Psychiatry Residency

Our program’s mission is to mentor and educate future leaders of psychiatry who are expert and compassionate academic clinicians, equipped with the competencies, skills, and intent to provide superb psychiatric care to our communities and advance a more effective healthcare system.

We are located in Burlington, Massachusetts, 17 miles northwest of Boston. We are in a perfect location, surrounded by history-rich leafy suburbs and the wonderful cultural and academic opportunities of the Boston area. Massachusetts is fun! There are plenty of opportunities for enjoying ocean beaches, hiking, and skiing, all within easy reach.

Please email us with any questions.

• Laura T. Safar, MD, Program Director
  Lahey Hospital & Medical Center
  41 Mall Road
  Burlington, MA 01805
  781-744-8013
• Kari DeLorenzo, Program Coordinator
  Lahey Hospital & Medical Center
  41 Mall Road
  Burlington, MA 01805
  781-744-8728
  Email

• To educate psychiatrists with solid understanding of the biological and psychosocial aspects of psychiatry, and to inspire curious life-long learners who will continue to analyze evidence-based knowledge and contribute to the creation of new knowledge.
• To promote the development of psychiatrists with the knowledge, competencies, and skills to effectively practice different aspects of the profession, including clinical, academic, and administrative roles.
• To capture Lahey Clinic’s strengths as a physician-led, multispecialty center at the forefront of the clinic model to train psychiatrists who are experts in the collaborative and inter-professional care of patients with psychiatric and medical illnesses.
• To leverage the strengths of UMass Chan-Lahey’s LEAD@Lahey medical leadership curriculum, to prepare psychiatrists who will be leaders of our field.
• To mentor psychiatrists who are compassionate, ethical, just, emotionally intelligent, and able to bring together the humanistic artistry and science of psychiatry to the care of all patients.
• To promote and sustain a safe learning and working environment that is diverse and equitable.

Clinical Experience

Our setting at Lahey Hospital combined with our partnerships with outside institutions provide our trainees a rich clinical experience. We enroll 4 residents each post graduate year for a total residency size of 16 trainees. Psychiatry residents will participate in rotations at high-complexity academic medical centers, community hospitals and health centers, and Veterans Affairs hospitals. Eastern Massachusetts has a diverse population, well- suited for learning about diverse cultures. We offer a wide range of clinical exposures, from community psychiatry to refined subspecialty psychiatry including aspects of medical psychiatry, integrative health, neuropsychiatry, and neuromodulation.

Brief Curriculum of Rotations Per Year

PGY1

• Internal Medicine
• Neurology
• Inpatient Psychiatry

PGY2

• Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
• Inpatient Psychiatry
• Geriatric Psychiatry
• Addiction Psychiatry
• Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
• Partial Hospitalization Program
• Longitudinal Ambulatory Experience (2 patients)

PGY3

• Ambulatory Psychiatry
• Sub-Specialty Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry

PGY4

• Ambulatory Psychiatry
• Collaborative Care Psychiatry
• Community Psychiatry
• Chief Residencies: Administrative, Consultation-Liaison, Education, Ambulatory
• Elective Rotations

Residents have weekly protected time for didactics and scholarly activity. Residents will engage in longitudinal scholarly activities including a Quality & Improvement Project, a Capstone Project, and a Psychiatry Leadership project.

In addition to the didactics listed below for each year, residents may attend Lahey Psychiatry Grand Rounds, Psychiatry Quality and Safety Rounds, Psychiatry Ethics Rounds, Lahey Neuropsychiatry CME Conference, Leadership conferences, and Journal Club and Case Conferences, among other educational opportunities.

Of note, the list of didactics below includes general titles. Within each session, the content will be customized for each year, accompanying the clinical experiences of each training year and the gradual development of expertise of the class. For instance, depending on the year, what we list here as clinical psychiatry will include addiction psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, community psychiatry, and others.

