Clinical Psychology: PhD, Los Angeles

Field Training

At the predoctoral stage, students’ professional development occurs within the context of both formal coursework and clinical training experiences supervised by faculty and professionals in the field. Students develop and acquire clinical skills through professional training experiences in a variety of mental health service settings in the community. Such supervised professional training experiences include practica and internships, as well as an optional clerkship in the second year.

Each student works with a professional field training liaison who meets regularly with the student to develop and implement an individualized training plan designed to assure (a) that the student receives a broad base of clinical experiences with a variety of clientele and professional role models and (b) that professional training experiences are chosen with due consideration of the student’s level of skill and longer-term professional goals.

In the second year of the Clinical PhD program, students may take an optional clerkship, subject to site availability. Clerkships include experience at a field site.

In the third year of the program, Clinical PhD students are required to have a minimum 15-hour per week practicum experience in a mental health setting. Students begin to assume clinical responsibility for assessment and intervention while being closely supervised at a level appropriate to their training and abilities. This clinical professional training experience varies with respect to the nature of clients served and the mental health setting in which the student serves, as well as with individual students’ skill levels, professional interests, and training needs. The total number of minimum required practicum hours is 800.

Clinical PhD students choose either to complete a second practicum in the fourth year and a full-time internship in the fifth year after coursework has been completed or to complete a CAPIC half-time internship in the fourth and fifth years.

At the practicum level, students receive training in agencies that are formally affiliated with the school. At the internship level, students apply competitively for internships, participating either in the APA/APPIC or two CAPIC match process. All clerkship and practicum training programs are carefully reviewed and monitored on an ongoing basis to assure consistent and high quality training.

The majority of affiliated clerkship and practicum training sites exist within a 40-mile radius of the campus. Students who wish to pursue full-time internships are encouraged to make applications throughout the country. Currently, all APA internships and some CAPIC internships offer a stipend. The majority of half-time internships and virtually all practica do not offer stipends. Students should not count on training stipends as a means of financing their education.

Research Training

During the course of their graduate training, students gain proficiency in applied research methods. The Clinical PhD program emphasizes training psychologists to be competent as producers of scientific research, and Clinical PhD students begin their research training right from the start of the program.

In addition to formal coursework, which provides a basic understanding of research methodology and statistics, within the first two and a half years of the program, Clinical PhD students complete three sequential semesters of Research Practicum which emphasizes the planning and conduct of research and culminates in a poster presentation of an original piece of empirical research. In the third year of the program, students enroll in Research in Applied Settings and focus on the development of research and consultation skills while investigating problems in practical situations.

By their fourth year, students enter into formal dissertation work with a faculty mentor to produce a scholarly and methodologically sound dissertation proposal that is to be completed by the end of the fifth year. The mentor becomes the student’s dissertation committee chair when preliminary orals have been successfully completed.

Students must pass preliminary orals by the end of their fourth year or before they apply for an APA or APPIC internship, whichever comes first.

Track I (Fifth-year full-time internship)

Track II (Fourth and fifth-year half-time internships)

Curriculum Notes

Health Emphasis

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health “as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The Health emphasis in Los Angeles embraces WHO’s comprehensive definition of health in identifying clinical health psychology as the application of psychological principles to achieve the goals of total “physical, mental, and social wellbeing.”

The Health emphasis in Los Angeles offers cutting-edge education and training in the 21st century mind-body approach to health care while giving students thorough preparation for clinical and community practice. Students in the Clinical Health Psychology emphasis cultivate innovative knowledge and skills for service in a variety of clinical settings. They learn highly practical interventions that promote mental and physical health, prevent illness, and restore functioning.

Employment prospects for psychologists with advanced skills in behavioral medicine and health psychology are manifold and involve a range of possible settings. Some recent graduates emphasize private practice, while others serve as a sport psychologist (for an NFL team), run corporate wellness programs, lead primary prevention research at a major university, serve as CEO of a health psychology corporation, administer community mental health centers and HIV/AIDS centers, work at medical centers and in outpatient practices, practice pain management, and work as psychologists in law enforcement agencies. Graduates take on various roles in psychological and medical group practices, hospitals, medical centers, universities, clinics, hospices, government agencies, rehabilitation centers, community-based organizations, school clinics, employee assistance programs, trauma centers, consulting firms, and public health agencies.

Students in the Health emphasis are prepared for a variety of opportunities in the rapidly evolving psychological and physical health care systems. While some of our graduates practice traditional clinical psychology, others serve as valued members of teams of professionals dedicated to promoting the mind-body health of individuals, families, and communities in our multicultural society.

