The Clinical Psychology program is fully accredited by the American Psychological Association and it is aimed at a select group of students; those who believe that clinical psychology should be firmly grounded in the basic science of our field. The Clinical program is a member of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science, which is a coalition of doctoral training programs that share a common goal of producing and applying scientific knowledge to the assessment, understanding, and amelioration of human problems.

The Clinical Psychology faculty is committed to the scientist-practitioner model of training, with a clear emphasis on the word "scientist". The clinical faculty also believes that effective investigators must be competent clinicians if they are to develop a complete understanding of psychological phenomena. We therefore emphasize the development of strong clinical skills as an essential part of our training. We seek to train students who are fully capable of and interested in integrating science and practice.

The program requires five years of full-time study - - four years plus a full year internship. The curriculum has been designed to ensure students’s active participation in research as well as consistent training and experience with the assessment and treatment of clinical problems throughout their programs of study. We do not believe that our students need to choose whether they will be either scientists or practitioners; they must see these activities as being inherently intertwined, and they must be able to function in both roles. We encourage research and academic career goals for our students consistent with our training goals and our views about the future needs for the profession of clinical psychology. However, a number of students elect careers in applied settings and use their scientist-practitioner skills in clinical work.

Clinical practicum training begins at the Psychological Services Center (PSC) in the first year and continues throughout the second and fourth years. In the student’s third year, they go on "externship" which is a supervised clinical placement outside the PSC and typically in the surrounding community. Graduate students enroll in clinical practicum each semester of the program. The Director of the PSC, in collaboration with the Director of Clinical Training, is responsible for ensuring that each student receives a diversity of practicum experiences within the Psychological Services Center that is consistent with the student's professional goals. Qualified faculty members continuously provide supervision and evaluation of student progress.

The Clinical Psychology program utilizes a "vertical team" approach in which each team consists of one Faculty Supervisor, one or two first year students, several second year students, and one or two fourth year students. The Faculty Supervisor will utilize a step-wise, graduated approach to prepare first year student clinicians to interview, assess, and treat clients. This process can involve introducing general methods of interviewing and typically used modes of intervention through a process of didactics, role-playing, seeing a "client" from the Introductory Psychology subject pool or a member of the department willing to role-play as a client, and finally, seeing one referred client to the PSC. First year students then continue beyond the academic year into a Summer Practicum that provides a more client intensive environment in which to further practice and develop basic interviewing, assessment, and treatment skills.

While the practicum student is primarily responsible to the Faculty Supervisor, fourth-year students will also provide supplementary feedback, guidance, and consultation. For example, advanced graduate students may be asked to observe a specific therapy session to provide feedback on the approach used during that session.

In the past few years, there has been a mix of practicum teams; some that focus on general clinical skills and some that focus on a specialization in a given clinical area (e. g., child psychopathology, anger issues, substance use).

In addition to the general and specific clinical skills training offered by the practicum teams, opportunities are typically available for graduate students to engage in performing assessments in specialty clinics, community outreach projects, and clinical research.

The manuals posted in the Faculty/Staff/Student Resources section of the resources page will provide you with more detailed information regarding all aspects of PSC operations, training, and procedures.