The Psy.D Program forms Hispanic and culturally sensitive clinical psychologists and provides students with a comprehensive knowledge base and appropriate attitudes and clinical skills needed to serve the Hispanic clients, families, groups and social system.

KEY ADVANTAGES / BENEFITS

Training Goals

The primary goal of the Psy. D. Program is to offer academic, pre-doctoral practicum and pre-doctoral internship experiences directly relevant to the Practitioner-Scientist Training Model.

The main goals of the Psy.D. Program are:

• Prepare students to become clinical psychologists who provide comprehensive psychodiagnostic and psychotherapeutic services in an ethical and competent manner.
• Educate students in theories and concepts of cultural diversity and individual differences, and their application to the practice of professional psychology.
• Prepare students to function as clinical supervisors, program administrators, and/or consultants.
•  Educate students to practice clinical psychology as informed by the theories, methods, and findings of scientific research and scholarly works.

Training Model and Competencies Required

The Psy.D. Program requires 96 credits of coursework, six semesters of clinical practicum, comprehensive examinations, qualifying examinations, a predoctoral internship of 2000 hours and a dissertation. The program requirements are in compliance with the professional associations and licensing boards.

Eight program objectives and forty subordinate competencies have been designed to meet Program goals. These objectives reflect competencies and skills that students are expected to achieve by graduation, which, in turn, are expected to influence professional functioning.

Objective 1: Develop self-awareness and interpersonal skills.

Competencies:

1. Identify personal strengths and needs that hinder and enhance the ability to relate to others.
2. Recognize behavioral trends and patterns in the self and others.
3. Analyze the interpersonal style.
4. Develop strategies to improve the interpersonal style.

Objective 2: Demonstrate comprehensive clinical assessment skills.

Competencies:

1. Develop warmth, empathy, genuineness and respect towards clients.
2. Develop and maintain the therapeutic alliance.
3. Consider individual and cultural differences during the clinical assessment.
4. Develop skills in structured and unstructured clinical interviews.
5. Select tests and measures that respond appropriately to individual and cultural needs.
6. Administer, score and interpret empirically validated:
   1. Intelligence, perceptual and adaptive tests
   2. Objective and projective personality measures
7. Prepare and present written and oral reports that integrate test data and collateral findings.
8. Diagnose mental disorders and conditions.

Objective 3:  Demonstrate comprehensive skills in clinical intervention.

Competencies:

1. Integrate ethical principles into clinical interventions.
2. Develop systematic approach to gather data for decision-making in clinical interventions.
3. Develop conceptual models to intervene with clients.
4. Select the best strategies for accurate interventions.
5. Develop skills in crisis intervention.
6. Develop, review, and adjust treatment plans.
7. Apply short and long term psychotherapeutic interventions.
8. Apply evidence-based treatments.

Objective 4:  Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of and ability to apply ethical principles to clinical practice.

Competencies:

1. Know and apply the APA, Examining Board of Puerto Rico (EBPPR) and Puerto Rico Psychological Association (PRPA) Codes of Ethics.
2. Know and apply Puerto Rico and Federal laws, rules and regulations relevant to clinical practice.
3. Know and apply professional guidelines and standards.

Objective 5:  Identify and understand issues related to cultural sensitivity and individual differences as they affect clinical practice.

Competencies:

1. Recognize cultural and individual differences related to the assessment and treatment activities.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of APA guidelines for culturally and individually diverse populations
3. Identify and understand alternative lifestyles and ethnic-cultural variables affecting assessment and intervention.
4. Demonstrate ability to work effectively with clients, colleagues, and supervisors of diverse backgrounds.

Objective 6:   Demonstrate ability as clinical supervisors, administrators, and consultants in diverse settings.

Competencies:

1. Demonstrate knowledge and skills in methods and models in clinical supervision.
2. Identify and apply roles, strategies and intervention skills in clinical supervision.
3. Understand supervisee’s level of professional development and needs in the context of clinical supervision.
4. Demonstrate ability to conduct a needs-assessment for mental health service delivery.
5. Understand the principles of program design and program evaluation.
6. Demonstrate knowledge of different methods and models of mental health administration.
7. Demonstrate knowledge of different methods and models of consultation.

Objective 7:  Develop a sense of social commitment within the community.

Competencies:

1. Demonstrate social commitment in clinical practice.
2. Develop sensibility in the intervention with diverse and high risk populations.

Objective 8:   Demonstrate the skills to be discerning consumers of scholarly works and research, including studies of empirically based treatment methodology.

Competencies:

1. Perform critical literature reviews.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the difference between evidence-based treatment and empirically supported treatments.
3. Apply empirical research findings into clinical practice.

Training Objectives

Upon completion of academic requirements the students must be able to:

·  develop and maintain a constructive working alliance with clients.

·  describe, conceptualize, characterize and predict relevant aspects of a client.

·  promote, restore, sustain, or enhance positive functioning and a sense of well being in clients     through preventive, developmental or remedial services.

·  identify the problem and the acquisition, organization, and interpretation of information     pertaining to psychological phenomena, emphasizing the role of the Psy.D. Professional as     consumer of current research output.

·  plan a collaborative interaction that is an explicit intervention process based on principles and     procedures found within psychology and related disciplines wherein the professional psychologist     does not have a direct control of the actual change process.

·  plan, organize, and direct service provision efforts, ranging from individual (supervision) to     multifaceted organizational.