The program is accredited by the American Psychological Association as a program in clinical psychology. For information regarding this accreditation consult:
American Psychological Association, Commission on Accreditation
50 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 336-5979
http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation
This doctoral program builds upon ULV’s well established tradition of community service and prepares its graduates to function competently and responsibly in multicultural, diverse, and pluralistic societies. It is anchored in an integration of clinical and community psychology and grounded in the promotion of an ecological perspective where human behavior is understood within the context of interacting systems that are multi-level, multidimensional, and multi-directional. Its core mission is to train scholar practitioners who will think critically, promote social justice, apply their knowledge diligently, and practice ethically and compassionately as culturally competent providers of clinical and prevention services and as agents of social change for individuals, groups, communities, and organizations.
Philosophy of Training
The philosophy of training for the Psy.D. Program is based upon the value that the needs of a multicultural society are best served by a psychology profession that is both culturally competent and inclusive. In accordance with this value, the Program seeks to provide students with a rich exposure to culturally and individually diverse populations through its academic training and applied experiences. It also seeks to train students that have been underrepresented in the field.
Training Model
ULV’s Psy.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology is accredited by the American Psychological Association. It follows the scholar practitioner and competency-based models and is one of few programs in the nation where students learn interactively about the social, interpersonal, and intrapersonal factors that influence social justice and affect people’s well being and quality of life. Students learn to think about psychological factors at the individual, family, and community levels. The Psy.D. program is designed to prepare students as clinical community psychologists to provide comprehensive prevention and community interventions and psychotherapeutic and psychodiagnostic services, to assume administrative and supervisory positions in mental health and/or community programs, and to provide professional psychological consultation. The program infuses multicultural competencies into its curriculum and trains students in the theories and concepts of cultural and individual diversity and in their application to the practice of professional psychology. It also trains students to be consumers of research and base their work on the foundation of scientific evidence and scholarly works.
The program is secular in orientation and is designed to be completed in five years of full-time study, at least four of which must be in residence. It develops competence in the scientific foundations of psychology, clinical-community professional areas of practice, research methods, and data analysis. It includes an empirical dissertation as well as clinical training, the latter of which consists of clinical practica and an internship. The practica occur during years 2 and 3 of the program, and consist of a minimum of 1,500 hours of training at two different sites. The dissertation proposal is designed during year 3 and completed during year 4, prior to the clinical internship. The clinical internship in year 5 consists of 1500 clinical hours and can be completed either during one year of full-time training or in two years of half-time training. The internship meets the predoctoral licensure requirements in California.
