Mission:
Our mission is to meet the needs of patients admitted into inpatient care at the Institute of Living by providing direct patient care (group, milieu, and individual treatment) and indirect patient care via case formulation support to physicians and psychoeducation to all direct care staff. We are committed to improving key drivers of the hospital system including fiscal goals and patient experience. Our department is centered around interprofessional collaboration, research, and training/professional development of new psychologists.
What is inpatient psychology?
The Inpatient Psychology Department consists of six clinical psychologists and several doctoral trainees who are integrated throughout the Donnelly Building at the Institute of Living. Each of the three general adult units has its own embedded psychologist, while the child and adolescent units share one embedded psychologist. In addition, a dedicated group psychologist provides group programming across all general adult units as well as the older adult unit.
Embedded psychologists deliver direct patient care through milieu interventions, individual, and group psychotherapy. They also contribute to staff psychoeducation and broader efforts to support optimal milieu functioning. Collaboration with interprofessional treatment teams is central to their role, as is providing education and supervision to psychology trainees and psychiatry residents. The group psychologist directs group programming in coordination with recreation therapists and clinicians across all adult and older adult units and additionally leads process and skills-based groups across each unit daily.
Further, The Inpatient Psychology Consultation Service assigns trainees to appropriate patient referrals across all 6 adult and child inpatient units once treatment teams determine that additional therapeutic engagement would be beneficial. Trainees also have several groups per week across all units. The trainees consist of predoctoral interns, postdoctoral fellows, and practicum students from APA-accredited programs.
Our team:
Dr. Melissa Jourdain is a clinical psychologist and the Director of Inpatient Services at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital. In this role, she provides oversight and leadership for all inpatient clinical operations, including Inpatient Psychology, Social Work Clinicians, Recovery Support Specialists, Rehabilitation Therapists, and the Psychiatric Emergency Department.
Dr. Jourdain earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from Nova Southeastern University, where she specialized in the treatment of individuals living with serious mental illness. She completed her predoctoral internship with the South Florida Internship Consortium, with an emphasis on crisis stabilization, and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Living, specializing in inpatient psychiatric care.
Since joining the Institute of Living, Dr. Jourdain has been deeply committed to clinical supervision, development of early career professionals, and program development. She has played a central role in the development of the Inpatient Psychology Department, helping to advance high-quality, evidence-based care within the inpatient setting.
Clinically, Dr. Jourdain specializes in the treatment of individuals across the lifespan with serious mental illness and complex trauma, including C‑PTSD. Her expertise includes crisis interventions, complex case formulation, and systems level interventions within acute inpatient levels of care.
Dr. Rick Lautenbach is a licensed clinical psychologist at The Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital. He leads therapy groups on all adult and older adult inpatient units and consults with group leaders of various disciplines regarding group programming. He has promoted and guided expansion of group programming throughout the hospital over three decades of service at the IOL and supervises psychology students in developing group leadership skills.
Dr. Lautenbach earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Kent State University where he was grounded in behavioral and cognitive behavioral theory and technique. He completed his pre-doctoral internship at the Greater Hartford Psychology Internship Consortium and his post-doctoral fellowship at Elmcrest Hospital. Over the course of his career, Dr. Lautenbach has always been leading and supervising group therapy. He spent many years managing PHP/IOP programs and has been focusing mainly on inpatient group therapy since 2012. His work has enabled him to cultivate an integrative style, based on an interpersonal therapy approach. He is a co-chair of the American Group Psychotherapy Association’s special interest group on group therapy within agencies and institutions. Finally, Dr. Lautenbach has been devoting much of his time and attention to advancing the hospital’s Trauma-Informed Care initiative and the Patients’ Rights and Dignity initiative.
Dr. Zoe Rice is a licensed clinical psychologist at The Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital, embedded on Donnelly 3N (general adult psychiatric inpatient unit). She shares the role of primary supervisor of adult inpatient practicum students from APA-accredited programs.
Dr. Rice earned her PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Nova Southeastern University and began her tenure at the Institute of Living in 2023 as a Psychology Intern in the General Adult Track. She subsequently completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at the IOL, serving as the Adult Inpatient Fellow. Dr. Rice has particular interest and expertise in the treatment of trauma-related disorders in adults and is dedicated to providing care at the highest level of acuity through enhancing and advancing trauma-informed approaches on the unit. She is involved in the Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) initiative at the IOL and her research interests include adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and various treatment variables related to the inpatient setting.
Dr. Kimberly Cimino is a licensed clinical psychologist at The Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital, embedded on Donnelly 3S (general adult psychiatric inpatient unit). She manages the adult referrals to the Inpatient Psychology Consultation Service and is the primary supervisor of predoctoral interns and postdoctoral fellows on the Adult Inpatient placement as part of the IOL’s APA-accredited training programs. Additionally, Dr. Cimino assists in occasional teaching and consultation with psychiatry residents.
Dr. Cimino completed her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Hartford, and completed her predoctoral internship at the Institute of Living and her post-doctoral residency at The Village for Families & Children Adult Services. Dr. Cimino has specialized in underserved community populations with exposure to trauma through violence, chronic stressors, and systemic oppression, as well as specialized training in personality pathology through an integrated clinical lens. Dr. Cimino’s clinical interests are treating adult populations with an intentionally integrated theoretical approach utilizing psychodynamic formulation with psychodynamic and dialectical behavioral therapy interventions. Research interests include various outcome measures related to psychology leadership in the inpatient setting.
Dr. Callie Jowers is a licensed clinical psychologist at The Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital, embedded on Donnelly 2S (general adult psychiatric inpatient unit). She shares the role of primary supervisor of adult inpatient practicum students from APA-accredited programs, and she co-leads the Early Career Seminar for the postdoctoral fellows in the APA-accredited postdoctoral program.
Dr. Jowers completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Detroit Mercy in 2023 upon completion of her predoctoral internship at the Institute of Living in the General Adult Track. From there, she completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Silver Hill Hospital in 2024. In 2017, she completed her M.S. in Psychology with a clinical focus from Augusta University. Her clinical and research interests are in inpatient psychology, psychodynamic theory, personality disorders, and psychotherapy process and outcomes.