Welcome from the Program Leadership

Thank you for your interest in our program. As a psychiatry residency program set in a tertiary medical center in rural New Hampshire, we believe we offer an ideal setting to train and live. It was this unique balance of an academic powerhouse set in rural New England that drew many of us to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. The Upper Valley is a great place to live, regardless of your interests. Home to Dartmouth College, amenities usually restricted to larger cities are easily accessible, such as fine dining, art museums, music, theater, division 1 athletics, and more. If you love the outdoors, look no further; hiking, skiing, swimming holes, and lakes, are all on your doorstep.

The Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center residency program offers a collegial and collaborative environment that promotes professional and personal growth. We offer a broad range of clinical training opportunities across several sites, including a tertiary medical center, state hospital, VA medical center, and community mental health centers. We offer advanced neuroscience and interventional psychiatry opportunities, such as ECT, TMS and esketamine, while also emphasizing the importance of psychotherapy. Our faculty are both distinguished and accessible, offering close mentorship and a clear love of teaching.

We are sorry that we cannot show you our program in person, but we hope you take the time to review our website. Please do not hesitate to be in touch with any questions. We look forward to hearing from you.

Gillian and Julie

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Gillian Sowden, MD
Gillian Sowden, MD
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Julie Frew, MD
Julie Frew, MD

Welcome from the Chair

Thank you for your interest in the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

Training at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is a rich opportunity to learn and grow. As a resident here, you will dive into psychiatry, surrounded by others who are committed to helping you gain expertise in this endlessly interesting and important field. The learning flows from our patients, our skilled, kind, enthusiastic faculty members, and from your remarkable fellow residents.

Our psychiatric residents come with talent then build on it to become strong clinicians and educators. All trainees are also introduced to translational psychiatric research and also to quality improvement leadership. Those who become intrigued have many opportunities to build their skills and experience in these areas.

Since we care about people who develop or live with psychiatric illnesses, your training really matters to us - our graduates spread out across the country improving lives over the decades that follow graduation.

We are delighted you are joining us in this important work and look forward meeting you.

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Dr. William Torrey

William C. Torrey, MD

Professor and Interim Chair of Psychiatry

Welcome from the Chief Residents

Hello prospective applicants,

We are the co-chief residents for the 2022-2023 academic year and we are thrilled that you are interested in learning about our Psychiatry Residency program! Brian is originally from Wisconsin although moved frequently throughout his life and currently counts New Hampshire as his 10th state. Matt is a native New Englander, having grown up an hour outside of Boston. Both of us are intending to remain at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for fellowship next year, and both plan on practicing either within this system, or elsewhere in northern New England in the long term.

Residents are drawn to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for many reasons, but the most resounding among them are the people and the culture of the program. We cannot say enough about the excellence of the clinical faculty at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the White River Junction VA (including the National Center for PTSD), New Hampshire Hospital (the state hospital), and our community mental health centers. These institutions embody a passion for patient care, mental health advocacy, and resident education and wellness. Our faculty care deeply about creating an environment where residents feel challenged and supported to grow as clinicians, educators, researchers, and people. Central to this is the program’s commitment to soliciting resident feedback and incorporating recommended changes into all aspects of training—from didactics to call schedules. During our three years here, residents and program leadership have been involved in implementing a night float call system both at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and the VA, improving documentation and systems workflows, changing the timing of didactics, starting weekly class-specific process groups, and adding more emergency and geriatric psychiatry exposure to the first 2 years of training. In an environment in which creativity is celebrated and all residents have the ability to make change, we have repeatedly been amazed by the work of our co-residents, who have started a Transgender Outpatient Consultation Clinic (which is now a core part of PGY-3 training), developed a therapeutic chatbot, created a Psychiatric Post-Acute COVID Syndrome Clinic, assisted in the creation of an Asylum Clinic and a PANS/PANDAS Clinic, published in Nature, and worked to develop a more robust diversity, equity, and inclusion curriculum.

We believe our Psychiatry family is truly special. We cannot wait to meet you and show you more about what drew us to Dartmouth for our training and what is keeping us here after graduation. Please do not hesitate to reach out to either of us if you have any questions about your upcoming interview, what it is like to be a resident here, or how it is living in the Upper Valley!

Warmly,
Brian Rosen and Matthew Rasmussen

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Brian Rosen and Matt Rasmussen