Counseling Program

Training in Counseling Psychology

Doctoral students in counseling psychology receive academic training in core areas of psychology and in the fundamental areas of counseling.  They receive training in counseling in practicum placements in the Psychology Clinic, the Texas Tech Counseling Center, and in sites in the community (such as those supported by our Graduate Psychology Education Program grant).  All students in the Counseling Psychology program also receive training in research and they produce research-based dissertations.  Most students in the Counseling Psychology Program also receive training in University teaching and they often teach courses independently.

Curriculum

Students enroll in courses to fulfill certain department core requirements and Counseling Psychology program requirements. The department core course requirements were revised in Spring, 1999, to allow comprehensive coverage of the breadth of psychology, in addition to allowing students flexibility in choosing which courses they will take. Students are required to complete one course in each of four basic content areas: (1) cognitive aspects of behavior, (2) developmental aspects of behavior, (3) biological aspects of behavior, and (4) social aspects of behavior. Some specialized courses within the department can be used to satisfy the department core requirement if a basic course has been successfully completed by a student as an undergraduate. Students also take 3 courses in statistics as part of the department core course requirements.

Program requirements specific to Counseling Psychology include not only the psychology department core requirements, but also seven courses in the Counseling Psychology Core -- Introduction to Counseling, Theories and Techniques of Psychotherapy, Contemporary Issues (Ethics), Research Methods, Psychopathology, Vocational Psychology, and either Counseling with Special Populations or Counseling Women. Students also take at least two courses in assessment, at least one Counseling Elective course, and History and Systems of Psychology. In addition, students enroll for credits for their practicum, pre-doctoral internship, second-year research project, and dissertation. Overall, 92 credit hours are required for the doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology. Students may petition to waive up to 15 credits of department core requirements and 15 credits of other requirements for the Counseling Psychology doctoral program.

Practicum

Practicum training experiences are graded in complexity and provide for a continuous and gradual education in the practice of psychotherapy as conceptualized within a scientist-practitioner model, and conforming with the specified philosophies and goals of this program. During their first year in the program, students typically enroll in PSY 5304 Practicum in Intelligence Testing and PSY 5316 Introduction to Counseling Psychology. These courses provide initial training in psychotherapy and assessment skills, as well as initial exposure to the Psychology Clinic and other training sites. During the spring semester of the first year, students participate in group supervision practicum meetings, and conduct client screenings to further familiarize themselves with Psychology Clinic operations, as well as gain an introduction to the experience of practicum training.

Students formally begin practicum training in the Psychology Clinic during the fall semester of their second year. Five total semesters of formal practicum enrollment are required, although often students take more than five semesters. Three semesters of practicum are required to be taken in the department's in-house Psychology Clinic, and one semester of practicum is required to be taken in the University Counseling Center. These practicum experiences augment and extend the more strictly didactic training that students receive in individual differences, human development, dysfunctional behavior, professional standards and ethics, theories and methods of assessment and diagnosis, effective interventions, and evaluation of the efficacy of intervention.

The Psychology Department's Psychology Clinic is located on the first floor of the Psychology Building, and is utilized by students from the counseling and clinical programs for practicum training. This clinic functions as a community-based, outpatient clinic, but also serves as a source of psychotherapy for people from the Texas Tech University community. Clients are drawn from a large region around the Lubbock area, including people from as far as Eastern New Mexico. Clients present with a broad range of psychological concerns, including a number of Axis I and Axis II diagnoses, as well as relational, vocational, and academic concerns. Clients represent a variety of aspects of diversity, including gender, racial/ethnic, physical ability, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, and religious background. A variety of therapy modalities are used in the clinic, including individual therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, and occasionally, group therapy.

Students involved in practicum in the Psychology Clinic are supervised by core counseling faculty. Exceptions to this have been made in the past when, in a few instances, adjunct faculty from the community were hired to teach and supervise a practicum class. Students typically receive a minimum of two hours of group supervision, and one hour of individual supervision, each week by the faculty instructor. Group supervision is taught in a variety of ways, based on both instructor preference and the developmental level of the students. Training in these meetings can range from being quite didactic to being more discussion-oriented. Occasionally, practicum sections for the counseling program, or for both counseling and clinical programs, are combined for special training workshops (e.g, crisis intervention, anxiety disorders, suicide). Also, counseling faculty have occasionally co-facilitated combined group supervision meetings for a few weeks, or for an entire semester.

