Our Learning Objectives
Program Learning Outcomes for the MS Clinical Psychology Program
- 1. Interventions and evidence-based applications
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1.1 Students will be able to apply, compare, and contrast a variety of psychotherapy theories and implement at least one chosen theory or intervention with clinical case material
1.2 Students will be able to evaluate, select, and implement empirically supported clinical interventions for clinical case material and clients
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- 2. Communication and case presentation
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2.1 Students will be able to integrate and communicate clinical case material
2.2 Students will be able to synthesize contextual and cultural variables into their understanding of and presentation of client materials
2.3 Students will effectively respond to queries about clinical material and engage in discussions about their clients with supervisors and peers
2.4 Students will be able to analyze cases other than those they are treating, applying theories, principles, and relevant empirical findings to those cases
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- 3. Competent Assessment and Evaluation
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3.1 Students will be able to evaluate, select, and implement different assessment devices and strategies for assessing client outcomes and processes of change over the course of treatment including nomothetic and idiographic approaches
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- 4. Professional clinical practice
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4.1 Students will demonstrate competency consistent with professional standards of practice in areas including, but not limited to, psychotherapy theory, service delivery, ethics, assessment, research methods, family/couples therapy, cultural diversity and humility, risk management and safety planning, psychopharmacology, and issues relevant to adult and child clinical populations.
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- 5. Preparation and meeting professional licensing requirements
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5.1 Students will demonstrate fulfillment of coursework and other pre-degree licensing requirements outlined by the Board of Behavioral Sciences
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MS Clinical Psychology MFT Licensure Learning Outcomes
Each of the BBS educational requirements for the MFT are outlined below, with course(s) listed that meet the requirements.
This content is excerpted from the January 2024 Board of Behavioral Sciences STATUTES AND REGULATIONS RELATING TO THE PRACTICE OF: PROFESSIONAL CLINICAL COUNSELING MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY CLINICAL SOCIAL WORK
- § 4980.36(d): Total Required MFT Units
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The degree described in subdivision (b) shall contain no less than 60 semester or 90 quarter units of instruction that includes, but is not limited to, the following requirements:
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- § 4980.36(d)(1): MFT Coursework and Practicum
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Both of the following:
(A) No less than 12 semester or 18 quarter units of coursework in theories, principles, and methods of a variety of psychotherapeutic orientations directly related to marriage and family therapy and marital and family systems approaches to treatment and how these theories can be applied therapeutically with individuals, couples, families, adults, including elder adults, children, adolescents, and groups to improve, restore, or maintain healthy relationships: Psyc 208, 258, 210, 211
(B) Practicum that involves direct client contact, as follows: Psyc 243
(i) A minimum of six semester or nine quarter units of practicum in a supervised clinical placement that provides supervised fieldwork experience.
(ii) A minimum of 150 hours of face-to-face experience counseling individuals, couples, families, or groups.
(iii) A student must be enrolled in a practicum course while counseling clients, except as specified in subdivision (c) of Section 4980.42.
(iv) The practicum shall provide training in all of the following areas:
(I) Applied use of theory and psychotherapeutic techniques.
(II) Assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment planning.
(III) Treatment of individuals and premarital, couple, family, and child relationships, including trauma and abuse, dysfunctions, healthy functioning, health promotion, illness prevention, and working with families.
(IV) Professional writing, including documentation of services, treatment plans, and progress notes.
(V) How to connect people with resources that deliver the quality of services and support needed in the community.
(v) Educational institutions are encouraged to design the practicum required by this subparagraph to include marriage and family therapy experience in low income and multicultural mental health settings.
(vi) In addition to the 150 hours required in clause (ii), 75 hours of either of the following, or a combination thereof:
(I) Client centered advocacy, as defined in Section 4980.03.
(II) Face-to-face experience counseling individuals, couples, families, or groups.
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- § 4980.36(d)(2)-(e): MFT Content Areas
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Instruction in all of the following:
MFT Area A: Psyc 203A, 232, 210, 211
(A) Diagnosis, assessment, prognosis, treatment planning, and treatment of mental disorders, including severe mental disorders, evidence-based practices, psychological testing, psychopharmacology, and promising mental health practices that are evaluated in peer-reviewed literature.
MFT Area B: Psyc 212, 209, 222
(B) Developmental issues from infancy to old age, including instruction in all of the following areas:
(i) The effects of developmental issues on individuals, couples, and family relationships.
(ii) The psychological, psychotherapeutic, and health implications of developmental issues and their effects.
(iii) Aging and its biological, social, cognitive, and psychological aspects. This coursework shall include instruction on the assessment and reporting of, as well as treatment related to, elder and dependent adult abuse and neglect.