PGY1

• Introduction to Clinical Psychiatry
• Emergency Psychiatry
• Introduction to Psychopharmacology
• Introduction to Clinical Skills
• Introduction to Psychotherapy

PGY2

• Clinical Psychiatry
• Psychopharmacology
• Clinical Skills
• Psychotherapy
• Clinical Neurosciences

PGY3

• Clinical Psychiatry
• Psychopharmacology
• Clinical Skills
• Psychotherapy
• Careers in Psychiatry
• Models of the Mind

PGY4

• Clinical Psychiatry
• Healthcare Systems and Advocacy
• Psychopharmacology
• Clinical Skills
• Psychotherapy
• Transitions to Practice

Patrick R. Aquino, MD, Division Chair

Dr. Patrick Aquino is the Chair of the Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine for Lahey Hospital & Medical Center. As Medical Director for Behavioral Health Integration for Beth Israel Lahey Health Behavioral Services, he leads Beth Israel Lahey Health’s initiative to integrate behavioral health (Collaborative Care) across its network of primary care practices. He is board certified in General Psychiatry and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and completed a fellowship in Medical Education at Harvard Medical School. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UMass Chan-Lahey in the TH Chan School of Medicine at the UMass Chan Medical School. His research interests include evaluating care delivery models, integrating technology in health care, and investigating psychiatric illness in medical disease. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Fellow of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine.

Laura Safar, MD, Program Director

Dr. Laura T. Safar is the Vice Chair of Psychiatry at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is board- certified in General Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatry, and Consultation- Liaison Psychiatry. She is a clinical and educational leader in Neuropsychiatry, and is passionate about teaching psychiatry to the next generation. She is coeditor of the textbook “Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology: Principles and Practice”, and co-director of the Harvard CME Course “Neuropsychiatry: A Comprehensive Update.” She is the Director of Lahey’s Psychiatry Residency Training Program, and Lahey’s Fellowship in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry. Her research interests include the neuropsychiatry of Multiple Sclerosis, and the effectiveness and quality of psychiatric care. Dr. Safar is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Hema Venigalla, MD, Associate Program Director

Hema Venigalla, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist with expertise in the integrative treatment of individuals with psychiatric disorders in the outpatient setting. Her areas of interest include integrated care, collaborative care, neuromodulation, and psychiatric education. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, UMass Chan Medical School.

Hannah Hollander, MD, Associate Program Director

Hannah Hollander, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist who practices outpatient care for patients with a range of psychiatric diagnoses. Her areas of interest are in women's mental health, college age young adults, ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, depression and mood disorders. She also has experience in addiction psychiatry and utilizes a harm-reduction framework in her work with patients with substance use disorders.

Our Faculty

Our core faculty at Lahey Psychiatry and Behavioral Health consists of an interdisciplinary group of academic clinicians with substantial experience educating and training medical students, psychiatry residents and fellows. Our faculty members hold academic appointments at UMass Chan Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, and Harvard Medical School. Many of our faculty members have received Excellence in Teaching awards. In addition to their mastery of general psychiatry, our psychiatrists have subspecialty expertise in consultation- liaison psychiatry, collaborative psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, transplant- psychiatry, and addiction psychiatry.

Inter-professional care and education is a cornerstone of the culture and practice at Lahey. Residents benefit from the clinical and teaching skillfulness of our psychologists, advanced practitioners, and social workers. Our psychologists have expertise in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, trauma- informed care, and several subspecialties of health psychology including psycho-oncology, medical weight loss and bariatric surgery, sleep medicine, transgender health, transplant, and other. In addition to their clinical and teaching prowess, our advanced practitioners are valued members of practice improvement committees and initiatives in psychiatry and the hospital at large. Our social workers provide individual and group psychotherapy – we count with an extensive Group Psychotherapy portfolio – and consultations for various subspecialties. Our PERC (Psychiatry Emergency Resource Clinicians) team collaborates closely with our Emergency Department.

The Learning Environment — Other Training Programs at Lahey

Residents benefit from their interaction with trainees from other Lahey residency and fellowship programs. Within the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Division, our other training programs include: Psychology Post-Doctoral Fellowship; Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry Fellowship; UMass Chan Psychiatry Clerkship; Nurse Practitioner Fellowship; Social Work and Mental Counseling Internships; elective rotation in neuropsychiatry for psychiatry residents.

Dr. David Van Norstrand (Consult Liaison Director)  

David Van Norstrand, MD, PhD, completed his MD as well as a PhD degree in cardiovascular genetics at Mayo Medical School. He completed his psychiatry residency at MGH and McLean Hospitals, a fellowship in psychodynamic psychotherapy at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and a fellowship in CL psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance. He is board certified in General Psychiatry and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. He directs the LHMC Psychiatric Consultation service, and the newly formed Addiction Consultation Service. He is the Psychiatry Clerkship Director for UMass Chan medical students. He is co-author on a number of peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Martha Koutsos (Staff Psychiatrist)

Martha Koutsos, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist with expertise in the comprehensive outpatient care of individuals with psychiatric disorders. Her interests are in depression and mood disorders, anxiety and adjustment disorders, ADHD, and evaluation of liver transplant and kidney transplant donors. Her areas of expertise include her interdisciplinary work with patients with Parkinson's Disease undergoing DBS treatment. Dr. Koutsos is an experienced teacher who has provided clinical training to medical students from Tufts University School of Medicine and UMass Chan Medical School. She leads a multidisciplinary clinical team of psychiatrists, advanced practitioners, social workers, and psychologists.

