The Chestnut Hill College Department of Professional Psychology has earned reaccreditation for its Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) in Clinical Psychology program by the American Psychological Association (APA). The reaccreditation, which will last until 2021, is the maximum length of accreditation possible for doctoral psychology programs.
The program’s reaccreditation comes after a year-long self-study process which culminated in an extensive document that describes all domains of the program such as: training goals, objectives and practices, student, faculty and financial resources, program policies and procedures, competencies students are expected to obtain and actual outcome data that demonstrates the achievement of these competencies.
In October 2014, representatives from the APA conducted a two-day site visit at the College and met with faculty, staff, students, alumni and College administrators. They also met with field training supervisors from mental health organizations, college counseling centers and other settings that partner with the program to provide clinical training opportunities for doctoral students. In addition, they viewed files, syllabi and dissertations to reach their final conclusions in the reaccreditation of the program.
“The philosophy of the Psy.D. program is grounded in the mission of Chestnut Hill College. The program takes a holistic approach to the study of human psychology based on the fundamental respect for the welfare of humanity and human diversity. This approach treats the physical, psychological, spiritual, cultural and relational dimensions as critical to understanding the whole person,” said Cheryll Rothery, Psy.D., ABPP, department of professional psychology chair, director of clinical training and associate professor of psychology.
In addition, the APA also made a recent site visit for the College’s Doctoral Internship Consortium. The College is seeking APA accreditation for the first time for the consortium. The Doctoral Internship Consortium, now in its fourth year, partners with six training sites to provide full-time doctoral internships for the College’s final year Psy.D. students.
Nationwide, there is currently a shortage of APA-accredited internship sites. This is problematic because many employers and some licensing bodies are insistent on doctoral students completing an APA-accredited internship. The College eagerly anticipates hearing the results from the APA regarding accreditation for the Doctoral Internship Consortium this coming fall.
