Please note that admission to our Masters program in psychology does not mean one is admitted to a specific "track" or any training "track" within it. Some classes in the department require the permission of the instructor to assure that students are prepared and adequate to the topic. Others may be restricted to students working in a particular area (for example, a masters thesis). With respect to the courses in the department with a clinical focus, most of them are available to all students who are interested. Training in practicum and supervision, however, because it involves supervised work with other peoples' real and sometimes profound struggles, is not available necessarily or automatically to all students, and requires a separate process of decision-making and consent of the instructor and perhaps other faculty. All students wishing to enroll in practicum should discuss their intention to do so with their advisor or with the Coordinator of Therapeutic Services well in advance of the time in which they plan on enrolling, and make themselves responsible for securing the consent of the practicum instructor via an interview.
Clinical Emphasis
The objective of the Certificate in Humanistic Praxis program is to provide a formal container that will support some Masters students’ humanistically and theoretically grounded commitment to therapeutic (i.e., clinical, preventative, and community-based) praxis. The Certificate program emphasizes a broadly focused approach to applied psychology in which students are trained in praxis, as well as enabling them, if interested, to begin the process of later satisfying various state requirements for Professional Counselor licensure. We will only offer clinical practicum training to students participating in the 60-hour Certificate program (Option III in the Departmental Handbook). All graduate students, however, are welcome to enroll in the Human Service practicum with consent of the instructor. Click here for more information.
Organizational Development Emphasis
An emphasis in organizational development may also be obtained through the M.A. in Psychology program. The program is designed to equip the graduate with the skills needed to diagnose organizational problems of an interpersonal nature, counsel the affected individuals in an effort to resolve the problem(s), consult with management on systematic ways of resolving the problem(s), instruct the organization's leaders on how to effectively avoid similar problems in the future, give the organization's leaders the tools to manage this process on their own should the need arise again, and act as a source of wisdom within his or her organization.