Dr. Smita Patel (Staff Psychiatrist)

Smita Patel, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist with expertise in Addiction Psychiatry. Dr. Patel has substantial experience treating individuals with addiction disorders in various settings including dual diagnosis services, methadone and suboxone outpatient services, inpatient detox and others. Dr. Patel is an experienced educator who has provided clinical training to learners from Tufts University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical school, and UMass Chan Medical School. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UMass Chan Medical School.

Dr. Larry Schibuk (Staff Psychiatrist)

Larry Schibuk, MD, is a board-certified Psychiatrist at LHMC and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the UMass Chan School of Medicine. He completed his residency in psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr Schibuk has worked in a variety of health care settings in the US and Canada, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. He has also worked as a research psychiatrist, participating in studies related to the genetics of psychiatric illness and clinical trials. His clinical interests include the treatment of psychotic disorders and the treatment of patients in acute care settings.

Dr. Benita Handa (Staff Psychiatrist)

Benita Handa, MD is an ABPN board-certified psychiatrist with expertise in the comprehensive outpatient care of individuals with general psychiatric disorders. Her areas of sub-expertise include her work with geriatric patients, including patients with concurrent neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders, and women’s longitudinal mental health. Dr. Handa is an experienced educator who has provided clinical training to medical students from Tufts University School of Medicine and UMass Chan School of Medicine, with a focus on foundational education that is relevant to clinical practice. She also provides medical education to patients, with a focus on bio-physiologic processes relevant to health maintenance. Dr. Handa is the Chair of LHMC's Continuing Medical Education Committee, and a member of UMass Chan Lahey Medical School Admissions Committee. 

Dr. Brianna Gutowski (Staff Psychiatrist)

Dr. Brianna Gutowski is a Staff Psychiatrist at LHMC. She completed her general psychiatry residency at Christiana Care in Delaware and her Fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Gutowski is board certified in General Psychiatry and is board-eligible in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. Her clinical interests include transplant psychiatry and psychiatric care with medically complex individuals.

Dr. Jacob Venter (BILH-Behavioral Services, Site Director)

Jacob Venter, MD is board- certified in Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He has extensive experience as a clinician, educator, and leader in psychiatry. He taught and supervised medical students, residents, and child and adolescent psychiatry fellows, at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), Phoenix Children's Hospital, and Maricopa Medical Center in AZ for numerous years. At CHA, he was Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Vice Chair of Clinical Operations. In his current role of Associate Chief Medical Officer of BILH Behavioral Services he oversees clinical and educational operations as well as Quality and Safety initiatives in this network. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UMass Chan Medical School. 

Dr. Nalan Ward (BILH-BS Addiction Services, Site Director)

Nalan Ward, MD, completed her adult psychiatry residency and fellowship in addiction psychiatry at Boston University Medical Center. She is board certified in adult and addiction psychiatry. She held numerous clinical and educational leadership roles at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Ward has presented locally and nationally and has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications. Her topic of interests include the treatment of opioid use disorders, clinical innovations to increase access to addictions care, clinical education of trainees, and professional academic development in the field of addiction psychiatry. She is the Chief Medical Officer at BILH Behavioral Services, and the Site Director for the Addiction Psychiatry rotation. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UMass Chan Medical School.

Dr. Fe Erlita Festin (Boston VA Hospital, Site Director)

Fe Erlita Festin, MD, DLFAPA is an attending psychiatrist and Director of the Mental Health Inpatient and Neuromodulation Services at VA Boston Healthcare System. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She completed her Psychiatry Residency at the Harvard affiliated VA Brockton/Massachusetts Mental Health Center Program. Her practice has focused on the care of patients with acute and serious mental illness in the adult and geriatric population. In 2013, she was awarded the Outstanding Psychiatrist Award for Public Sector by the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society. She has been on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and has been the recipient of several Outstanding Teacher Awards. She fosters a safe and stimulating educational environment in the inpatient and neuromodulation services at the VA Boston Healthcare System. 

