Graduate Program: Clinical Adult Psychology
Application Information - Alumni Comments - Clinical Child and School - Industrial/Organizational - School Specialist - Licensure - Graduate Handbook
Master of Arts in Clinical-Adult Psychology
Program, Department, Requirements, Practica, Electives, Theses, Faculty
Program Description
As one of the leading clinical psychology masters programs in the St. Louis region, the SIUE clinical-adult psychology graduate program is designed for two purposes. The first purpose is to prepare students for further graduate education in the field of psychology. Many of our most successful graduates apply to PhD programs in clinical psychology; some also apply to PsyD programs or doctoral programs in counseling psychology or other related fields. The second purpose is to prepare students to succeed as mental health professionals upon graduation. Many graduates have obtained positions working in community mental health centers, state hospitals, private hospitals, and other agencies which provide psychological services. Others may take additional courses necessary to become licensed as a professional counselor in a particular state (courses that may or may not be available in the SIUE Department of Psychology) in order to be able to practice independently. Students interested in pursuing licensure as a counselor in any state after completing this degree are encouraged to review our statement on this topic at the licensure page here.
Department of Psychology
The Department of Psychology is one of the largest at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and students and faculty in our department have won numerous honors, including faculty teaching awards, student research awards and grants and a departmental award for successful integration of teaching and research. In 1967, the department graduated the first student with a masters degree in psychology. Since that time hundreds of students have received masters degrees. Both the Master of Arts and Master of Science degree programs have been approved by the Council of Applied Masters Programs in Psychology.
Financial aid is available in several forms including research and teaching assistantships, competitive graduate awards, psychology department awards, and other funding sources. Most students who have sought assistantships or other financial aid have received it in at least one of these forms.
Program Requirements
Our program typically requires two years to complete (often involving some summer courses), and required coursework includes the following:
PSYC 520 Research Design and Inference I
PSYC 521 Research Design and Inference II
PSYC 514 Advanced Biopsychology
PSYC 531 Advanced Psychopathology
PSYC 537b Counseling and Psychotherapy of the Adult
PSYC 538 Group, Family and Couple Therapy
PSYC 535 Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy
PSYC 541b Cognitive Assessment of the Adult
PSYC 543b Personality Assessment of the Adult
PSYC 523 Practicum in Clinical Adult Psychology (2 semesters/6 credit hours)
PSYC 599 Thesis
Electives: Teaching of Psychology, Crisis Intervention, etc.
Clinical Practica
Students complete the practicum requirements (PSYC 523) within our network of external practicum sites in the southern Illinois and St. Louis areas. The network currently includes a wide variety of settings in which students obtain experience supervised by clinicians working across the field of mental health. The range of client populations with which a student might work during the practicum is also diverse.
Recent practicum sites have included:
St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute
Washington University Student Counseling Services
St. Louis State Psychiatric Hospital
University of Missouri St. Louis Student Counseling Services
SIUE Student Counseling Services
Alton State Psychiatric Hospital
Alternatives Counseling, Inc.
Metropolitan St. Louis Psychiatric Center
Electives
Students complete the elective requirements by choosing from a number of courses, which currently include Teaching of Psychology (which offers undergraduate teaching experience), Crisis Intervention, an additional semester of practicum, and several courses related to psychological services for children or adolescents.
Licensure Information
Information on how to pursue licensure (e.g., LPC or LCPC) is described in detail on our licensure page.
Childhood Physical Abuse in Relation to Social Functioning and Social Anxiety in University Students
The Efficacy of Internet-Based Abbreviated Progressive Muscle Relaxation Training: How Do High-Tech Alternatives Compare to Traditional Treatment Modalities
The Relationship Between Perceived Parental Regard and Self-Destructive Behaviors
Facing Mental Illness: An Empirical Assessment of Stigmatizing Labels.
To Tell or Not to Tell: Training, Cognitive Complexity, and the Tarasoff Principle.
Ethics of Practice as Reported by Other Therapists.
Danice L. Brown received her Ph.D in Counseling Psychology from The Ohio State University in 2008. Her graduate training included a year-long APA approved predoctoral internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago Counseling Center. She is currently a professor in the Clinical Adult Psychology Graduate Program at SIUE. Dr. Brown is currently teaching undergraduate courses in multicultural psychology and careers. Her research interests include African American resiliency, racial socialization, racial discrimination, and multicultural issues in psychotherapy and higher education. Her work has been published in the Journal of Black Psychology and has been presented at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association and the Winter Round Table at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Laura Pawlow received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 2002 from the University of Southern Mississippi, and her pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship years were at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Adult Psychology Graduate Program at SIUE, and teaches Cognitive Assessment and Personality Assessment of Adults at the graduate level, Biological Psychology at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and Tests and Measures and Psychopathology at the undergraduate level. Her clinical interests are behavioral medicine and weight management and her research interests are overweight and obesity, gastric bypass surgery, and psychoneuroimmunology. Her work has been published in Biological Psychology and the International Journal of Obesity.
Andrew M. Pomerantz received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from St. Louis University in 1996. His graduate training included a year-long APA-approved predoctoral internship at Indiana University School of Medicine. He is currently Professor and Program Director of the Clinical Adult Psychology Graduate Program at SIUE. He has taught graduate courses in individual, group, and family psychotherapy and in ethics in psychology, as well as undergraduate courses in clinical psychology psychopathology, personality, and introductory psychology. His research interests include psychotherapy and ethical/professional issues in clinical psychology. He is the author of the textbook Clinical Psychology: Science, Practice, and Culture. His work has been published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, the Teaching of Psychology, Ethics & Behavior, the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, and has been presented at conferences of the American, Midwestern, and Missouri Psychological Associations.
Dan J. Segrist received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 2000 from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He completed his pre-doctoral internship at the Counseling Center of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. As an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Adult Psychology Graduate Program at SIUE he teaches Advanced Psychopathology and Adult Personality Assessment. At the undergraduate level he teaches Foundations of Psychology, Careers in Psychology, Psychopathology, and Theories of Personality. His primary research focus is on substance use, expectancies, and refusal among adolescents and college students. Additionally he has research interests in the teaching of psychology. He has co-authored articles that have been published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors and he has made presentations at national and regional conferences including the American Psychological Association, Best Practices in Teaching Introductory Psychology, and Midwest Institute for Students and Teachers of Psychology.