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Elective Courses and Minors

The Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (Health Emphasis) Program Minors

Students have the option to complete a number of minors that are offered by the Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (Health Emphasis) Program. In order to successfully fulfill the requirements for a minor, a student must complete all required coursework with grades of B+ or higher in each course as well as any required externships and/or research projects. A summary of each minor can be found below and can also be found in the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology Academic Catalog.

*Students interested in elective training opportunities through the minors are required to schedule an in-person appointment with the faculty member who directs the minor they wish to pursue in order to discuss the training process and requirements, and to receive formal approval.

Clinical Neuropsychology Minor

Director: Dr. Roee Holtzer                                         The training in Clinical Neuropsychology is consistent with the educational and training guidelines recommended by Division 40 of the APA and the Houston Conference. Core courses in assessment, interviewing, psychopathology, therapy, statistics, and biological basis of behavior must be completed before students begin their training in the Clinical Neuropsychology Minor. Successful completion of the courses “Neuroscience of Human Behavior, Cognition and Affect” and “Physiological Health Psychology” also serves as a prerequisite for admissions to the minor. Then, concurrent with the two-semester didactic sequence (Introduction to Clinical Neuropsychology I and II) students are required to complete a formal year-long externship in Clinical Neuropsychology. The course in Psychopharmacology may be taken in parallel or subsequent to completion of the above year- long didactic sequence. As discussed above, the following courses are required for the minor: Physiological Psychology [PSH 6938], (2) Neuroscience of Human Behavior, Cognition and Affect [PSH 6014], (3) Clinical Neuropsychology I [PSH 6011], (4) Clinical Neuropsychology II [PSH 6012], (5) Psychopharmacology [PSA 6071].

Research Methodology and Statistics Minor

Director: Dr. Elizabeth Seng                                      The Research Methodology and Statistics Minor will give students an opportunity to gain advanced didactic and applied training in research methodology and statistics in the behavioral sciences. Students must take Statistics I [PSA 6280] and Statistics II [PSA 6283] as prerequisites to the minor. Students will then take coursework in Applied Statistics in Health [PSH 6284], Social Psychology in Health [PSH 6935], Qualitative Research [PSA 6289], and Test Construction [PSH 6321]. Students will also practice advanced research methodology and statistics skills through an applied project, which will consist of a written document describing the application of an advanced methodological or statistical technique in either an academic research project, an abstract submitted to a conference, or a peer-reviewed publication.

Addictions Minor

Director: Dr. Andrea H. Weinberger
The Addictions Minor requires the completion of the three courses (listed below) which will provide the students with training related to clinical work in addictions (e.g., assessment, treatment), research (statistical analysis of addiction-related data), and the association of addictions to health. To fulfill the requirements of the minor, students must also complete one of the following: (1) a clinical externship with an emphasis on clinical work in addictions or (2) a research project focused on addictions. The externship and research project must be approved by the minor advisors. The following courses are required to complete the Addictions Minor: (1) Applied Statistics in Health [PSH 6284], (2) Health and Addictions [PSH 6421], and (3) the American Psychological Association (APA) Substance Use Disorders (SUD) Curriculum . For the APA SUD Curriculum, the certificate of complication must be submitted to Dr. Weinberger in order to get credit for the course as part of the Addictions Minor.

Additional Minors

Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (Health Emphasis) students are eligible to complete several minors that are offered through the Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology program or the Psy.D. in School-Clinical Child Psychology program at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. In order to successfully fulfill the requirements for a minor, a student must complete all required coursework with grades of B+ or higher in each course as well as any required externships and/or research projects. A summary of each minor can be found below and can also be found in the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology Academic Catalog.

