testing portion of your visit, your family members or friends will be asked to wait in the waiting room. You will complete your neuropsychological testing with either a neuropsychologist and/or a trained psychometrist. The tests assess your memory, attention, problem solving, language, planning, visual perceptual abilities, as well as emotional and behavioral functions.

The testing portion of the visit can vary widely in length depending on your needs, but we ask that you be prepared to spend approximately 3-6 hours with us.