Brent Ferm

Brent (Rick) Ferm is a core faculty member and licensed psychologist in the USF Clinical Psychology PsyD program. He was a clinical psychologist for the Veterans Affairs, Northern California Health Care System for 20 years, including providing training in psychodynamic treatment approaches for clinical psychology interns. Additionally, he was on the medical faculty at the UC Davis School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, providing psychotherapy training to psychiatry residents. He is a supervisor in the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. In the USF PsyD Program, he teaches Professional Ethics, Laws and Standards, Advanced Practicum, Clinical Supervision, Dissertation Seminars, and an elective on Clinical Implications of Attachment Theory.  Dr. Ferm supported the development of the program’s clinical competency exam and regularly serves as the comprehensive exam committee co-chair. Dr. Ferm’s research is focused on clinical competency training, and the impact of attachment-based interventions on treatment outcomes.  Dr. Ferm has a clinical and research background emphasizing life-span developmental transitions. He has a long-standing private practice informed by a relational, attachment-based  psychodynamic perspective. 

• Psychodynamic psychotherapy
• Clinical supervision
• Attachment theory
• Time-limited dynamic psychotherapy

• Clinical competency training and evaluation
• Attachment-based clinical interventions
• Deliberate practice, psychodynamic psychotherapy

• Co-Chair SPEE/DCQE Committee, Clinical Psychology PsyD Program

• Northwestern University, PhD in Clinical Psychology, 1991
• UC Berkeley, BS in Psychology, 1980

• Full Professor, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry UC Davis
• Clinical Training Director, Prospect Sierra School
• Staff Psychologist, Veterans Affairs, Northern California Health Care System

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• Recipient of Residents’ Outstanding Volunteer Clinical Faculty Award, University of California at Davis, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry (7/12-6/13)
• Recipient of Residents ‘ Outstanding Volunteer Clinical Faculty Award, University of California at Davis, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry (7/05-6/06)
• Awarded Phi Beta Kappa (6/80)
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• Meghani, D.T., and Ferm, B.R. (2021). Development of a Standardized Patient Evaluation Exam: An Innovative Model for Health Service Psychology Programs.Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 15(1), 37–44.