Dr. Paula Kirby-Long (Cape Cod Hospital, Site Director and Chief of Psychiatry)

Paula Kirby-Long, MD graduated from Dartmouth Medical School, where she completed a combined residency in internal medicine and psychiatry. She practiced as a psychiatrist in Northern Vermont in an underserved area, where she provided clinical training to psychiatry residents in rural psychiatry. She returned to Dartmouth to complete her Fellowship in Sleep Medicine and practiced as a sleep specialist and CL psychiatrist for 10 years. She served on the Maine DMV board to develop driving safety standards for persons with narcolepsy and obstructive sleep apnea. She returned to her family in Massachusetts and practiced outpatient and inpatient psychiatry at Cape Cod Healthcare, where she now serves as the Chief of Psychiatry. 

Dr. Cathy Perkins (Cape Cod Hospital, Director of Psychiatric Emergency Services)

Cathy Perkins, MD, graduated from SUNY Buffalo school of medicine and completed her psychiatry residency at SUNY/Buffalo medical consortium, and a fellowship in Consultation - liaison psychiatry at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Perkins practiced inpatient psychiatry at MGH, and CL and ED Psychiatry at Boston City Hospital, where she became the Director of ED Psychiatry. She then lived in Wisconsin for several years, where she was the Medical Director of Meta House (residential and IOP substance abuse program for women), and attending psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin student health center. Since 2019 she has been the Director of Psychiatric Emergency Services at Cape Cod Hospital. She is board certified in adult psychiatry and credentialed by the American Society of addiction Medicine.

Dr. David Bowman (BayRidge Hospital, Site Director, Chair | Senior Medical Director | Quality Officer)

David R. Bowman, MD, CHCQM is a physician leader in psychiatry within the Beth Israel Lahey Health system. He graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine as a U.S. Army Health Professions Scholarship recipient and completed his residency in Psychiatry at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, HI. He served as a commissioned officer from 2009 to 2021 and held various clinical and leadership roles, including Deputy Chief of a Multi-Disciplinary Outpatient Clinic, and Medical Review Officer for Forensic Drug Screening. He conducted security clearance evaluations and participated in evaluations for criminal competence to stand trial for the military legal system. Dr. Bowman serves as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry for Beverly Hospital, which encompasses four North Shore BILH hospitals, as well as Senior Medical Director for Behavioral Health, and Hospital Medical Director of BayRidge Hospital. Dr. Bowman is a fellow of American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review, and is certified in Health Care Quality and Management. He has a passion for quality improvement and provider satisfaction. 

Dr. Steve Gillespie (Addison Gilbert Hospital, Site Director)

Steven Gillespie, MD is board certified in adult psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, and hospice/palliative care. He completed his psychiatry residency at Brown University, and since 1992 has been working at Addison Gilbert Hospital, Beverly Hospital, and Bayridge Hospital. He is the Medical Director of Beverly Hospital’s ECT service. His work has included inpatient and CL psychiatry, with a focus on geriatric psychiatry, for the past 20 years. He is an experienced educator, having taught family medicine residents, and BU and Tufts medical students. He has presented at national meetings on topics of geriatric psychiatry. Dr. Gillespie serves as the Site Director for the Addison Gilbert Hospital's inpatient geriatric psychiatry rotation, and for an elective ECT rotation at Beverly Hospital. 

Dr. Maura Copeland (Center for Healthy Aging, Site Director)

Maura Copeland, MD, is a Board Certified in General Adult Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry. She completed her medical education at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and her residency in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her clinical interests include Alzheimer’s Disease and outpatient geriatric psychiatry. She is the Site Director for the outpatient geriatric psychiatry rotation at the Center for Healthy Aging. 

Dr. Bradford Lewis (Medical Director of Neuromodulation Service, Boston VA)

Bradford Lewis, MD, is a board certified adult psychiatrist. He completed his medical education at UMass Medical School, his psychiatry residency training at the Harvard Longwood program, and a Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at MGH/McLean Hospitals. He is the Director of the Neuromodulation Service at the Boston VA, where he offers clinical training to residents on various neuromodulation modalities including ECT, TMS, as well as ketamine treatment.

Learn more about the Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine team.

Lahey Hospital & Medical Center

This is the main site for the Program. Didactics, rotations, and other educational experiences (supervision; grand rounds; leadership training; etc.) take place at this site.

Required rotations: Medicine; Neurology; Consultation-Liaison (CL) Psychiatry; Emergency Psychiatry; Ambulatory Psychiatry; Collaborative Care Model Psychiatry; PGY4 Chiefship (options: administrative; outpatient; CL; educational).

