PSY85612 - Consultation

(2 units)

1. Consultation: Medical Settings This course addresses the varying and complex roles of psychologists in medical settings. The role of consultant is unique and involves assessment, individual and family psychotherapy, psychopharmacological recommendations, active involvement on multidisciplinary teams as well as more subtle interventions with multidisciplinary team members. These multiple roles are discussed with an emphasis on how to build a consultation practice. Ethical issues and dilemmas are presented as they relate to consultation in medical settings. Issues related to diversity including disparities in health care will be discussed.  Meets a requirement for PsyD’s Integrated Health Track. Prerequisite: Some knowledge of health psychology and by consent of instructor.

2. Consultation: Effective Teaching This course focuses on the role of psychologist as educator. A variety of teaching tools, and methods are reviewed. Students gain an understanding of theories of instruction, research on learning and teaching styles, and work with special populations of learners. Diversity (including ethnicity, race and disability) are emphasized. 

3. Consultation: Program Evaluation: This course focuses on helping agencies conduct program evaluation within a social justice lens. This course meets the consultation requirement for students in the PsyD Social Justice Track.

4. Family Court Consultation and Expert Witness: It surveys common ethical, professional, and practical issues in contracting for and providing forensic psychology services to courts. Topics include forensic data organizing, report writing, court testimony, applied research skills, and diagnosis and testing within the forensic context. It is assumed that students enter this class with some knowledge of basic forensic theory and practice. The primary emphasis in this course is on navigating an ethical path and not losing one’s moral bearing in these often-treacherous waters. A secondary emphasis is to assist students in developing their critical reading and thinking skills. Meets requirement of SF PsyD third-year Child/Family Track students.

5.  Child Custody Consultation: Evaluation and Mediation:  Focuses on the role that psychologists play in assisting families undergoing disputes about child custody. Major focus is the child custody evaluation as an assessment of the best parenting plan for the child. Clinical case material is presented and students become familiar with the process of conducting a child custody evaluation as well as with important issues related to making custody decisions. Special topics include parental alienation, “move away”, shared custody, supervised visitation, “substance abuse” and major mental illness, the mediation process, the Special Master process and the role of Family Court and Family Court Services in working with families experiencing divorce. Meets a requirement of SF PsyD third-year Child/Family Track students.

6. Multicultural Issues: The course covers basic principles and approaches to psychological consultation and collaboration and is focused on multicultural issues in consultation. The history of consultation as a competency in psychology is reviewed as well as the role of the psychologist as a consultant, and the skills, methods, theories and research guiding psychological consultation and collaboration as an area of special expertise in psychology.  Special attention is paid to multicultural issues, multicultural consultee-centered consultation, multicultural organizational consultation, and issues of collaboration and culture that arise in international context. This course meets the consultation requirement for students in the PsyD Social Justice Track.
Prerequisites: Advancement to candidacy