Become a Psychologist

The Ph.D. Clinical Psychology Program at Palo Alto University (PAU), Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (PGSP) is deeply committed to educating well-rounded clinical psychologists who are capable and competent as both researchers and clinicians. Students are taught to be science minded while appreciating the larger role of psychology in alleviating suffering in the world. This balance includes learning to value evidence-based clinical models while maintaining the responsibilities psychologists have to their community, society, and profession. An outstanding faculty of clinicians and researchers provides rigorous classroom instruction, clinical supervision, and research mentoring to help students find the right balance for them. Working within a training model best described as "practitioner-scientist, " students systematically move through five years of coursework and practica to acquire Ph.D.-level competence and capability in areas of psychological theory, research, and practice. The Ph.D. Clinical Psychology program is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Goals of the Ph.D. Clinical Psychology Program

• To produce students and graduates who are critically reflective and informed consumers and producers of psychological knowledge and associated clinical sciences.
• To produce clinicians with the requisite clinical knowledge, skills, and attitudes to successfully practice as entry PhD-level clinical psychologists in a variety of clinical settings and with a variety of clinical problems.
• To produce researchers with the requisite scientific knowledge, skills, and attitudes to both consume and generate research;
• To produce culturally competent clinical psychologists;
• To produce clinical psychologists whose conduct exemplifies the excellence in professionalism and ethics.

Emphasis Areas

The Ph.D. Clinical Psychology program provides broad and general preparation through the integration of scholarship, professional experience, and research in accordance with our practitioner-scientist training model. In addition, the Ph.D. Clinical Psychology program offers optional Areas of Emphasis for students to gain additional knowledge and experience within a more focused field of clinical psychology.