Program Overview
The Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Washington is a Ph.D. program designed to achieve an integration of academic, scientific, and professional training. This program is fully accredited by the American Psychological Association and is a founding member of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science. The goal of the program is to develop competent and creative clinical scientists who are capable of functioning successfully in academic, research, clinical, and community settings. Within this multifaceted training framework, we seek to train students who are interested in research careers. Our training program is primarily an apprenticeship for a career that will encompass making significant contributions to scientific clinical psychology. Our program is not a good fit for those interested solely in clinical practice.
In addition to our strong emphasis on research training, students in our program also receive excellent clinical training because we believe that in order to be a good clinical researcher, one needs to be a good clinician as well. At many levels, therefore, we seek to integrate clinical and research training. The program has its own on-campus training clinic, the Psychological Services and Training Center. In addition, many other training sites are available in the Seattle area. The quality of clinical training in the University of Washington Clinical Psychology Program is nationally recognized, and nearly all of our students are successful in obtaining either their first or second choice in the highly competitive national Predoctoral Internship Match Program.
This training program places a strong emphasis on flexibility so that students can identify and work toward their own specialized clinical research goals while at the same time attaining the general knowledge and skill competencies required of clinical psychologists today. We have been successful in creating a learning environment that capitalizes on students' inherent motivation to learn and develop, and one in which students and faculty work closely together in collegial relationships. The program has a strong cognitive-behavioral emphasis and recently received the Distinguished Program Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (formerly the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy).
The program has a long and distinguished history, and it has been accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) from 1948 to the present. For information regarding the program's accreditation status you may contact The Commission on Accreditation, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20002-4242. Phone number: (202) 336-5979; http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/.
The University of Washington’s doctoral program in Clinical Psychology is a charter member of The Academy of Psychological Clinical Science, which is a coalition of doctoral training programs that share a common goal of producing and applying scientific knowledge to the understanding, assessment, and amelioration of human problems. Membership in the Academy indicates that the Clinical Psychology Graduate Program at the University of Washington is committed to excellence in scientific training, and to using clinical science as the foundation for designing, implementing, and evaluating assessment and intervention procedures.
The University of Washington’s Clinical Psychology Program is annually ranked among the top clinical psychology programs in the United States. The Program has been the recipient of two prestigious awards in recognition of the quality of its clinical scientist training. In 2003 the Program was honored with the Distinguished Program Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and in 2007 it received the Award for Innovative Practices in Graduate Education in Psychology, presented by the American Psychological Association.
The Clinical Psychology Program places great value on ethnic and cultural diversity and makes available training experiences with traditionally underserved populations, including ethnic minority groups, those with developmental disabilities, and children. It has an enviable and long-standing record of training students from underrepresented groups--and nearly a quarter of our students are members of minority groups. Clinical students and faculty play a prominent role in a new departmental Specialization in Diversity Science, which provides for scholarly and research experiences in this emergent area and involves other departmental areas as well.
The Clinical Psychology Program is a flexible apprentice-style program that allows students to gain specialty training in a variety of areas by working with faculty with whom they share interests. In the general (adult) program, most of the faculty are involved in the development and empirical evaluation of psychological intervention and prevention programs directed at a range of clinical and non-clinical populations. We also have a well-established specialty track in Child Clinical Psychology (see Child Clinical link for more details). Applicants apply to either the child track or the general (adult) track, specifying core faculty with whom they would like to work. Interested students should contact individual faculty members to find out whether they plan to accept a student in the coming year. Students in the two tracks share several core courses and may elect to take additional courses from the other track.
Scholarly Productivity of UW Clinical Students
The goal of the University of Washington’s clinical program is to prepare students for successful careers as clinical scientists. Accordingly, we try to create an environment that fosters scholarly productivity of the type that will be required at a major university or research center. From the time they enter the program, we mentor and encourage our students to publish in the psychological literature and to present their work at scientific and professional conferences.
As a result of their inherent interest in scientific work and the atmosphere that supports it, our students exhibit scholarly productivity that begins in the first year and increases thereafter. As of August 2009, the 62 students currently in our program have authored a total of 250 scientific articles and book chapters and made 442 conference presentations. Eighteen of them have competed successfully for National Research Service Awards from the National Institute of Health to support their research programs and provide their financial aid. This level of productivity, together with the excellent clinical training they receive, allows our students to compete successfully for top clinical internships and for positions in academic, medical, and other research settings.