- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the largest trainer and employer of clinical psychologists in the world and founder of the accreditation movement.
- The Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, the nation’s uniformed services branch headed by the Surgeon General.
- The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) within the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services for their Psychology Graduate Psychology Education and Behavioral Health Workforce Education Programs.
- The National Institutes of Health (NIH), with a past Director stating, “At NIMH, we thought of PCSAS at the cutting edge of where training should be in clinical psychological science, and as the model for how rigorous accreditation might have an influence even beyond psychology.”
- Many psychological and mental health organizations including: the Association for Psychological Science; the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science; the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies; the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology; the Society for Research in Psychopathology; the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology; and the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology.
- PCSAS programs are recognized by US News & World Reports for their rankings of graduate clinical psychology programs
- The Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC), the organization that runs psychology’s internship placement “Match” service.
- The licensing laws and regulations of several states that account for approximately 50% of the U.S. population.
- Recognized for support in the U.S. Congress over multiple years and in multiple federal agencies.
PCSAS continues to work with our programs to gain recognition of PCSAS in individual states. The specific requirements for licensure and internship placements vary by jurisdiction and institution and are subject to change. Currently, about a quarter of the states explicitly recognize PCSAS explicitly. The remaining states either require APA/CPA accreditation, do not have language about an accreditation requirement, or they do not require accreditation from a program-level accreditor like PCSAS or APA-CoA. Most, if not all states have alternative pathways to licensure. The process for gaining recognition for PCSAS can be lengthy and must be initiated by programs within a state. PCSAS has resources available for programs interested in approaching their state licensure boards to request that PCSAS accreditation be recognized for licensing purposes and will assist in that process.