Elective Emphasis Areas

The curricula for the PsyD clinical program is designed to provide advanced doctoral students with the opportunity to complete an additional focus in an area of interest or to take electives to enhance the required course offerings. This study option is offered and strongly encouraged, since it provides an entry to specialization which can continue at the post-doctoral level. Normally, two to four courses will be offered during the academic year from each of the following emphases.

Assessment Emphasis 

The assessment emphasis is designed for students who want to go beyond the basic assessment courses required of all PsyD students. The assessment emphasis gives students training in advanced methods of test interpretation and advanced skills in the integration of test materials into comprehensive test reports, as well as psychometric theory. Students are also exposed to the assessment of specific clinical populations, such as children, adolescents, custody litigants, sexual predators, and other forensic populations. Students must complete at least one of their practica in a testing setting, enroll in one PSY 8551 Clinical Consultation Group with a testing emphasis, and complete a dissertation in an area related to assessment.

Students in the assessment emphasis complete the first-year intelligence testing course, and the second-year personality assessment sequence required of all PsyD students. In addition, they take the following courses:

• PSY 7010 Foundations of Measurement (Gateway course). This course will be taken in the Fall of the G2 year and Life Span Development and Introduction to Integrative Psychology in the Spring of the G2 year.
• PSY 7514 Advanced Assessment Elective: Clinical Inference (Practice course)

Students also take a Clinical Elective course such as:

• PSY 6633 Psychology and Family Law (Custody Evaluations)
• PSY 7514 Advanced Assessment Elective: Clinical Assessment of Children and Adolescents
• PSY 7615 Neuropsychological Assessment (Requires Neuropsychology as a prerequisite)
• PSY 8500 Advanced Seminar in Assessment (e.g., Evaluation of Sex Offenders, Research & Practice with the Rorschach)

Family/Child Psychology Emphasis

The family/child psychology emphasis is designed for students who are interested in developing proficiency in evaluation, treatment and research with children and families. Courses cover the entire life span, from infancy through old age and are presented from various theoretical viewpoints including family-systems, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral and lifespan development. Emphasis students take the same core and elective courses as Family Track students, but are not in the Track sections of required courses.

The program supports the study of ethnic and cultural issues as they affect the individual and the family. Faculty research interests include family violence, child abuse and neglect, adolescent development, childhood social competence and peer relationships, early childhood psychopathology, aging, child resiliency, divorce, child custody, step families, and process and outcomes of family interventions.

It is suggested that students take at least one year of professional training placement in settings which emphasize interactions with children and families. Dissertations addressing family/child issues are common at the San Diego campus.

Required courses include Theory and Practice of Psychotherapy-Child (Practice course), Family Psychotherapy (Therapy Elective), Family Systems Theory (Gateway course), Family Therapy with Ethnic Families (Multicultural Practive Elective), and Developmental Psychopathology (Elective). Students are expected to take one PSY 8551 Clinical Consultation course in a group emphasizing family or child issues. Students may also take electives such as:

• PSY 7311 Couples Therapy
• PSY 7514 Advanced Assessment Elective: Clinical Assessment of Children and Adolescents
• PSY 7514 Advanced Assessment Elective: Clinical Inference - Children
• PSY 8543 Family Violence: Dynamics, Prevention and Treatment

Forensic Psychology Emphasis

The forensic psychology emphasis focuses on the relationship and interdependency of law, social science and clinical practice. It provides the basic foundation for post-graduate training for a career in forensic clinical psychology. The emphasis requires the completion of an introductory course in forensics, which acquaints the student with the nature of the legal system and the varied roles of psychologists within it. This introduction also includes training in the basics of testimony-the preparation of a defensible report; the appropriate presentation of one's qualifications; the persuasive presentation of psychological science to a judge, jury, or within an amicus brief; and the increased ability to withstand cross-examination. Additional courses address psychological assessment, violence, antisocial behavior and other clinical topics. Students also have the option of taking an organizational psychology advanced seminar addressing conflict management or dispute resolution. Students are expected to address an issue in forensic psychology in their dissertation. They are also encouraged, but not required, to procure forensic training in their practicum or internship. Students are expected to take one PSY 8551 Clinical Consultation course focusing on forensic issues.

Three courses are required to complete the emphasis area, two of which are mandatory:

• PSY 6331 Introduction to Clinical Forensics (Gateway course)
• PSY 7541 Advanced Assessment Elective: Clinical Inference - Forensics (Practice course)

Students will select one of the following elective offerings to complete the emphasis:

• PSY 6633 Psychology and Family Law
• PSY 8543 Family Violence: Child Abuse
• PSY 8544 Interpartner and Spousal Abuse

It is expected that PsyD dissertations will focus on a topic related to forensic psychology.

Integrative Psychology Emphasis

This emphasis area exposes students to the basic principles of Integrative Psychology. An integrative, systems approach to health and healing brings multiple ways of knowing into psychological practice, encouraging practitioners to attend not only to clients' cognitive behaviors, but also to their cultural and spiritual concerns. Since a psychologist's own perceptions profoundly influence outcomes, the courses and credits included in this emphasis area are intended to ensure that professionals-in-training refine their values along with their skills and that they work to achieve educated intentionality and mindfulness in all phases of their clinical work.

In many ways, integrative psychology re-focuses attention on traditional healing practices that are concerned with the complex ways in which social context, body, mind, and emotions continually interact and influence well-being. Integrative psychology includes the study of spirituality, consciousness, meditation, biofeedback, imagery, prayer, somatic practices, expressive arts, human ecology, postmodern psychologies, cultural psychology, and the application of all these in clinical settings. At the same time, the field values mainstream psychological models and emphasize research based on systems theory and integrated methodologies.