(iv) A variety of cultural understandings of human development.
(v) The understanding of human behavior within the social context of socioeconomic status and other contextual issues affecting social position.
(vi) The understanding of human behavior within the social context of a representative variety of the cultures found within California.
(vii)The understanding of the impact that personal and social insecurity, social stress, low educational levels, inadequate housing, and malnutrition have on human development.
MFT Area C: Psyc 209, 212, 260, 211, 222
(C) The broad range of matters and life events that may arise within marriage and family relationships and within a variety of California cultures, including instruction in all of the following:
(i) A minimum of seven contact hours of training or coursework in child abuse assessment and reporting as specified in Section 28, and any regulations promulgated thereunder.
(ii) Spousal or partner abuse assessment, detection, intervention strategies, and same gender abuse dynamics.
(iii) Cultural factors relevant to abuse of partners and family members.
(iv) Childbirth, child rearing, parenting, and stepparenting.
(v) Marriage, divorce, and blended families.
(vi) Long-term care.
(vii) End-of-life and grief.
(viii) Poverty and deprivation.
(ix) Financial and social stress.
(x) Effects of trauma.
(xi) The psychological, psychotherapeutic, community, and health implications of the matters and life events described in clauses (i) to (x), inclusive.
MFT Area D: Psyc 222
(D) Cultural competency and sensitivity, including a familiarity with the racial, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds of persons living in California.
MFT Area E: Psyc 222
(E) Multicultural development and cross-cultural interaction, including experiences of race, ethnicity, class, spirituality, sexual orientation, gender, and disability, and their incorporation into the psychotherapeutic process.
(F) The effects of socioeconomic status on treatment and available resources.
MFT Area G: Psyc 160
(G) Resilience, including the personal and community qualities that enable persons to cope with adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or other stresses.
(H) Human sexuality, including the study of physiological, psychological, and social cultural variables associated with sexual behavior and gender identity, and the assessment and treatment of psychosexual dysfunction.
MFT Area I: Psyc 226
(I) Substance use disorders, co-occurring disorders, and addiction, including, but not limited to, instruction in all of the following:
(i) The definition of substance use disorders, co-occurring disorders, and addiction. For purposes of this subparagraph, “co-occurring disorders” means a mental illness and substance abuse diagnosis occurring simultaneously in an individual.
(ii) Medical aspects of substance use disorders and co-occurring disorders.
(iii)The effects of psychoactive drug use.
(iv) Current theories of the etiology of substance abuse and addiction.
(v) The role of persons and systems that support or compound substance abuse and addiction.
(vi) Major approaches to identification, evaluation, and treatment of substance use disorders, co-occurring disorders, and addiction, including, but not limited to, best practices.
(vii) Legal aspects of substance abuse.
(viii) Populations at risk with regard to substance use disorders and co-occurring disorders.
(ix) Community resources offering screening, assessment, treatment, and follow up for the affected person and family.
(x) Recognition of substance use disorders, co-occurring disorders, and addiction, and appropriate referral.
(xi) The prevention of substance use disorders and addiction.
MFT Area J: Psyc 228
(J)California law and professional ethics for marriage and family therapists, including instruction in all of the following areas of study:
(i) Contemporary professional ethics and statutory, regulatory, and decisional laws that delineate the scope of practice of marriage and family therapy.
(ii) The therapeutic, clinical, and practical considerations involved in the legal and ethical practice of marriage and family therapy, including, but not limited to, family law.
(iii)The current legal patterns and trends in the mental health professions.
(iv) The psychotherapist-patient privilege, confidentiality, the patient dangerous to self or others, and the treatment of minors with and without parental consent.
(v) A recognition and exploration of the relationship between a practitioner’s sense of self and human values and the practitioner’s professional behavior and ethics.
(vi) The application of legal and ethical standards in different types of work settings.
(vii) Licensing law and licensing process.
