Los Angeles Clinical PhD: A Scholar-Practitioner Program

The clinical PhD training program on Alliant's Los Angeles campus is based on a scholar-practitioner model where practice and scholarship receive equal emphasis.

The program is based on the principle that clinical psychologists have a responsibility to work to ameliorate psychological suffering and facilitate psychological well-being through both basic and applied research and interventions that evolve from scholarly work relevant to societal needs. An underlying philosophical assumption of the program is that there is a need for innovative scholarship that provides a foundation for the development of interventions to meet the needs of diverse and underserved populations.

Guiding Principles

APA Education & Training Outcomes

The CSPP Los Angeles Clinical Psychology PhD program is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), which requires that we provide student outcome data, including time to completion, program costs, internships, attrition and licensure. Please follow the link below for that information. We hope this information will help you to make an informed decision regarding your graduate study. Student Outcome Data

APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation: 750 First Street, NE; Washington, DC 20002-4242  Phone: 202-336-5979

The following guiding principles emerge from this philosophy:

• The generation and application of knowledge must occur with an awareness of the sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts of mental health and mental illness.
• Scholarship and practice must not only build upon existing literature, but must also maintain their relevance to the diverse elements in our society and assume the challenges of attending to the complex social issues associated with psychological functioning.
• Methods of research and intervention must be appropriate to the culture in which they are conducted.

The scholar-practitioner model is an integrative one that builds upon the conviction that scholarship and practice must occur concurrently. Consistent with its guiding philosophy, the program seeks to inculcate in all its students awareness that the discipline of psychology best serves the needs of individuals, families and communities when research and intervention continuously inform each other.

Program Goals

The program's primary goal is to train clinical psychologists who will:

• Possess a solid foundation in research methodology and statistics that prepares them to design, conduct and disseminate both basic and applied research, with particular attention to research in community and service delivery settings.
• Manifest a scholarly attitude that emphasizes critical inquiry; an integrated "scholar-practitioner" identity; and an awareness of the necessary continuity between research and scholarship, practice and intervention, in all of their professional activities.
• Seek and/or create opportunities to engage in research and evaluation as a part of their professional activities.
• Be competent practitioners with skills in diagnosis, assessment and therapeutic interventions.
• Reflect the consideration of relevant social and cultural contexts in their research and intervention activities.

The program is committed to providing curriculum, professional socialization and field training experiences that implement each of these goals and develop the full competencies expected of our graduates.

Students must pass written and oral comprehensive examinations as partial fulfillment of the requirements for admission to doctoral candidacy. They are also evaluated at other regular points in their matriculation, including an assessment of professional competencies prior to graduation.

Students receive advanced training in theoretical issues, techniques of psychological interventions, professional issues and ethics and supervision In addition, they receive advanced training in research applications and complete a dissertation by the end of their fifth year. PhD students are strongly encouraged to pursue a fifth-year, full-time APA-accredited internship. For those whose personal circumstances make this impossible, a two-year, half-time internship training model in the fourth and fifth years will be acceptable. Forty-five hours of individual psychotherapy with a psychologist licensed in the state of California are required prior to graduation. (Forty-five hours of therapy received in the last three years prior to matriculation may satisfy this requirement.)

Emphasis Areas

The clinical programs are divided into three emphasis areas including clinical health psychology (CH), family and couple (FACE), and multicultural-community clinical psychology (MCCP).

Accreditation

The PhD program has full accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association.

American Psychological Association office of Program Consultation and Accreditation:
750 First Street, N.E.
Washington DC 20002-4242.
Phone: 202-336-5979