Practicum experience in the clinical psychology program begins in the first semester and continues for at least three years. The development of clinical skills occurs through the student's participation each year in a different role on a vertical practicum team that delivers a broad range of psychological services in a community-based outpatient clinic. Each vertical team is a cohesive, hard-working unit of four to seven members under the supervision of a clinical psychologist. First-year students observe the work of the faculty and advanced students. Second-year students perform comprehensive psychological assessments.
More advanced students maintain a psycho-therapy caseload.
A year's service on the practicum team, no matter what the year level of the student, offers an intense, deep, practical experience with the orientation of the supervising psychologist. In our vertical research teams, research skills are developed and refined and students take responsibility for increasingly advanced and independent projects. Students conducting their master's theses and dissertations acquire skills in the development and direction of projects as well as in the supervision of less experienced members of research teams. The M.A. thesis is an integral component of the research training. The thesis represents original research, typically on clinical topics, that is conducted under close supervision of the major professor.