Clinical Psychology: PsyD, Hong Kong

Goals and Objectives

Students in the clinical PsyD program must demonstrate a mastery of knowledge-based, research-based, and practice-based competencies in clinical psychology. They are expected to develop knowledge and skills in the following areas in the context of the psychological needs of the Hong Kong population and the mental health service delivery system in that area:

1. Relationship: Students will be able to develop and maintain a constructive working alliance with clients including groups and organizations.
2. Assessment: Students will be able to describe, conceptualize, characterize, and predict psychological functioning of clients.
3. Intervention/Consultation: Students will be able to promote, restore, sustain, or enhance positive functioning and a sense of wellbeing in clients through preventive, developmental, therapeutic, or remedial services
4. Research/Evaluation: Students will be able to integrate research findings and clinical literature with clinical practice.
5. Management/Supervision: Students will be able to direct and organize the services that psychologists and others offer to the public and be able to supervise other psychologists/psychologists-in-training.
6. Scientific Foundations of Psychology: Students will have broad theoretical and scientific knowledge in the foundational areas of psychology that provide the basis for effective practice.
7. Ethical and Legal Issues: Students will be ethical and responsible professional psychologists committed to lifelong learning and productivity.
8. Diversity: Students will have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to function professionally and competently in a multicultural/international society.

Training Model: A Scholar-Practitioner Program

The program uses a Practitioner-Scholar approach and focuses on both the Clinical Researcher and Scholar components.

Specialized Admissions Requirements

Applicants must hold or be eligible for an earned baccalaureate degree from a recognized university prior to entry. Applicants must have a grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. Both undergraduate and graduate work will be evaluated. English language proficiency is required.

Curriculum and Degree Requirements

The clinical PsyD program consists of 120 units, including a dissertation and an internship of at least 2,600 hours. Students are required to take and pass both comprehensive examinations and the research proposal oral before they can be officially advanced to the doctoral candidate status. The program is designed to be completed in four years, with a combination of face-to-face courses, online courses, blended courses (a combination of both face-to-face and on-line teaching mode), supervised field work and dissertation. Schedules are designed to accommodate working professionals. Teaching staff are drawn from both CSPP faculty in the U.S. and Hong Kong and the professional psychological community in Hong Kong.

Structure of the Degree

Comprehensive examinations: Two comprehensive examinations cover Psychodiagnostic Assessment and Ethics and the Law. The questions are in multiple choice. Both examinations are scheduled at the end of the second year. Students are required to pass both comprehensive examinations as one of the requirements for advancing to the doctoral candidate status.

Dissertation: The program allows several dissertation formats. The dissertation may be an interpretive study involving a synthesis and analysis of existing literature relevant to a clinical problem and requiring the development of the student’s own ideas as to how the existing knowledge can be used to enhance clinical work. Other types of clinical dissertations include case studies, surveys, program evaluations, educational or clinical interventions, quantitative/qualitative studies, and correlational studies on clinical variables. The program is designed to allow students to complete the dissertation in the third year, prior to beginning of the fourth year internship.

Clinical Proficiency Program Review (CPPR): The CPPR, a requirement for graduation, provides each student with an opportunity to present a clinical case to a two person panel, including CSPP Hong Kong PsyD program faculty and clinical supervisors. The examination is scheduled at the end of the third year and is intended to give both students and program faculty an overview of the students’ strengths and weaknesses in clinical work and presentation skills. It represents an integration of coursework and field experiences.

Curriculum Plan

All courses are 3 units, unless indicated otherwise.

Credential Requirements

The program prepares students to practice clinical psychology. Hong Kong does not currently license psychology practitioners.

National Register Designation

This program meets the “Guidelines for Defining ‘Doctoral Degree in Psychology’” as implemented by the ASPPB/National Register Designation Project. Therefore, a graduate of this designated program who decides to apply for licensure as a psychologist typically will meet the jurisdictional educational requirements for licensing. However, individual circumstances vary, and there are additional requirements that must be satisfied prior to being licensed as a psychologist. Please contact the state / provincial / territorial licensing board in the jurisdiction in which you plan to apply for exact information. Additional information including links to jurisdictions is available on the ASPPB’s web site: www.asppb.org.

Once licensed, a graduate of a designated program is eligible to apply for credentialing as a Health Service Provider in Psychology by the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology. Graduation from a designated program typically ensures that the program completed meets the educational requirements for the National Register credential. However, individual circumstances vary, and there are additional requirements that must be satisfied prior to being credentialed by the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology and listed on the FindaPsychologist.org database. Doctoral students may apply to have their credentials banked and reviewed prior to licensure. For further information about the National Psychologist’s Trainee Register and the National Register application process, consult the National Register’s web site: www.nationalregister.org.

Clinical PsyD Hong Kong Faculty

Core faculty and administrators:

Charlotte Tang, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director of Clinical Training*
Christopher Tori, PhD, Visiting Professor and Professor Emeritus
Dewey Lam, MA, Program Coordinator
Diane Zelman, PhD, Professor

Adjunct faculty:

German Cheung, PsyD
Stephen Cheung, PsyD
Nurcan Ensari, PhD
Lisa Joseph, PhD
Debra Kawahara, PhD
Thomas McGee, PhD
Becky Newman, PsyD
Mary Poon, PsyD*
Sharmeen Shroff, PsyD*
Ron Teague, PhD
Darryl Thomander, PhD
Adrian Tong, PhD*
Erica Liu Wollin, PsyD*

* Faculty member is based in Hong Kong