(e) The degree described in subdivision (b) shall, in addition to meeting the requirements of subdivision (d), include instruction in case management, systems of care for the severely mentally ill, public and private services and supports available for the severely mentally ill, community resources for persons with mental illness and for victims of abuse, disaster and trauma response, advocacy for the severely mentally ill, and collaborative treatment. This instruction may be provided either in credit level coursework or through extension programs offered by the degree-granting institution. Psyc 209, 260, 222, 226, 210
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- § 4980.39 Additional Coursework: Aging and Long-Term Care
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An applicant for licensure whose education qualifies him or her under Section 4980.37 shall complete, as a condition of licensure, a minimum of 10 contact hours of coursework in aging and long-term care, which may include, but is not limited to, the biological, social, and psychological aspects of aging. On and after January 1, 2012, this coursework shall include instruction on the assessment and reporting of, as well as treatment related to, elder and dependent adult abuse and neglect. Psyc 209, 212
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- § 4980.395 Required Training or Coursework: Provision of Mental Health Services Via
Telehealth
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On or after July 1, 2023, an applicant for licensure as a marriage and family therapist shall show, as part of the application, that they have completed a minimum of three hours of training or coursework in the provision of mental health services via telehealth, which shall include law and ethics related to telehealth. Psyc 228, 260
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- § 4980.396 Required Coursework or Supervised Experience: Suicide Risk Assessment and
Intervention
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On or after January 1, 2021, an applicant for licensure as a marriage and family therapist shall show, as part of the application, that they have completed a minimum of six hours of coursework or applied experience under supervision in suicide risk assessment and intervention. Psyc 228, 210, 260, 211, 203A
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The Clinical Program will not be offering a track for LPCC licensure starting in Fall 2025. The information below is for program alumni.
MS Clinical Psychology LPCC Licensure Learning Outcomes
Each of the BBS educational requirements for the LPCC are outlined below, with course(s) listed that meet the requirements.
This content is excerpted from the January 2024 Board of Behavioral Sciences STATUTES AND REGULATIONS RELATING TO THE PRACTICE OF: PROFESSIONAL CLINICAL COUNSELING MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY CLINICAL SOCIAL WORK
- § 4999.33(c): Total Required LPCC Units
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The degree described in subdivision (b) shall be a single, integrated program that contains not less than 60 graduate semester units or 90 graduate quarter units of instruction, which shall, except as provided in subdivision (f), include all of the following:
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- § 4999.33(c)(1): LPCC Core Content Areas
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The equivalent of at least three semester units or four quarter units of graduate study in all of the following core content areas:
(A) Counseling and psychotherapeutic theories and techniques, including the counseling process in a multicultural society, an orientation to wellness and prevention, counseling theories to assist in selection of appropriate counseling interventions, models of counseling consistent with current professional research and practice, development of a personal model of counseling, and multidisciplinary responses to crises, emergencies, and disasters. Psyc 258
(B) Human growth and development across the lifespan, including normal and abnormal behavior and an understanding of developmental crises, disability, psychopathology, and situational and environmental factors that affect both normal and abnormal behavior. Psyc 212
(C) Career development theories and techniques, including career development decision making models and interrelationships among and between work, family, and other life roles and factors, including the role of multicultural issues in career development. NOT OFFERED
(D) Group counseling theories and techniques, including principles of group dynamics, group process components, group developmental stage theories, therapeutic factors of group work, group leadership styles and approaches, pertinent research and literature, group counseling methods, and evaluation of effectiveness. Psyc 225
(E) Assessment, appraisal, and testing of individuals, including basic concepts of standardized and nonstandardized testing and other assessment techniques, norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessment, statistical concepts, social and cultural factors related to assessment and evaluation of individuals and groups, and ethical strategies for selecting, administering, and interpreting assessment instruments and techniques in counseling. Psyc 203A
(F) Multicultural counseling theories and techniques, including counselors’ roles in developing cultural self-awareness, identity development, promoting cultural social justice, individual and community strategies for working with and advocating for diverse populations, and counselors’ roles in eliminating biases and prejudices, and processes of intentional and unintentional oppression and discrimination. Psyc 222
(G) Principles of the diagnostic process, including differential diagnosis, and the use of current diagnostic tools, such as the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the impact of co-occurring substance use disorders or medical psychological disorders, established diagnostic criteria for mental or emotional disorders, and the treatment modalities and placement criteria within the continuum of care. Psyc 210
(H) Research and evaluation, including studies that provide an understanding of research methods, statistical analysis, the use of research to inform evidence-based practice, the importance of research in advancing the profession of counseling, and statistical methods used in conducting research, needs assessment, and program evaluation. Psyc 291
(I) Professional orientation, ethics, and law in counseling, including California law and professional ethics for professional clinical counselors, professional ethical standards and legal considerations, licensing law and process, regulatory laws that delineate the profession’s scope of practice, counselor-client privilege, confidentiality, the client dangerous to self or others, treatment of minors with or without parental consent, relationship between practitioner’s sense of self and human values, functions and relationships with other human service providers, strategies for collaboration, and advocacy processes needed to address institutional and social barriers that impede access, equity, and success for clients. Psyc 228
(J) Psychopharmacology, including the biological bases of behavior, basic classifications, indications, and contraindications of commonly prescribed psychopharmacological medications so that appropriate referrals can be made for medication evaluations and so that the side effects of those medications can be identified. Psyc 232
(K) Addictions counseling, including substance abuse, co-occurring disorders, and addiction, major approaches to identification, evaluation, treatment, and prevention of substance abuse and addiction, legal and medical aspects of substance abuse, populations at risk, the role of support persons, support systems, and community resources. Psyc 226
(L) Crisis or trauma counseling, including crisis theory; multidisciplinary responses to crises, emergencies, or disasters; cognitive, affective, behavioral, and neurological effects associated with trauma; brief, intermediate, and long-term approaches; and assessment strategies for clients in crisis and principles of intervention for individuals with mental or emotional disorders during times of crisis, emergency, or disaster. Psyc 260
(M) Advanced counseling and psychotherapeutic theories and techniques, including the application of counseling constructs, assessment and treatment planning, clinical interventions, therapeutic relationships, psychopathology, or other clinical topics. Psyc 211
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- § 4999.33(c)(2): Advanced LPCC Coursework
- § 4999.33(c)(3): Practicum
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Not less than six semester units or nine quarter units of supervised practicum or field study experience that involves direct client contact in a clinical setting that provides a range of professional clinical counseling experience, including the following:
(A) Applied psychotherapeutic techniques.
