LA Clinical PsyD: A Practitioner Program

The PsyD program in clinical psychology addresses the societal need for professionals who deliver or facilitate the delivery of psychological services to diverse populations and to underserved or poorly-served populations. This societal need is for practitioners and programs that are culturally aware, culturally sensitive, and responsive to human problems of developmental deprivation, dysfunction, trauma, and oppression.

APA Education & Training Outcomes

The CSPP Los Angeles Clinical Psychology PsyD program is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), which requires that we provide student outcome data, including time to completion, program costs, internships, attrition and licensure. Please follow the link below for that information. We hope this information will help you to make an informed decision regarding your graduate study. Student Outcome Data

APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation: 750 First Street, NE; Washington, DC 20002-4242  Phone: 202-336-5979

The goals of the PsyD Program are to develop practitioners who:

• Acquire knowledge of theory and research in the scientific foundations of professional psychology, including biological, individual, and social aspects of human functioning, as well as knowledge of basic statistics and research methodology;
• Identify, clarify, and evolve professional attitudes pertaining to professional ethics, self-awareness, openness and responsiveness to critical feedback, lifelong professional learning, and to the evidence-based practice of psychology;
• Acquire skills in ethical reasoning, in critically evaluating and synthesizing both theories and professional research, and in identifying the social-political context and issues in theory, research, and service delivery; and
• Achieve competence in relationship skills and applying skills in service delivery, in clinical supervision, and in other activities chosen by the student, such as teaching, consultation, or the management of mental health organizations.

Program Overview

Students take scientific foundations courses in the first two years. In the first year, students begin a progression of increasingly more advanced courses in assessment and intervention: from Clinical Interviewing and Psychodiagnostic Assessment, to Intervention theory and skills courses, to Practice Seminars, to the final level of Advanced Clinical Elective and clinical supervision within the Professional Roles course. A written examination on psychodiagnostic assessment via testing is given at the end of the first year.

At the end of the third year, an oral examination is given in the areas of clinical assessment, case conceptualization, clinical intervention, multicultural competence, and case-specific ethics and laws. Professional training in field placements includes Assessment Clerkship (optional) in the first year, Clinical Practicum in the second year, half-time Internship in the third year, and a half-time internship in the fourth year or a full-time internship in the fourth year for students who entered the PsyD program with a masters degree in clinical or counseling psychology or clinical social work.

Research Training

Research training is begun in the second year with courses in statistics and research and test design. The PsyD program trains practitioners to be critical reviewers and consumers of research. A written comprehensive examination in research is taken at the end of the second year. A Doctoral Project is conducted in the third year. These projects typically are a comprehensive literature review, a selective literature review plus the presentation of a talk to a professional audience, a selective literature review plus the design of a brochure for a professional target group, a selective literature review plus the design of an empirical research project, or a selective literature review plus a grant proposal. These projects involve mentoring by a project supervisor and an academic consultant and involve interaction with three field consultant-practitioners who are experts on the project topic.

Emphasis Areas

The PsyD program includes three emphasis areas: Clinical Health Psychology (CH); Family and Couple Emphasis (FACE); and Multicultural Community-Clinical Psychology (MCCP). Applicants to the PsyD program must specify one of the three emphasis areas, to which the applicant seeks admission. Finally, forty-five hours of individual psychotherapy with a psychologist licensed in California are required prior to graduation. (Forty-five hours of therapy received in the last three years prior to matriculation may satisfy this requirement.)

Multicultural Competence Training

The PsyD program includes multicultural training to address issues of diversity in regard to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, social class, and religion. This is reflected in the required course, Intercultural Processes and Human Diversity, as well as through the integration of multicultural perspectives in several core and elective courses.

Special features of the Los Angeles campus include a national reputation for excellence in multiculturally relevant education and training, a wealth of diverse clinical placements available in the Los Angeles region, and a mentoring model firmly integrated with the academic experience.

The diversity of the LA campus community provides students with the opportunity to interact with faculty, staff, administrators and other students from many different cultural backgrounds. The primary goals of the two-semester course, Intercultural Processes and Human Diversity, are to increase self-awareness relevant to multicultural issues, to increase awareness of multicultural dynamics in the larger society, and to thoughtfully examine multicultural issues in service delivery. Students are asked to look at their own multicultural identities, as well as at their values, stereotypes, prejudices, and potential "blind spots."

In addition, Intercultural Processes and Human Diversity focuses on increasing multicultural knowledge by gaining familiarity with theory, research and clinical applications relevant to diverse populations. Finally, elective courses and the availability of field training sites that provide experience with diverse groups offer opportunities to develop skills that enhance work with culturally diverse clients.

Accreditation

The PsyD program in Los Angeles has full accreditation from the Committee on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association.

American Psychological Association office of Program Consultation and Accreditation:
750 First Street, N.E.
Washington DC 20002-4242
Phone: 202-336-5979