The Clinical Psychology Program offers a course of scholarly/professional education leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). The Master of Science (M.S.) and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degrees are earned en passant.
In the doctoral program students are prepared for professional work in community agencies, hospitals, research centers, colleges and universities, and independent practice. Completing a 95-point doctoral degree, including an internship, typically takes five to seven years. Practicum work is done in the Dean-Hope Center for Educational and Psychological Services (Director: Dr. Dinelia Rosa).
Our current training model is that of the scientific-practitioner. Our adoption of this model means that we are dedicated to training students to generate new empirically-based knowledge in clinical psychology and to perform clinical work that is constantly informed by traditional and emerging scholarship in the field. We fully expect our students to learn to expertly produce, analyze, and discuss scientific material. We also expect our students to become proficient at providing clinical services to a diverse population. And most importantly, we expect our students to learn to integrate these tasks. In short, the primary objective of our program is to train clinical psychologists who are prepared for research and practice with a diverse population in a variety of settings and who are able to integrate the theoretical, research, and clinical aspects of their training.
Thus, the driving goal of the Clinical Psychology Program is to provide rigorous training in both contemporary clinical science and clinical assessment and intervention. The research programs of our faculty span a wide range, including studies of childhood risk and resilience; adjustment across diverse sociodemographic contexts; religious and spiritual development; close relationships; altruism and caregiving; emotion and coping with trauma; and psychotherapy process and outcome (see individual faculty web pages). Our on-site clinic, The Dean-Hope Center for Educational and Psychological Services (CEPS), now functions as both a research and clinical training center.
Our clinical training has an ongoing psychodynamic tradition with increasing opportunities for supervision and didactic work in Cognitive-Behavioral, Interpersonal, and other modalities. This training emphasizes intervention as well as prevention, and assessment across the life span within the context of schools, families, and communities. We are committed to an enhanced focus on ethnic, cultural, and theoretical diversity not only in our curriculum and clinical training but also among our students, faculty, and clinical supervisors. Numerous practica and externship opportunities area available throughout the New York area and our students commonly secure placement at the most competitive internship sites.
It should be noted, however, that those students whose career goal is full-time private practice without a significant research commitment will find our program inappropriate for their needs. Increasingly, the program is emphasizing work in the child-clinical area. In fact, students may elect a specialty track in child-clinical psychology. In either case, students will need to take additional didactic courses and practica beyond those required of all clinical Ph.D. students.
The Program shares an in-house clinic (The Dean-Hope Center for Educational and Psychological Services) with several other College programs. All clinical psychology doctoral students are staff members in the Center after their first semester in the Program, and carry a regular caseload of clients. The Center sponsors a weekly case conference, at which students present and discuss cases. Clinical work is supervised by core faculty members or by adjunct faculty who are psychologists in private practice in New York. Students usually carry four clients as part of their psychotherapy practicum and receive two hours of supervision each week with two different supervisors.