(B) Assessment.
(C) Diagnosis.
(D) Prognosis.
(E) Treatment planning.
(F) Treatment.
(G) Issues of development, adjustment, and maladjustment.
(H) Health and wellness promotion.
(I) Professional writing including documentation of services, treatment plans, and progressnotes.
(J) How to find and use resources.
(K) Other recognized counseling interventions.
(L) A minimum of 280 hours of face-to-face supervised clinical experience counseling individuals, families, or groups.
Psyc 243 (6 units)
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- § 4999.33(d)-(e): Additional Required Content
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(d)The 60 graduate semester units or 90 graduate quarter units of instruction required pursuant to subdivision (c) shall, in addition to meeting the requirements of subdivision (c), include instruction in all of the following:
(1) The understanding of human behavior within the social context of socioeconomic status and other contextual issues affecting social position. Psyc 222
(2) The understanding of human behavior within the social context of a representative variety of the cultures found within California. Psyc 222
(3) Cultural competency and sensitivity, including a familiarity with the racial, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds of persons living in California. Psyc 222
(4) An understanding of the effects of socioeconomic status on treatment and available resources. Psyc 222
(5) Multicultural development and cross-cultural interaction, including experiences of race, ethnicity, class, spirituality, sexual orientation, gender, and disability and their incorporation into the psychotherapeutic process. Psyc 222, 212
(6) Case management, systems of care for the severely mentally ill, public and private services for the severely mentally ill, community resources for victims of abuse, disaster and trauma response, advocacy for the severely mentally ill, and collaborative treatment. The instruction required in this paragraph may be provided either in credit level coursework or through extension programs offered by the degree-granting institution. Psyc 260, 226, 209
(7) Human sexuality, including the study of the physiological, psychological, and social cultural variables associated with sexual behavior, gender identity, and the assessment and treatment of psychosexual dysfunction. Psyc 212, 210
(8) Spousal or partner abuse assessment, detection, intervention strategies, and same gender abuse dynamics. Psyc 209
(9) A minimum of seven contact hours of training or coursework in child abuse assessment and reporting, as specified in Section 28, and any regulations promulgated thereunder. Psyc 209
(10) Aging and long-term care, including biological, social, cognitive, and psychological aspects of aging. This coursework shall include instruction on the assessment and reporting of, as well as treatment related to, elder and dependent adult abuse and neglect. Psyc 212, 209, 210
(e)A degree program that qualifies for licensure under this section shall do all of the following:
(1) Integrate the principles of mental health recovery-oriented care and methods of service delivery in recovery-oriented practice environments. Psyc 210, 226
(2) Integrate an understanding of various cultures and the social and psychological implications of socioeconomic position. Psyc 222
(3) Provide the opportunity for students to meet with various consumers and family members of consumers of mental health services to enhance understanding of their experience of mental illness, treatment, and recovery. Psyc 226, 243
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- § 4980.395 Required Training or Coursework: Provision of Mental Health Services Via
Telehealth
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On or after July 1, 2023, an applicant for licensure as a marriage and family therapist shall show, as part of the application, that they have completed a minimum of three hours of training or coursework in the provision of mental health services via telehealth, which shall include law and ethics related to telehealth. Psyc 228, 260
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- § 4980.396 Required Coursework or Supervised Experience: Suicide Risk Assessment and
Intervention
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On or after January 1, 2021, an applicant for licensure as a marriage and family therapist shall show, as part of the application, that they have completed a minimum of six hours of coursework or applied experience under supervision in suicide risk assessment and intervention. Psyc 228, 210, 260, 211, 203A
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