Elective rotations include: Sub-specialty CL and Ambulatory Psychiatry. Examples: psycho-oncology; transplant psychiatry; bariatrics; transgender health; ICU CL psychiatry; neurocritical care CL psychiatry; addiction CL psychiatry.

Beth Israel Lahey Health Behavioral Services (BILH-BS)

BILH-BS is a large network of community-based mental health and addiction services. They offer integrated mental health care for adults and seniors, children, adolescents and families. Their services include: Addiction and recovery services; individual counseling and group therapy; psychiatric assessments and medication services; family services; home and school-based programs for teens and adolescents; mobile crisis teams for behavioral health and substance-related emergencies.

Rotations at this network: Addiction Psychiatry; Child & Adolescent Psychiatry; Community Psychiatry; additional site for Ambulatory Psychiatry.

Veteran Administration (VA) Boston Healthcare System

The Boston VA has a strong tradition of training psychiatry residents in the Boston area. This site offers a robust teaching team that includes 11 in-patient psychiatrists and 4 units (Trauma Related Disorders and Addiction, Severe Mental Illness, and 2 Subacute units for longer stays). Rotations here include: Inpatient Psychiatry; Neuromodulation; CL Psychiatry. The neuromodulation rotation includes CT, TMS, and ketamine (IV and intranasal). Opportunities also exist for residents to complete a mini fellowship in neuromodulation at this site. 

Beverly Hospital, BayRidge Hospital, Addison Gilbert Hospital, & Center for Healthy Aging

These institutions are part of the Northeast Health Corporation. Together, they provide highly coordinated care to individuals suffering from psychiatric illness.

Beverly Hospital is a 227-bed acute care hospital and Level III Trauma Center. It counts with an 18-bed adult inpatient psychiatric unit providing specialized care for patients with psychiatric disorders and concurrent medical conditions. Beverly Hospital also offers inpatient and outpatient ECT service.

Rotations at this site: Inpatient Psychiatry; ECT.

BayRidge Hospital is a community psychiatric hospital providing high quality psychiatric and substance use treatment. It counts with two main inpatient psychiatric units and more than 50 psychiatric beds. Rotations at this site: Inpatient Psychiatry.

Addison Gilbert Hospital (AGH) is a medical acute care facility. Their Senior Adult Unit provides inpatient geriatric psychiatry care to the elderly with psychiatric disorders and concurrent medical disorders. Rotations at this site: Geriatric Psychiatry (inpatient).

The Center for Healthy Aging is a multi-disciplinary outpatient clinic that provides geriatric psychiatry and geriatric medicine care, as well as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) treatment.

Rotations at this site: Geriatric Psychiatry (outpatient); Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).

Cape Cod Hospital (CCH)

CCH is a general community hospital with its main location in Hyannis, MA. Their psychiatric services include: ED Psychiatric Observation Service; Cape Psychiatric Center: a 20 bed inpatient unit; CL Psychiatry Service; Partial Hospital Program; Center for Behavioral Health: Outpatient psychiatric services, including child and adolescent psychiatry.

The psychiatry team at CCH provides a supportive and rigorous learning environment. Given the distance from Lahey Hospital, residents will have the opportunity to reside in Hyannis during their rotation. The hospital provides free housing, in the form of private apartments located across the street from the hospital.

Rotations at this site: Inpatient psychiatry; emergency psychiatry; Partial Hospital Program; Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Our Psychiatry Residency utilizes exclusively the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) System for application purposes. We will not review applications submitted in other ways.

Application requirements include: Completed ERAS application; Dean’s letter; medical school transcript; three letters of reference; personal statement; USMLE Steps 1, 2-CK, 2-CS prior to start of the residency, and USMLE Step 3 (if taken).

We conduct all interviews virtually. Our Residency participates in the National Resident Matching Program.

Laura T. Safar, MD
Program Director
Lahey Hospital & Medical Center
41 Mall Road
Burlington, MA 01805
781-744-8013

Any inquires can be directed to:

Kari DeLorenzo
Program Coordinator
Lahey Hospital & Medical Center
41 Mall Road
Burlington, MA 01805
781-744-8728
Email

International Medical Graduate Applications

Lahey Hospital & Medical Center sponsors only J-1 visas for international medical graduates. You must apply through ERAS. You must have a valid ECFMG certificate to be eligible for graduate medical training at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center.

Competitive applicants will have graduated from medical school within the last 5 years. However, we do not have a strict cut off for number of years since graduating from medical school. Your letters of recommendation should include letters from US clinical rotations. Strong preference is given to applicants who have secured meaningful hands-on clinical experiences in the US health system.