Program Objectives & Curriculum

The course of study outlined in the Counseling Psychology program is intended to develop students' abilities to meet the following objectives.

Note, the descriptions below are truncated in order to present some over-arching information on the web. Please see the Program Handbook for complete information for each objective, including learning activities, assessment procedures, and expected outcomes for each of these.

1. Science:

Students should understand and apply various inquiry skills and integrate research and scholarly activities into their professional identity. Students will demonstrate substantial knowledge and competence in the breadth of scientific psychology, its history of thought and development, its research methods, its applications, in the developmental, biological, cognitive/affective, and social aspects of behavior, and the history of the discipline of psychology, and in basic quantitative methods and data analysis, research design, and psychological measurement.

2. Practice:

Students will have the requisite knowledge and skills for entry into the practice of professional psychology. To attain this goal, we expect our students to demonstrate substantial understanding of and competence in the body of knowledge in theories and methods of assessment and diagnosis, effective individual and group intervention, consultation, supervision, and the evaluation of these services. Students will also demonstrate knowledge of psychology as an applied discipline and recognize the distinguishing characteristics of the specialty of counseling psychology and its place in the broader field of psychology. Students will also become proficient as entry-level psychologists capable of conducting counseling and psychotherapy and evaluating client progress and outcomes and diagnosing problems and conceptualizing clients' issues, conducting formal assessments, and integrating those assessments into a conceptualization of client status accompanied by an appropriate treatment plan.

3. Community Building:

Students will be aware, knowledgeable and skilled enough to address issues across differing viewpoints and backgrounds. Students will become capable of advocating for the needs and issues of all populations. Students will demonstrate knowledge and integration of theory and research in viewpoint diversity and universally compassionate counseling in their assessments and interventions with various clients, will exhibit awareness of community-building principles in their interactions with faculty and students, and competently apply integrative cultural theory and scholarship to their own research.

4. Professional Identity and Development:

Students' professional identity should be that of a counseling psychologist, and students will have begun to develop knowledge and skills in one or more special proficiency ares that complement their core identity as counseling psychologists and that facilitate their entry and subsequent careers as academic or professional psychologists. Graduates of the program will also develop habits of lifelong learning and personal and professional development that continue into their professional lives and develop skills to engage in continuing scholarly inquiry, knowledge building, and the dissemination of knowledge across the course of their professional careers.

5. Ethics, Professional Standards, and Legal Issues:

Students should consistently apply accepted standards of ethical and professional conduct to their work and will be committed to the continuing development of psychology as a profession and human science. Students will demonstrate professional competency in applying the ethical and professional standards for psychologists to their work in clinical and research settings.

Please check the program handbook for more details.

Counseling Psychology Information Sessions

These video conference information sessions will provide important information about our Ph.D. Program. Please review our program introduction video on this page before the information session. The video includes an introduction to our program, what professionals in these careers do, the job outlook, program requirements, admissions requirements, and the admissions process. The information session will primarily be a question-and-answer session about the program. Video Conference Times are in Mountain Time, so adjust if you are in a different time zone.

Please contact ed-cpasst@utah.edu and specify which date to participate.

Upcoming Info Session Dates/Times:

September 9th: 6pm-7pm MST
October 16th: 7:15pm-8:15pm MST
November 4th: 7pm-8pm MST