Doctor of Philososphy [Ph.D] [Combined-Integrated Clinical and School Psychology] From James Madison University

The mission of the Combined-Integrated Clinical and School Psychology?(C-I) doctoral program at the James Madison University is to produce leading professional psychologists who are broadly trained in the science and practice of psychology, actively self-reflective, optimally prepared to work in a wide variety of settings with diverse clientele and demonstrably committed to an ethic of personal responsibility, social awareness and global engagement.

Combined-Integrated training is an innovative concept that merges the traditional professional areas of clinical, counseling and school psychology into a generalist approach that provides students with a broad foundation from which to operate. A generalist orientation opens up pathways to draw from each of the three practice areas in a manner that is complementary and synergistic.?

The rationale for C-I training stems from the fact that there is a) tremendous overlap in the basic training of the three specialty areas of clinical, counseling and school psychology; b) there is a need to define the core competencies of professional psychologists; and c) there are emerging trends for greater unity within the field.

In regards to training objectives, we work to graduate C-I psychologists to serve as general practitioners, primary care providers and health service psychologists who can:

• Understand and integrate contributions and perspectives from three major areas of applied activity in our larger field (i.e., clinical, counseling and school psychology);
• Develop conceptualizations of human behavior that integrate biological, psychological and social dimensions of analysis;
• Integrate various theoretical perspectives into a coherent whole; and
• Work effectively in an interprofessional context.