Bridging the Gap: Building Collaborative Relationships with Medical Providers

In this course, Dr. Rachel Allen, Psy.D., introduces a practical framework for building collaborative relationships with medical providers across private practice, integrated care, hospital, and referral-based settings. The course explores why medical settings are often the front door to mental health care, how medical culture and system pressures influence communication, and what clinicians can do to make collaboration easier, clearer, and more sustainable. Through concrete examples, including referral barriers, trust-building strategies, SBAR communication, and referral-network development, clinicians will gain actionable ways to improve interdisciplinary coordination and support better continuity of care.