Pioneers in Pediatric Psychology: Parsimonious Interventions, Serendipity, and Collaboration

When I graduated from high school in 1966, the field of pediatric psychology did not exist. In fact, the term “pediatric psychology” was not coined until 1967 when Logan Wright wrote his groundbreaking article in the American Psychologist (Wright, 1967). I began the University of California at Berkeley wanting to be a dentist, but after a conspicuous lack of passion for organic chemistry, I went to the UC Counseling Center for advice about a change of major. After taking a Strong Vocational Interest Blank, the counselor suggested “psychology.” After taking a myriad of psychology courses, I discovered my passion. In fact, the experience with the counseling center convinced me to get my PhD in Counseling Psychology so I could help college students discover their passion. While attending the Counseling Psychology doctoral program at the University of Texas, I took several practica at the University of Texas Counseling Center and discovered to my dismay that, at least in the early 1970s, the kinds of presenting problems confronting college students (e.g., what to major in, dealing with parents, dating concerns) were not particularly challenging. This motivated me to do a predoctoral internship in a medical setting. I anticipated that I would be working with adults because I had little child training, but serendipity provided an opportunity to work with children and families. Although I had still not heard of the field of pediatric psychology, I was fortunate in 1974–1975 to obtain an internship specializing in pediatric psychology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (UOHSC). This was one of the few training programs in existence at that time. Pediatric psychology was a new field, but I had the “dream team” of Logan Wright, Diane Willis, and Gene Walker as my primary supervisors. Logan was one of the three original cofounders of the Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP) in 1969, Diane was the first editor of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology published in 1976, and Gene, a consummate behavioral psychologist, directly influenced and led the pediatric psychology program at the UOHSC for >20 years. My internship jumpstarted my future as a professional psychologist, which included beginning primary care pediatric psychology programs at Henry Ford Hospital (1975–1980) and Scott and White Hospital (1980–1995), joining a tertiary care pediatric psychology program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital (1996–1998), and eventually working with doctoral training in a school psychology program at Texas A&M University (1998–present). I will always consider myself first and foremost a “pediatric psychologist.” The field of pediatric psychology is diverse and multifaceted. At the same time, my experiences in pediatric psychology were predominantly in primary care outpatient pediatric clinics doing evaluation and treatment that would not be dissimilar to those activities of a clinical child psychologist. Pediatricians often would refer patients to me for common psychological issues pertaining to development, behavior, or learning. Although I had the occasional chronic illness referral, inpatient consultation, or emergency room referral, most of my time was spent in an outpatient setting. I was doing integrated care and primary care long before it was commonly used term. As I continued my practice in pediatric psychology, I had no idea how it would evolve. For the past 16 years, I have been teaching in the school psychology program within the Educational Psychology Department at Texas A&M University, which is not a traditional pediatric psychology position. At the same time, there is a long-standing tradition of school psychologists interfacing with pediatric settings (Power, DuPaul, Shapiro, & Parrish, 1995). Half of my effort is as a faculty member in an APA-accredited School Psychology program teaching child psychotherapy, assessment, and psychopathology, while the other half of my effort is as Director of the Counseling and Assessment Clinic (CAC), the training clinic for the School Psychology and Counseling Psychology training programs at Texas A&M. What do these two positions have to do with pediatric psychology? As a faculty member, I mentor doctoral students who might want to pursue a pediatric psychology career and am the faculty advisor for outside practica at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston), Texas Children’s Hospital (Houston), Cook Children’s Hospital (Ft. Worth), and Dallas Children’s Hospital. As a result, during the past 10 years, the School Psychology program has placed 30% of its predoctoral interns in pediatric psychology placements (e.g., Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Boston Children’s Hospital, Stanford Children’s Hospital, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Oregon Health Sciences University, University of Minnesota Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Michigan). As Director of the CAC, our psychotherapy clinic is located off-campus in a federally qualified community health center. This setting provides the School Psychology students with the opportunity to consult with physicians and other personnel from the medical side of the clinic.