During their first year students begin a sequence of clinical core courses. Topics include psychopathology, interactional approaches to deviance, psychological assessment, and clinical research methods. In addition to this clinical core, departmentally required courses in statistics and a sampling of other areas within psychology are undertaken. Students affiliate with a research group designed to engage the clinical students in research activity from the outset of training. During the second year the students continue their training in assessment procedures with an interpretation and integration course and an assessment practicum.
Students also select courses from a variety of offerings in intervention techniques.
These combined classroom and supervised clinical experiences include family therapy, cognitive therapy, psychodynamic approaches, and behavioral medicine among others. Clinical students also take independent study hours under the supervision of their faculty advisor or other faculty members which typically leads to the development of a Masters thesis project. Final specialized coursework, dissertation research, and an oral dissertation evaluation then remain as the final steps in completing the doctorate degree. Students may also work with other departmental faculty members in a variety of areas and are free to sample different orientations useful to their professional development. In addition to the faculty listed below, faculty from the Developmental Program participate in the child-clinical concentration.