Online Master's in Clinical Psychology Counseling

This course is designed to provide an intensive study in the field of adult psychopathology. This course will include critical analysis of the major adult psychological disorders, their symptomatology, diagnosis, and casual explanations, and application of current knowledge of recent literature, research, and evidence base to real clinical settings. This course will cover the following primary content areas of the discipline: (1) advanced psychopathology: general issues and ethical considerations; (2) neuropsychological syndromes; (3) psychiatric disorders and behavioral syndromes; (4) current evidenced-based interventions. Additional topics may be covered at the discretion of the instructor.

This course provides an orientation to the counseling profession. Students will learn about ethical and legal dilemmas that professional counselors face, and how to handle them. The course is intended to stimulate thought and discussion about some of the major issues faced by counselors today. Students will learn how to interpret and use the professional codes of ethics of the American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association.

This course is an overview of major theories of counseling and psychotherapy with a special focus on cultural differences, counseling theories, counselor preparation, and common theory-based assessment and case formulation strategies. Because the purpose of counseling and psychotherapy is to help individuals make personally meaningful changes in their lives, we will consistently examine the means through which traditional theories attempt to produce such changes. Students will read about historical and intellectual foundations of major counseling theories, while at the same time, observing skills and techniques employed by practitioners using those theoretical perspectives. There will be opportunities, through assignments and online discussion, for students to analyze client case studies as well as themselves through the various lenses of psychological theories. Overall, students are encouraged not only to explore all the major theoretical orientations, but also to explore their personal beliefs and values in an effort to develop and deepen their understanding of counseling and psychotherapy process and outcome.

In seeking to prepare students to be effective clinical psychologists in a diverse world, this course begins by examining the scope and complexity of cultural diversity in general and, in particular, those internal processes and external influences that may affect and shape psychological and social experiences and outcomes on a number of levels for various client populations as well as for therapists themselves. The role of culturally-informed and practice-based approaches and skills in meeting the varying needs over the life-span of individuals with intersecting identities across the gender spectrum, belonging to majority and minority groups in relation to race, ethnicity, disability, and other forms of diversity are also explored. Students are expected to complete the course with a heightened awareness of these realities and their implications for understanding and addressing the needs/problems of the diverse populations that they will serve as trained clinicians and practitioners. Critical thinking will be honed through the process of analyzing existing knowledge, identifying gaps in the knowledge, and employing research in order to discover, deepen, and disseminate knowledge and insights within the field.

Research is an essential component of psychology, as it yields critical data that strengthen our understanding of human thinking, behavior, and psychopathology. In this course, you will learn about the philosophy of science, the various methods psychologists use in their research, and how to think critically about existing psychological research. While parts of this course will review material covered in your undergraduate curriculum, this graduate level course will take you beyond the basics. Topics include a comprehensive and rigorous overview of the variety of methods used in research, how to control for confounding variables, how to create new instruments for research (surveys, questionnaires, scales, etc.), sampling procedures and statistical power, how write about your research in APA format and get it published, etc.

Provides graduate-level students the tools necessary for summarizing, analyzing, interpreting, and visualizing data from psychological studies. The course covers ANOVA, prediction models, non-parametric tests, tests for categorical data, cluster analysis, and factor analysis. Students will use statistical software (e.g., SPSS, R) to gain hands-on experience with analyzing data sets. Those who take the course should have previous knowledge of basic summary statistics and hypothesis testing methods (e.g., z tests and t tests).

This course focuses on the physical, cognitive, social and emotional growth and change of humans throughout the lifespan from prenatal development through death and dying. As a required course for the Clinical Master’s program, this course will highlight the importance of developmental theory and empirical research for informing practitioners’ work with clients. Specifically, through an understanding of developmental milestones and normative developmental changes and outcomes, practitioners will be better able to recognize maladaptive behavior, risk and protective factors and engage in critical decision-making regarding intervention, prevention and therapeutic techniques. In order to accomplish this goal, the foundational components of this course will focus on an understanding of different yet often complementary developmental theories, key terms and concepts, and expert views in the field. This course will also focus on current developmental issues/debates within the field, seminal research studies and research methodology/practices in developmental science. Students will acquire this knowledge through textbook readings, empirical research articles, expert knowledge shared through videos, and instructor lectures. As students learn about the development of an individual over time, they will come to understand the micro and macro influences on development. That is, students will understand how the individual’s biology and behavior can influence their own development via interactions with the immediate environment as well as how larger societal influences such as cultural, political, economic, educational, technological, and generational changes can influence the individual’s growth over time. Understanding the continual interplay between human growth and the environment is critical for informing practitioners in their work with individuals of all ages who suffer from mental health and behavioral challenges.

This is the first semester of a two-semester sequence on psychological assessment. This course is designed to give students a foundation in theories, strategies, and techniques in psychological assessment, focusing on empirical support and clinical utility. The content areas in this course will include: (1) the science of psychological measurement; (2) assessment of intelligence; (3) assessment of personality; (4) testing and assessment in action. Specifically, this course will include: (1) an introduction to empirically-based assessments; (2) an overview of the basics of interviewing and report writing; and (3) reliable administration of achievement and personality tests including the WASI-II, WIATIII, WISC-5, and MMPI-3. Additional topics in psychological assessment may be covered at the discretion of the instructor.

This is the second semester of a two-semester sequence on psychological assessment. This course is designed to give students a foundation in theories, strategies, and techniques in psychological assessment, focusing on empirical support and clinical utility. The topics in this course will include (1) a review of the basics of clinical interviewing and report writing; (2) how to select, critically evaluate, and use empirically based assessments; (3) utility of the multi-method assessment approach for research and practice; (4) cognitive-behavioral case formulation; and (5) reliable administration of diagnostic semi-structured interviews including the BDI-II, BAI, SCID-5 and M.I.N.I. Additional topics in psychological assessment may be covered at the discretion of the instructor.