Program Mission Statement

The mission of the Doctor of (Psy.D.) program in at Eastern Kentucky is to prepare students to provide psychological services to a broad range of clients and in a variety of settings, as well as to be sophisticated consumers of . Consistent with EKU's value of stewardship of place, students and graduates of the PsyD program will address the needs of our service region with a commitment to improving rural mental health and serving underserved populations.

Program Overview

The Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) program is consistent with EKU’s mission to provide high- quality instruction, scholarship, and service, and with our commitment to regional stewardship. Accordingly, the program is designed to teach students both the processes and the content necessary to become skilled general practitioners of clinical psychology, involved in a variety of ways in the delivery of services. Ethics and values play a significant role in the program.

The overall philosophy of the Psy.D. program is to educate skilled practitioners who have a solid appreciation of the role of in all aspects of professional activity. The program recognizes a need for the student to achieve a balance between knowledge of the basic science of psychology and proficiencies, reflecting the practitioner-scholar model. Following the American Psychological Association guidelines, basic knowledge areas include cognitive-affective, biological, and socio-cultural bases of behavior; individual differences; and research concepts. The practitioner-scholar emphasis recognizes the continued dependence of the profession on a scientific foundation, the importance of practitioners being skilled consumers of research, and the development of applied skills that will allow the graduate to contribute to the field of clinical psychology, serving as a local clinical scientist. Graduates will have the requisite knowledge, skills, and experience for the practice of professional psychology, based on the science of psychology and the ethics of the profession.

It is expected that a typical student will take 12 semester hours each Fall and Spring semester. Students admitted without previous graduate training in psychology will require four academic years of full-time study, four summers of part-time study, plus a year of full-time internship (a minimum of 120 semester hours).

During the five years of clinical education, students will learn to integrate theory, research, and practice to become skilled professionals who understand the importance of the scientific foundation of psychology and are prepared to assume one of the many roles of professional . It is expected that graduates of EKU’s Psy.D. program will make significant contributions to the well-being of others.

Eastern Kentucky University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate, baccalaureate, masters, and degrees. The Psy.D. program at EKU is not currently accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). The APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation is located at 750 East St., NE; Washington DC 20002-4242, PH: 202-336-5979 or visit http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation.

Program Competencies

Any doctoral program in clinical psychology has the responsibility to balance teaching new psychologists and protecting the public. The Psy.D. program at EKU emphasizes competence as one of the ways to meet these sometimes competing responsibilities. Following the model of the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology (NCSPP), the EKU Psy.D. program emphasizes seven competencies, which are categorized as follows:

Overarching competencies, important throughout training and beyond, in application of all other competencies: Relationship and Diversity

Competencies of practice, combining knowledge, attitudes and skills, utilized before and after graduation: Assessment, Intervention, Research and Evaluation, and Consultation and Education.

Competency of later development, taught with emphasis on knowledge to set the stage for further development later in the graduate’s career: Supervision

Descriptions of the individual NCSPP Competencies:

Relationship: Relationship involves the capacity to develop and maintain constructive working alliances with clients, coworkers, supervisors and peers. It includes sensitivity to diversity, ethics, boundaries and knowledge of self.

Diversity: Diversity involves the affirmation, understanding, and professional application of the richness of human differences, ideas and beliefs that result from age, color, disability/health, ethnicity, gender, language, national origin, race, religion/spirituality, sexual orientation, social-economic status, as well as the intersection of these multiple identities. It includes using culturally appropriate relationship, assessment, intervention, consultation, administrative and research modalities; understanding power differentials and dynamics; and attending to the social and cultural values which influence professional psychology.

Assessment: This ongoing, interactive, and inclusive process serves to describe, conceptualize, characterize, and predict relevant aspects of a client (includes, but is not limited to, psychological testing).

Intervention: Intervention comprises activities that promote, restore, sustain, and/or enhance positive functioning and a sense of well-being in clients through preventive, developmental, or remedial services.

Research and Evaluation: The systematic mode of inquiry involves problem identification and the acquisition, organization and interpretation of information pertaining to psychological phenomena. Students apply disciplined inquiry to clinical situations and evaluate the research literature.

Consultation and Education: Consultation is a planned collaborative interaction that is an explicit intervention process based on psychological principles and procedures in which the professional does not have control of the actual change process. It includes consultation with members of other systems and other professionals within a system. Education is the directed facilitation of growth of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in the learner.

Management and Supervision: Management comprises those activities that direct, organize, or control services professionals offer or render to the public. Supervision is one kind of management, blended with teaching in the context of a relationship directed toward the enhancement of the competence of the supervisee while ensuring the best possible services for the supervisee’s clients.