PsyD in Clinical Psychology

This degree is offered by AU Seattle.

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Program Overview

The PsyD Psychology program at Antioch University Seattle offers doctoral education and training in clinical psychology to prepare students for the practice of professional and health service psychology. We offer opportunities for students to develop their clinical, applied research, and assessment skills with an emphasis on multicultural competency and social justice concepts and placements.

Accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA)*, The AUS PsyD program incorporates a competency-based system to measure student achievement of our program’s goals and objectives. Competencies are woven into all aspects of student assessment. The core competencies reflect psychologists’ multiple roles and Antioch’s broader mission by including advocacy for social change.

Practicum, pre-internship, and clinical internship placements may include working in the AUS Community Counseling and Psychology Clinic and/or a variety of community engagements. Supervision and mentoring are provided by qualified professionals. These practical training experiences culminate in the clinical internship, which is a required full-time year or half-time two-year placement for advanced training in a particular setting in professional psychology. National and local clinical internship placements are available. AUS participates in the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Center’s (APPIC) internship match program and students are required to apply for APPIC member internships.

Degree Requirements

Program Length:

The AUS PsyD program is designed to be completed in five years on a full-time year-round basis, including coursework, clinical training, and dissertation. Students past 7 years must petition to continue in the program on an annual basis with the maximum time to complete the program within 10 years in extraordinary circumstances. Our time-to-completion rates can be found in our outcome data updated annually.

Requirements:

Core Courses:

For students who already hold a master’s degree in psychology, counseling or a related mental health field, some of the following “core” or foundational courses may be waived based on a syllabus review, to a maximum of eight (8) total credits:

• Cognition and Affect
• Biological Bases of Behavior I: Clinical Medicine
• Psychopathology
• Biological Bases of Behavior II: Psychophysiology
• Psychopharmacology I
• Learning Theory
• Life Span Development I – Child
• Life Span Development II – Adult
• History and Systems of Psychology
• Psychopharmacology II: Drugs of Abuse
• Ethics
• Social Psychology
• Individual Differences and Personality Theories I
• Individual Differences and Personality Theories II
• Advanced Ethics
• Psychopathology II: Developmental Psychopathology
• Community Psychology
• Professional Issues in Career Management
• Consultation and Supervision
• Advanced Professional Issues in Career Management
• Writing Seminar for PsyD

Assessment Courses:

• Psychometrics and Lab
• Assessment: Intelligence & Practicum
• Assessment: Personality & Practicum
• Assessment: Integration & Practicum

Research Courses:

• Dissertation Seminar I
• Dissertation Seminar II
• Research Ethics, Quantitative Methods & Analysis I
• Quantitative Methods & Analysis II
• Qualitative Methods & Analysis I
• Qualitative Methods & Analysis II

Clinical Training Courses:

The PsyD program admits students with both Bachelor’s entry or Master’s advanced entry. In order to prepare all students for doctoral-level training, the learning experience is designed to be sequential, cumulative, and of graded complexity. All students, regardless of prior training, are required to complete a one-year, full-time residency to make sure foundational conceptual and experiential competencies are met.

The PsyD program curriculum and training plan is designed to ensure that every student receives a broad, generalist doctoral-level training based on current and evolving trends in the field of clinical psychology. For example, three first-year courses focus on developing basic clinical skills, professionalization, and multicultural competency while students engage in a social justice practicum:

• Foundational Clinical Skills
• Social Justice and Cultural Competency I
• Social Justice and Cultural Competency II

Basic Clinical Concentration (Second Year)

In keeping with the generalist training approach, all students will complete the Intervention series, which is designed to provide broad theoretical and scientific foundations of the practice of clinical psychology that is integrated with the existing and evolving body of knowledge, skills, and competencies of applied psychology. Students enroll in this series of three theoretical and conceptually-based courses with concurrent enrollment in Professional Seminars, which provide case consultation and training on clinical topics. In addition, students are placed for initial clinical training in the AUS Community Counseling and Psychology Clinic and, on a case-by-case basis, may be placed at an alternate suitable community practicum site.

• Interventions I
• Interventions II
• Interventions III

Professional Seminars:

• Professional Seminar I
• Professional Seminar II
• Professional Seminar III

Elective courses that may be selected

Elective courses may include Forensic Psychology, Health Psychology, Neuropsychology, and Child Clinical Psychology. Newly developed curriculum will also include training in Integrated Primary Care Behavioral Health models, which will prepare the student for experience in one of the leading employment options for clinical psychologists in the healthcare field.

Download the PsyD in Clinical Psychology Course Sequence

For detailed curriculum, degree requirements, and course descriptions, please visit the AUS catalog.

Career Outlook

Graduates from the AUS PsyD program are currently employed in a wide variety of settings, including:

• independent practice
• state and private hospitals
• healthcare settings and general hospitals
• community mental health clinics
• teaching at universities (including at the graduate and doctoral level)
• medical or psychiatric groups or incorporations
• state prisons
• non-profit agencies
• authoring books
• conducting professional trainings and workshops
• providing consultation services
• Native American tribal agencies
• forensic practice
• working with children and adolescents in schools
• clinics
• specialty centers.

Our graduates have been licensed and found employment outside of Washington State, including Oregon, California, Illinois, and New York; as well as outside of the United States such as Canada, Guam, and Japan. Societal demand for mental health services continues to trend upward, particularly (but not limited to) working with children and adolescents, primary care behavioral health settings, substance use disorders, war veterans, rural areas, the elderly, and culturally and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.

Learning Outcomes

Psy.D. Program Competencies

The 10 core competencies are aligned with the Psy.D. program’s goals and objectives and reflect psychologists’ multiple roles, including advocacy for social change. As recommended by Rodolfa et al. (2005), the competencies are organized as “foundational” or “functional.” Evaluations are based on 10 core competencies, including:

1.  Relationship
2.  Scientific Knowledge & Methods
3.  Individual & Cultural Diversity
4.  Ethical Legal Standards & Policy
5.  Professionalism
6.  Assessment
7.  Intervention
8.  Research & Evaluation
9.  Supervision and Consultation
10. Advocacy

Foundational competencies
The Psy.D. program’s foundational competencies represent the building blocks of the clinical and scholarly work of psychologists. Knowledge and skills in the foundational competencies provide the groundwork for psychologists to acquire functional competency. Foundational competencies include (I) Relationship, (II) Scientific Knowledge & Methods, (III) Individual & Cultural Diversity, (IV) Ethical Legal Standards & Policy, and (V) Professionalism.

Functional competencies

The Psy.D. program’s functional competencies reflect the knowledge, skills, and values central to performing the work of a psychologist. These include the day-to-day services provided by psychologists and represent areas for lifetime career development, which begins at the graduate level. The ability to exhibit Functional Competence is built upon and integrated with Foundational Competence. The areas of Functional Competency include (VI) Assessment, (VII) Intervention, (VIII) Research & Evaluation, (IX) Supervision and Consultation, and (X) Advocacy. For two competencies, Supervision and Consultation and Advocacy, benchmarks 5 and 6 serve as “aspirational” competencies.

Program Outcomes

Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Programs in Professional Psychology (G&P) requires that doctoral graduate programs provide potential students, current students, and the public with accurate information on the program and on program expectations. This information is meant to describe the program accurately and completely, using the most up-to-date data on education and training outcomes, and be presented in a manner that allows applicants to make informed decisions about entering the program. Read AUS’s Student Admissions, Outcomes and Other Data.

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