The PhD degree program in clinical psychology enables students to obtain intensive training in both research and applied clinical work. Fully accredited by the American Psychological Association Committee on Accreditation (COA) since 1972, the doctoral program reflects the scientist-practitioner model of training and provides students who are interested in both clinical practice and research with an integrated curriculum of clinical intervention and empirical laboratory analyses of a variety of clinical issues.
Program faculty are active researchers who mentor students in research design and methodology. This collaboration supports students' development of research questions that lead to thesis and dissertation projects. Faculty supervise students on topics such as affective and motivational processes in depression, anxiety disorders, African-American issues, eating disorders, cognitive assessment and therapy, smoking, drug expectancies, child clinical issues, sports psychology, and human services program evaluation.
The PhD program equally emphasizes clinical training. Psychology doctoral students participate in experiential psychotherapy practica beginning in the first semester of the program and gain valuable feedback through videotaped psychotherapy sessions with clients from the University Counseling Center.
The psychological assessment sequence also begins in the first year of the program. In the second and third years, doctoral students participate in psychotherapy practica based on the object relations and cognitive behavioral theoretical traditions.
Students graduate from the program as clinical practitioner/researchers, an outcome that is consistent with the Boulder training model in psychology.
