Answering a need. Starting a movement.

The California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) was founded after members of the California Psychological Association (CPA) discovered that there was little training available in California for professional psychologists. Because those who were schooled in California were trained largely as researchers, 90 percent of the state's psychologists were being trained outside California.

California Psychological Association members founded the California School of Professional Psychology under the auspices of their professional association in 1969. The nation’s first free-standing professional school of clinical psychology, CSPP began with campuses in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

During its first year, the fledgling school was run by 250 dedicated volunteers and a mere handful of paid staff. They were taking a huge risk – there was no guarantee that CSPP would be able to grant degrees. At that time, the State of California was empowered to grant an accreditation, and thanks to the volunteers’ hard work, the school took off. Within six weeks, California granted CSPP the right to award degrees.

CSPP earned further accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in 1977. By the mid-1980s, it had four campuses: Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. By the mid-1980s, all four campuses earned APA accreditation.

The vision of the founders of CSPP

Inspired by a belief in human problem-solving – the idea that psychology can help people live healthier, fuller lives and overcome both social and developmental problems – CSPP founders were both visionary and practical. They wanted a school that trained students who would graduate with both a strong academic grounding and the hands-on skills a practitioner needs. They created a model of professional training that has been emulated over and over by schools all across the country.

Committed to diversity

In demographically diverse California, those skills include the ability to work with people from a variety of different backgrounds. As the school’s mission statement attests, the founders of CSPP were concerned with multiculturalism. CSPP founded the Multicultural Education Research Intervention and Training (MERIT) Institute in 1991 as a means of implementing the institution’s mission-driven commitment to multiculturalism.

MERIT’s goals are to enhance and support multicultural academic and training activities on Alliant campuses through collaboration and coordination, as well as to promote multicultural research, interventions, educational activities, and the professional development of students, faculty, staff, and administrators.