Psy.D. Clinical Psychology – Washington, D.C.

The Chicago School Admissions Committee employs a holistic, structured evaluation process to identify applicants who are, by aptitude and prior achievement, appropriate for the program.

Application to The Chicago School’s clinical psychology program is open to any person who has earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and who meets other entrance requirements. Applicants invited to interview typically demonstrate an undergraduate grade point average of 3.2 or higher.

Students applying to the Psy.D. clinical psychology program must submit or complete the following:

• Application
• Application Fee: $50
• Resume or Curriculum Vitae
• Interview
• Two Essays
  • Please answer the following two questions in two separate documents (approximately 500 words each):
    • Please tell us about your goals in pursuing clinical psychology and how a doctoral degree from our program can help you in achieving those goals.
    • In clinical psychology, you are likely to work with people with diverse social identities, backgrounds, and intersectionalities. What will you contribute to these interactions and what potential challenges do you foresee? What tools and resources will you use to overcome such challenges?
• Three Letters of Recommendation
• Official College/University Transcripts
  • Transcripts must reflect 18 hours of psychology credit with an earned grade of C or better, including one course in Child/Human Development or Lifespan, Abnormal Psychology, and Statistics.

Send materials to:

Admissions Operations
c/o The Chicago School
203 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 1900
Chicago, IL 60601

Please see The Chicago School Student Handbook and Academic Catalog for current program and university policies and procedures.

Accreditation

The Clinical Psy.D. Program at the Washington, D.C., Campus is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation:

The American Psychological Association
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 336-5979 / E-mail: [email protected]
Web: https://accreditation.apa.org/

Licensure

For information on whether a program at The Chicago School meets or does not meet licensure eligibility requirements for the state in which you wish to be licensed, please visit our licensure disclosures page.

Practicum Experience

Students participate in three years of organized, sequential, and well-supervised practicum experiences that increasingly expose them to the range of roles and responsibilities of a clinical psychologist.

Situated in the nation’s capital, students have access to a diverse selection of practicum sites that offer experiences consistent with the program’s values and training goals.

Sample placement sites include hospitals, community mental health clinics, college counseling centers, and forensic settings.

The practicum requirements include:

• Year 2: 600-hour basic practicum
• Year 3: 600-hour intermediate practicum
• Year 4: 600-hour advanced practicum

Internship

All students are required to complete an internship—consisting of a minimum of 2,000 hours of training over a 12-24 month period—following the completion of all course work, practica, and dissertation requirements. On internship, students integrate academic knowledge with clinical skills and demonstrate the effective and ethical use of these skills in clinical practice. Through intensive supervised training, students gain direct experience in applying their knowledge to a clinical population.

Students at our D.C. Campus have the unique opportunity to participate in an internship through the Mid Atlantic Internship Consortium, an APA-accredited program.

The clinical PsyD program in Washington DC offers a broad scope of training to prepare students for practice in health service psychology. The APA Council of Specialties of Professional Psychology (COSPP)  has developed a taxonomy to identify program offerings that prepare students for practice in recognized specialty areas in health service psychology.

While the program design ensures broad and general preparation for practice as a clinical psychologist, students can elect to pursue advanced training and education in a specialty area. Students in the Washington, DC Campus Clinical Psychology (PsyD) Program can choose from the following specialties:

• Forensic Psychology (Emphasis)
• Clinical Neuropsychology (Emphasis)
• Clinical Health Psychology (Emphasis)
• Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (Emphasis)

Research Experience

Students are exposed to research training through coursework such as Research Methods and Psychometrics and Statistics. Core faculty in the Program engage in a number of scholarly and research activities that span diverse clinical research areas (e.g., specific clinical disorders and intervention methods), and clinical populations (e.g., adults, adolescents and children). Both through informal research involvement with faculty and through a sequential progression of Dissertation Maintenance coursework, students increasingly gain independent and sophisticated research skills that prepare them for the conceptualization and execution of a dissertation towards the end of the program.

Dissertation

The dissertation is an essential aspect of a student’s academic experience and clinical education, and should clearly and concisely demonstrate the student’s command of the body of knowledge in a chosen area, as well as the ability to critically evaluate and synthesize this knowledge.

Residency Requirements

Students must complete coursework in residence at The Chicago School in part through full-time study as defined as: successfully completing three full-time academic years of graduate study; at least two of the three full-time academic years of graduate study must be at the student’s home Chicago School campus; at least one of the full-time academic years must be in full-time residency.

Adult Psychopathology

This course is an introduction to the theoretical, clinical, and empirical knowledge of adult psychopathology and the classification of mental disorders. The entire continuum of adult psychological disorders will be covered. Emphasis will be placed on acquiring a conceptual foundation for understanding and classifying adult abnormal behavior. This will be accomplished by reviewing the major theoretical models of abnormal behavior and by learning the rationale and procedures for the dominant nosological system.

Objective Personality Assessment

This course introduces the student to the major approaches and techniques for self-report/objective personality assessment in adults. Topics covered include general principles and issues in objective assessment, the empirical underpinnings of the tests, and techniques of personality assessment. The primary emphasis is on the MMPI-2 and PAI, with an overview of other commonly used measures of objective personality assessment as well as the self-report measures used with adolescents.

Diversity in Clinical Psychology I

This course lays a theoretical and experiential foundation for students in multicultural psychology. The course blends exposure to theory and literature, cross-cultural immersion, and personal introspection. It provides a basic framework for understanding privilege and power, systems of oppression and domination, worldview, cultural competency, and identity. It will explore the impact and social construction of culture, gender, ethnicity, religion/spirituality, class, race, abledness, and immigrant status. Students will address the intersection of multiple identities and will explore the impact of their own culture and held personal stereotypes, beliefs and assumptions.

Basic Intervention: Cognitive-Behavioral

This course addresses the basic assumptions of cognitive-behavioral theory, reviews the major theorists, and introduces the student to issues of treatment planning, case conceptualization, evaluation of treatment efficacy, therapeutic technique, and intervention through that theoretical lens. The course emphasizes the acquisition of a range of cognitive behavioral assessment and intervention techniques and intervention skills.

Located in the heart of the nation’s capital, you will have the opportunity to benefit from a metropolitan area rich in cultural and socioeconomic diversity, and exposure to political, governmental, and international affairs. The Washington, D.C. campus reflects The Chicago School’s commitment to diversity and effort to expand mental health services to multicultural and underserved communities within the greater Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area.

Read more about our Washington D.C. Campus here.

The Psy.D. Clinical Psychology program at the Washington, DC Campus equips graduates with the skills necessary to work in a variety of professional settings, including:

• Medical Centers
• Private practice
• Community mental health
• Government agencies
• Veteran Administration Hospitals
• Nonprofit agencies
• Educational institutions
• Forensic settings

After completing the program, graduates will be able to:

• Offer effective, evidence-based assessment and interventions for individuals, families, and communities.
• Mentor, supervise, and educate future practitioners.
• Provide ethical, culturally competent services to diverse communities.
• Critically evaluate relevant research and share knowledge with clients and the public.
• Promote social justice in the practice of clinical psychology.

The Chicago School is dedicated to keeping our academic programs accessible to anyone, regardless of financial status. In addition to the scholarships that may be available, our Financial Aid Department will provide you with information to determine what financial arrangements are right for you.

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