Geropsychology Minor

Director: Dr. Richard Zweig
The Ferkauf Older Adult Program (FOAP) offers a minor in the newly emerging field of clinical geropsychology comprised of didactic coursework and clinical training experiences. Didactic Training Requirement: Students who seek a minor in clinical geropsychology must complete 9 credits (see below) to meet the didactic coursework requirement; one of these must include Assessment and Treatment of Older Adults [PSC 6448], an overview of issues critical to the diagnosis and psychological treatment of psychological problems in older adults. Required Coursework: (1) Assessment and Treatment of Older Adults [PSC 6448] and (2) Two of the following courses: Neuroscience of Human Behavior, Cognition and Affect [PSH 6014]; Geropsychology Lab I [PSC 6449L] & II [PSC 6450L]; Research in Depression & Personality Disorders in Older Adults I [PSC 6459L]; Research in Depression & Personality Disorders in Older Adults II (PSC 6450L]; Clinical Neuropsychology I [PSH 6011] & Clinical Neuropsychology II [PSH 6012] (only open to students pursuing the Neuropsychology minor); Geriatric Neuropsychology Practicum I [PSC 6449] & Geriatric Neuropsychology Practicum II [PSC 6550] (open to participants in the FOAP geropsychology externship ONLY). Advanced Clinical Training Requirement: Students who seek the minor may satisfy the advanced clinical training requirements through participation in an externship that emphasizes supervised clinical work with older adults (minimum experience of nine (9) months of applied supervised training for at least ten (10) hours per week). For more information, please see the FOAP website:

Child Minor

Director: Dr. Greta Doctoroff
Students in all doctoral programs have the option of completing a Child Minor. Students must contact the School-Clinical Child Program Director prior to registration for the Spring semester to apply for the child minor. Please be aware that availability may be limited based on enrollment in any given year. Students accepted to the minor will be assigned a Child Minor advisor. The Child Minor requires the completion of four courses that must be taken in the order listed below. These courses equip students with foundational knowledge to inform future supervised training outside of the minor in child and adolescent therapy. In addition to these courses, Child Minor students must also have either 1) a year-long externship which involves 75% of time dedicated to child/adolescent therapy/assessment that has been approved by the Child Minor advisor or 2) a doctoral research project which is focused on child or adolescent research that is approved by the Child Minor advisor. Required Coursework: (1) Developmental Psychopathology [PSS 6250 (Spring)] and (2) Beginning Work with Children, Parents, and Families [PSS 6610 (Spring)] and either: (3) Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy for Youth I [PSS 6213 (Fall)] (4) Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy for Youth II [PSS 6449 (Spring)] or: (3) Psychodynamic Theory [PSS 6118 (Fall)] (4) Psychodynamic Therapy for Youth [PSS 6119 (Spring)]. Please note: the Child Minor does not involve the opportunity to complete the Child Therapy Practicum courses, which are reserved for students in the School-Clinical Child Program.

Other Training Information

Our training process is sequential, graded in complexity and cumulative. Upon entering the program, each student is assigned a core faculty member as an academic advisor, who meets with the student at least twice per year to address academic and program-related issues. During the first month of the program, each student collaboratively identifies a research mentor, a core faculty member who provides individual supervision to students in her/his lab about research and career development mentorship throughout the student’s tenure in the program. Academically, students first complete core courses and emphasis is placed on achievement of foundational knowledge.

Clinical training begins in the spring semester of the 1^st year with our in-house training clinic, the Parnes Clinic, as part of the program’s Behavioral Medicine Practicum sequence. In the second year and throughout their tenure in the program students are placed in year-long externships, which are formal external clinical training sites typically located in medical centers, hospitals and outpatient clinic settings.  After the students satisfactorily achieve all academic and clinical requirements during in-residence training they are required to complete a full-time predoctoral internship (see clinical training section for further details).

The program’s robust training in research is focused on the application of clinical psychology to diverse health conditions and populations. The research lab courses, which are required throughout the tenure of the students in the program, serve as platforms for students to learn core concepts related to the specific research area and to develop, implement and successfully complete their research projects.  The student is required to achieve two research milestones, the predoctoral project and dissertation thesis.

Students are expected to demonstrate competencies in all areas of training. Our assessment of competencies is based on academic performance, direct observations of expected skill sets, indirect evaluations including but not limited to students’ evaluations by clinical supervisors as well as procedures developed by the program faculty to directly observe and evaluate core clinical and research competencies. In addition, the program has developed two independent procedures that assess competency in a manner consistent with the APA competency benchmark system.

For a comprehensive overview of the programs’ training procedures, policies and values see the Program Manual (PDF).