As students continue to advance through practicum training, they are gradually exposed to more complex client issues. During their fourth year of training, students are allowed to enroll in a supervision practicum in the Psychology Clinic. This practicum combines both didactic instruction and supervised experience. Students in the supervision practicum supervise a portion of first-year practicum students' (i.e., second year in program) client caseload, and are in turn supervised by a core counseling faculty.

The Student Counseling Center (SCC) is on the second floor of West Hall, and houses an APA-accredited internship. The professional therapy staff is made up almost entirely of licensed counseling and clinical psychologists, although supervision of practicum students is provided by both senior staff and interns. Practicum students attend a two-hour case conference, one and a half hours of individual supervision, and a two-hour training seminar each week. Clients at the SCC consist of students from Texas Tech University. Specialized emphases for practicum training are available at the SCC, including couples therapy, outreach, intake interviewing, assessment, and group therapy.

In addition to the primary practicum training that students receive at the Psychology Clinic and the SCC, students gain a breadth of applied experiences from external practicums (e.g., community mental health, medical settings, correctional facility) and the employment opportunities mentioned previously. Supervision in these experiences is always provided by licensed counseling and clinical psychologists, except in state agencies, which are exempt from psychological licensure requirements in Texas. In these situations, supervision is provided by doctoral level professionally-trained psychologists.

Research

During their first year in the doctoral program, Counseling Psychology students are encouraged to begin learning about research opportunities in the department. Students are especially encouraged to learn about their advisor's research activities, and to participate in research group meetings that may be sponsored by faculty. Additionally, students enroll in the Research Methods course for Counseling Psychology students during the spring semester of their first year. In this course, students learn fundamental and advanced techniques of the research enterprise as related to the field of Counseling Psychology. As a typical final course project, students are encouraged to develop a rough proposal for a research project that may become their second-year project.

The second-year research project, officially called the prequalifying examination research requirement, is undertaken during students' second year of doctoral study. This project is an empirical study in psychology that is less formal than a master's thesis, and developed in collaboration with a faculty member. This research project frequently results in a manuscript that can be presented at research conferences, submitted for journal publication, and often lays the groundwork for the dissertation. Any student entering the Counseling Psychology program with a master's degree can submit a previous psychology research project for approval by faculty to satisfy this departmental requirement.

Students also complete a dissertation toward the end of their graduate study. While this task may seem daunting to beginning doctoral students, training and mentoring is provided throughout students' graduate education, which prepares them for progressing through this more independent research requirement.

Even though the second-year research project and the dissertation are the two required research experiences in the Counseling Psychology doctoral program, many opportunities exist for students to become involved in other types of research endeavors. Students are free to work with any available faculty on a variety of projects at differing levels of involvement.

Qualifying Examinations

Typically, students who enter the program with a bachelor's degree take the written qualifying examination during the spring of their third year of study, after they have completed their second-year research project. This examination is designed to adhere to and reflect the scientist-practitioner approach to counseling psychology by emphasizing clear and cogent linkages among observation and inference, theory and practice. Four core areas of counseling psychology are assessed: (1) counseling theory and practice, (2) vocational counseling and career development, (3) research issues, and (4) professional issues. Students are encouraged to collaborate while preparing for the written qualifying examination, and the evaluation of these examinations is structured to provide a constructive learning experience.

Predoctoral Internship

Students also complete a year-long predoctoral internship before earning their doctorate. Internships are done at a variety of APA- accredited sites including university counseling centers, medical centers, VA hospitals, correctional institutions, community mental health centers, and consortia. Some of our students have participated in the APA-accredited predoctoral internship program located in the Texas Tech University Student Counseling Center. Most of our students participate in internships which are located outside of the Lubbock area and distributed through various parts of the United States.

Our program has experienced remarkable success with students obtaining internships in the nationally competitive application process. For internship admissions offers which were extended in the spring of 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004, 100% of our students (16 out of 16) were selected by an internship program of their choice. Also, many of our internship applicants receive offers from their first-ranked internship sites.