PSY 8554 - Advanced Clinical Skills

1. Substance Abuse Treatment. This course will provide student clinicians with a general overview of treatment for substance use disorders, focusing on current empirically validated approaches to treatment. This course will identify and examine the etiology of substance use disorders and current interventions, including the various approaches for conceptualizing addiction and chemical dependency. Special attention will be paid to treatments geared toward specific substances of abuse, treatment modalities, and treatments for special populations of substance using clients.
2. Early Childhood Mental Health. This course is an introduction to early childhood mental health at child development centers subsidized by the State to serve low-income, high-risk families. The course begins with theoretical frameworks, including a review of systems, attachment and reinforcement theory. It then addresses understanding child behavior, and the underlying meaning it communicates to caretakers and providers, within cultural context. The culture of the classroom is also explored, as is the role of psychologists in working with educators in such classrooms. Parental and family influences on early childhood mental health are also addressed in the context of diversity. Prerequisite: Third year PsyD or PhD student, or consent of instructor.
3. Clinical Applications of Psychopharmacology. This course explores psychopharmacology from several perspectives. The medications for mental illnesses: Depression, Bipolar illness, Anxiety, and Psychosis especially, are examined considering individual case examples. The use of herbal and other non-prescription alternative treatments are also discussed. Applications of psychopharmacology in key patient populations such as children, adolescents, women, varying ethnic groups, substance abusers and the elderly are explored.