College of Clinical Psychology
Mission Statement
The mission of the College of Clinical Psychology at Argosy University is to prepare students to seek employment in clinical psychology within the practitioner-scholar tradition. Our graduates are equipped to provide scientifically grounded, theoretically informed, and culturally responsive psychological services. Rigorous training in the science, practice, and ethics of clinical psychology is emphasized in order to address the needs of individuals, couples, families, and organizations across diverse communities. Our programs share a common vision of clinical education and a proud legacy of professional school training.
Privacy
Personal growth and development is considered necessary to becoming an effective counselor. As a result, courses incorporate strategies for promoting such growth. These experiences may include, among others, journaling, reflecting on one’s difficulties with the counseling process, identifying and sharing personal issues and history that may hinder effective and culturally sensitive counseling, and sharing personal experiences with bias and discrimination. We recognize the sensitivity necessary to create an environment of safety for such sharing, and expect faculty and students to conduct themselves in a way that promotes such safety. One necessary component in creating safety is the faith that one’s disclosures will be held in confidence. Therefore, we expect students to keep confidential any material shared in class and in course assignments.
Non-Academic Competence Policy
The College of Clinical Psychology at Argosy University subscribes to the policy of the Student Competence Task Force of the Council of Chairs of Training Councils. This means that the faculty, training staff, and site supervisors of Argosy University have a professional, ethical, and potentially legal obligation to:
- Evaluate the interpersonal competence and emotional well-being of student trainees who are under their supervision, and who provide services to clients and consumers, and
- Ensure - insofar as possible - that the trainees who complete their programs are competent to manage future relationships (e.g., client, collegial, professional, public, scholarly, supervisory, teaching) in an effective and appropriate manner.
Because of this commitment, Argosy University strives not to “pass along” students with issues or problems (e.g., cognitive, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, technical, and ethical) that may interfere with professional competence to other programs, the profession, employers, or the public at large.
Therefore, within a developmental framework and with due regard for the inherent power difference between students and faculty, students and trainees should know that their faculty, training staff, and supervisors will evaluate their competence in areas other than coursework, seminars, scholarship, comprehensive examinations, or related program requirements. These evaluative areas include, but are not limited to, demonstration of the following:
- Sufficient interpersonal and professional competence (e.g., the ways in which students relate to clients, peers, faculty, allied professionals, the public, and individuals from diverse backgrounds or histories)
- Sufficient self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-evaluation (e.g., knowledge of the content and potential impact of one’s own beliefs and values on clients, peers, faculty, allied professionals, the public, and individuals from diverse backgrounds or histories)
- Sufficient openness to processes of supervision (e.g., the ability and willingness to explore issues that either interfere with the appropriate provision of care or impede professional development or functioning.
- Sufficient ability to resolve problems or issues that interfere with professional development or functioning in a satisfactory manner (e.g., by responding constructively to feedback from supervisors or program faculty; by participating in personal therapy in order to resolve problems or issues).
Guidelines for Students’ Sharing of Affective Experiences and Reactions to Didactic and Clinical Materials
It is anticipated that in the course of their graduate education, students will have a variety of emotional experiences and reactions to didactic lectures, discussions of psychodiagnostic and psychotherapy clinical case materials, and in their practicum and internship experiences with patients/clients. Being in contact with one’s own internal states and understanding one’s emotional reactions around contacts with clinical material is understood to be an integral part of one’s professional responsibility.
The College of Clinical Psychology at Argosy University encourages students to share or discuss these experiences as appropriate and relevant to course material in the classroom. The self-disclosure of emotional experiences should be at the discretion of each individual student, and at a level that each is comfortable with. It is expected that such self-disclosure should take place in a supportive and non-intrusive context.
The College of Clinical Psychology at Argosy University policy, while encouraging appropriate self-disclosure, regards such disclosure as voluntary. Requirements or pressure on the part of either faculty or fellow students on individuals to share such emotional experiences when they are unwilling to do so is understood to contradict the policy of this school.
Master of Arts
Doctor of Psychology
Graduate Certificate