This emphasis addresses a shortage of qualified psychologists with experience in the holistic balancing of health, suffering and death issues, psychospiritual counseling, and conflicting belief systems viewed in their cultural contexts. An integrative approach trains psychologists to provide pathways rather than treat pathologies. Hospitals now implementing integrative medicine need researchers and clinicians who are qualified to assess and apply multidisciplinary and alternative healing practices.

Candidates are expected to develop dissertation topics in the area. Recent topics have included:

• Comparative Systems of Healing;
• Native American Spirituality and Resilience;
• Mythopoetics in Men's Movements;
• Social Evolution and Media;
• Psychology of Religions;
• Effects of Journaling and Narrative Psychology;
• Alternative Therapies for HIV Clients;
• Working with Survivors of Torture; and
• Nature Rituals and Healing.

To complete the emphasis area the following three courses are required:

• PSY 6605 Introduction to Integrative Psychology (required of all PsyD students)
• PSY 6526 Theories of Personality, Psychopathology and Psychotherapy (Existential) (Gateway course)
• PSY 7501 Advanced Psychotherapy: Existential (Practice course)

Candidates in the emphasis are required to take one additional Integrative Psychology elective. The following list is subject to change as the program develops.

• PSY 6643 Cross Cultural Topics (East-West Psychologies, Holocaust, Ritual and Healing, Psychology of Religions)
• PSY 6644 Ecology/Psychology
• PSY 6646 Transpersonal Psychology
• PSY 6654 Psychology of Ethnic Diversity (Asian, African, Latino and Native American)
• PSY 7612 Women and Gender: Historical Perspectives
• PSY 7639 Expressive Arts Therapies
• PSY 8800 Advanced Seminar (Hypnotherapy, Humanistic Psychology, Integrative Psychology)
• PSY 7650* Intro to Jung and Shadow Archetype
• PSY 7650* Life Story, Journaling, and Narrative Psychology
• PSY 7650* Mindfulness-Based Therapies
• PSY 7650* Spirituality and Psychology
• PSY 7650* The Psychology of Terrorism

* This elective falls under the course number PSY 7650 as an Integrative Psychology Elective.

Multicultural and International Emphasis Area

The Alliant approach to multiculturalism is inclusive: It incorporates diversity in many respects including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, geographical and international, age, social class, religion and disability. Central to traditional clinical psychology is the examination of factors known to be relevant to mental health/mental illness as western society defines them. The goal of this emphasis area is to go beyond the traditional western, majority cultural viewpoint so that students might have the basic preparation to focus on cultural and international encounters in professional psychology. Whereas traditional psychology focuses primarily on individual psychological activity, cultural psychology is based on the view that cultural and societal level influences on the individual can be best understood by incorporating societal systemic variables and cultural contexts. The international component of this emphasis area has recently been added and is under development. The emphasis will provide students with opportunities to prepare for clinical licensure, research, teaching, and consulting in the area of cultural diversity.

Students in this emphasis take coursework in these broadly defined multicultural and international areas and complete a dissertation relevant to some aspect of cultural or international psychology. They must also arrange for at least one of their practicum/internship professional training placements in a setting serving a culturally diverse population. The large majority of our training sites serve such populations. Students are expected to take one of the PSY 8551 Clinical Consultation courses in a section emphasizing diversity issues.

In addition to the cultural psychology courses required of all students, a total of nine units in multicultural or international psychology are required. They may include:

• PSY 6129 Multicultural Competency Development (required of all PsyD students)
• PSY 7161 Cultural Psychology: Delivery of Services (Gateway course)

Emphasis area students must take a Multicultural Practice Course, such as:

• PSY 7610 Cultural Seminar: Psychology of LGBT Individuals
• PSY 7610 Cultural Seminar: Clinical Interventions with LGBT Clients
• PSY 8500 Clinical Elective: Treatment of LGBT Couples and Families
• PSY 8540 Family Therapy with Ethnic Families

Students must also take a multicultural elective, such as:

• PSY 6643 Cross-Cultural Topics (East-West Psychologies, Holocaust, Psychology and Spirituality, Mexican History, Ritual and Healing)

Students should note that this emphasis area is under active development and as such, continues to undergo revision. We are developing the international component and examining integrative psychology principles for possible inclusion.

Psychodynamic Emphasis

The psychodynamic emphasis provides students with a coherent practical and theoretical framework to practice general psychology in a variety of settings with children and adults. At the San Diego campus, the psychodynamic emphasis curriculum gives students exposure to coursework and supervision integrating object relations, self psychology, analytic psychology, existential psychology and cognitive, science-based approaches to unconscious processes. Coursework and supervision prepare students for further professional development and specialization beyond the doctorate.

Students in the psychodynamic emphasis area are required to complete at least three courses among the psychodynamic offerings, complete at least a one year practicum with psychodynamic supervision, complete a dissertation in an area pertinent to psychodynamic theory, research or application, and enroll in one PSY 8551 Clinical Consultation section incorporating a psychodynamic emphasis. Students must complete:

• PSY 6524 Theories of Personality, Psychopathology and Psychotherapy: Psychodynamic (Gateway course)
• PSY 7501 Advanced Psychotherapy: Psychodynamic (Practice course)

Students must also take one elective, whicmay include:

• PSY 8500 Clinical Elective: Advanced Psychodynamic Interventions
• PSY 8500 Clinical Elective: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Adolescents
• PSY 8800 Advanced Seminar: Theoretical Psychodynamic Issues
• PSY 8800 Advanced Seminar: Object Relations