Family/Child and Couple Emphasis

Our goal in the Family/child and Couple Emphasis (FACE) is to introduce graduate students to the theory, research, and clinical practice of family and couple psychology. This is accomplished through coursework in which students learn about families, couples, adults, and children from diverse backgrounds. Students are taught to work with families, couples, and individuals from a systemic perspective. Skills are developed in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of relationship systems.

In the first two or three years of the FACE emphasis, students learn how to conceptualize, assess, and interview families and couples. FACE students take four family systems courses. The family systems theory and assessment course prepares students for an advanced FACE family systems intervention course taken exclusively by FACE students. The Family/child and Couple Emphasis is for students who are dedicated to learning family and couple psychology intervention.

The emphasis area also provides a choice of one of two sets of courses as follows:

Family Therapy: Students may take the following two courses: Clinical Interventions with Children and Families and Interventions with Adolescents and Families. Other courses offered periodically are: Child Assessment, Family Violence and Sexual Abuse, Family of Origin Therapy, Advanced Family Therapy, Divorce Theory, Therapy with Alternative Families, and Group Psychotherapy.

Couple Therapy: Students examine relationship dynamics through either the year-long Integrated Approach to Sex, Intimacy and Relationship Problems course or the one-semester Couple Therapy and Sex Therapy courses. Other courses offered periodically are Family Violence and Sexual Abuse, Family of Origin Therapy, Advanced Family Therapy, Divorce Theory, and Group Psychotherapy.

Students meet with their FACE academic advisor to determine which other advanced clinical electives and seminars best fit into their plan of study so their career goals are met. Creating a niche entails taking courses as well as networking in the community.
 

Multicultural Community-Clinical Psychology Emphasis

The Multicultural Community-Clinical Psychology (MCCP) emphasis area was established at the Los Angeles campus in 1990. A synthesis of the previous ethnic minority mental health and community clinical proficiencies, MCCP reflects the state-of-the-art in training philosophy, curriculum, and applied experiences relevant to training clinical psychologists with special competence in multicultural and community psychology. The year-long course required of clinical psychology students in all emphasis areas, Intercultural Processes/ Human Diversity, provides basic competence in multicultural issues. The MCPP emphasis area provides the additional opportunity for students to develop (1) more advanced conceptual and intervention skills relevant to psychotherapy with culturally-diverse populations; (2) competence beyond individual psychopathology that includes conceptualization and intervention with community-level distress and social problems; (3) an understanding of sociopolitical and sociocultural influences on psychological functioning and well-being; (4) skills to develop programs and activities focused on the prevention of psychopathology and social problems; and (5) knowledge of community psychology theory and practice.

The mission of the training is to nurture the development of clinical psychologists who will work to understand, prevent, and reduce psychological and community distress, as well as enhance the psychological well-being of historically underserved, stigmatized, and oppressed groups. In doing this, special attention is paid to the cultural and sociopolitical context of the individuals, families, and communities we serve. Faculty members in the emphasis area are committed to fostering a climate of inclusion, respect for differences, and a sense of community both within and outside of CSPP. Ultimately, faculty members strive to empower individuals and communities and to facilitate personal and social healing.

Through coursework, field experiences and mentorship by our faculty, students learn theory, research, and intervention strategies applicable to working with adults, adolescents, children, families, groups, and communities. Students share the core curriculum in clinical psychology with students from all emphasis areas. MCCP students build upon this basic curriculum by learning alternative theories and strategies for intervention with communities, institutional systems and specific multicultural groups. Faculty focuses on training clinical psychologists who are critical thinkers about the etiology of psychological distress and who can conceptualize multiple pathways to healing individuals, families, and communities.

MCCP students participate in professional field training experiences that emphasize clinical services to multicultural and under- or inadequately-served populations. Settings can range from hospitals and mental health clinics to community-based agencies or university counseling centers. Students’ Doctoral Dissertations must reflect an aspect of multicultural and/or community psychology.

Multi-Interest Option (Non-Emphasis)

The Multi-Interest Option (MIO) is designed for students who do not choose to enter one of the three above-mentioned emphasis areas. The Multi-Interest Option offers students flexibility in their choice of elective courses and topics for their clinical dissertations and other scholarly and field training interests. The faculty and students affiliated with the Multi-Interest Option offer colloquia and social gatherings that, like those sponsored by the emphasis areas, are open to all members of the Los Angeles campus community. MIO have sponsored presentations that promote awareness of diverse roles in professional psychology by enlisting alumni to discuss their career trajectory, offering an introduction to grant writing, and hosting a panel discussion on professional consultation as a professional activity. The MIO faculty members seek to encourage students’ scholarly and professional growth in a wide range of interest areas.