Tag: Clinical Psychology
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Current and Anticipated Mental Health Effects of COVID-19
by Stephanie L. Haft, B.A., University of California, Berkeley Previous research has demonstrated that pandemics carry a heavy psychological toll. Consistent with these findings, in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic clinical scientists are witnessing an escalation in mental health issues. This increase in both the severity and prevalence of mental health concerns is…
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What Does it Take to be a Competitive Internship Applicant?
by Iony D. Ezawa, M.A., The Ohio State University Applying to and making it through graduate school takes a lot of work, but before you reach the end, there is the internship application process. While graduate school is focused on preparing you to be a researcher, a clinician, a teacher, and more, you may still…
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Student Spotlight: Alayna Park
by Molly Bowdring, M.S., University of Pittsburgh The PCSAS Newsletter will regularly feature “Spotlights,” which aim to highlight students and early career researchers from different PCSAS programs and the excellent work they are doing. The present article focuses on Dr. Alayna Park, a recent graduate from the UCLA Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program. Dr. Park has just…
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How the Cost of Internship Contributes to Inequities in Clinical Psychology
by Brett Schneider, University of Wisconsin-Madison There is a glaring and alarming lack of diversity within the clinical psychology community. While most academic fields suffer from a lack of diversity, the clinical internship training model poses a unique difficulty for attracting and retaining diverse students. I passionately believe in the importance of the internship process in…
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Culturally Competent Psychotherapy: How We Can Do Better
by Amanda R. Arulpragasam, Emory University The recent murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks highlight the continued racism and discrimination experienced by Black Americans. Racist events have been linked to increased mental health risks and poor clinical course (Loeb et al., 2018; Sibrava et al., 2019). Incidents of police brutality and…
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Antiracism Requires Accomplices
by Effua E. Sosoo, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Donte L. Bernard, Medical University of South Carolina, and Carrington C. Merritt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “The opposite of ‘racist’ isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist’” (Kendi, 2019, p. 9) The recent trifecta of shooting deaths that claimed the lives of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,…
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Do Clinical Science Programs Need GRE Scores in Admissions this Year, or Ever?
by Isabelle Lanser & Alexandra S. Tanner, University of California, Los Angeles As the field of psychology and the clinical science community in particular examine the ways our field has historically been complicit in the discrimination and oppression of marginalized groups, it is important to re-examine the structure of our current training programs to identify…
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Assessing the Integration of Sociocultural Considerations in Clinical Science Programs
by Isabelle Lanser & Alexandra S. Tanner, University of California, Los AngelesAs the field of psychology and the clinical science community in particular examine the ways our field has historically been complicit in the discrimination and oppression of marginalized groups, it is important to re-examine the structure of our current training programs to identify opportunities…
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Racism in Clinical Science and Academia Today and Ways to Enact Change
by Yehsong Kim, University of Southern California There is a social movement afoot to root out anti-Black racism in our society. Racism—the belief that someone is less than because of the color of their skin and the subsequent oppression, exclusion, limitation, or discrimination of non-dominant racial groups that occurs—has been a part of the history…
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Student Perspectives on Culturally Informed Case Formulation
by Jennifer Pearlstein & Alice Hua, University of California, Berkeley Given recent mobilization in response to police killings of Black people, we as clinical scientists are reminded again of the extensive evidence documenting the detrimental effects of racism on mental health (Carter et al., 2019; Paradies et al., 2015; Pieterse et al., 2012). We are trained…
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I Got An Invite! Now What?
by Molly Bowdring, University of Pittsburgh Now that the internship application season has come to a close, students who have gone through the process are eager to share strategies aimed at helping you to minimize your burden and maximize your likelihood of success. Specifically, we highlight approaches for navigating one aspect of the application process:…
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Taking on Teletherapy: Experiences and Recommendations from a PCSAS Training Clinic Adapting to COVID-19
by Matthew V. Elliott, Suzanne M. Shdo, & Esther Howe, UC Berkeley Acknowledgement: The authors would like to acknowledge Nancy H. Liu, PhD, Nina F. Dronkers, PhD, Nadine M. Tang, LCSW, and Robert W. Levenson, PhD, for their contributions to this article and the clinic. With over 2 million confirmed cases worldwide and most of the…
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Improving the Mentor-Mentee Relationship
by Atina Manvelian, The Academy of Psychological Clinical Science Student Engagement Committee Beginning a 5- to 6-year doctoral program in clinical psychology is a massive endeavor that undoubtedly calls into question one’s professional capabilities and identity in the field. Can I continuously analyze data and publish in top-tier scientific journals? Will I make a good therapist? How…
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Licensure and PCSAS: Commonalities and Differences Across States
by Stephanie L. Haft, UC Berkeley After graduate school, internship, and postdoc, there is still one more step to complete in order to independently work with clients as a psychologist: licensure. To be licensed, all states have requirements that are typically under the jurisdiction of state licensing boards. The state uses these licensing requirements to establish…