Clinical PhD programs with multicultural/cross-cultural emphasis

[mutzi]

Hello there,

I was wondering if you can give me suggestions for PhD programs in Clinical Psychology that have an emphasis on multicultural psychology (assessment, therapy, and intervention) and cross-cultural psychology. I have been trying to find programs with a broader perspective but it has been difficult. My back-up option is Hispanic populations and psychopathology. Please let me know if you have in mind programs that match these criteria!
Thanks a bunch!

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[JockNerd]

Hello there,

I was wondering if you can give me suggestions for PhD programs in Clinical Psychology that have an emphasis on multicultural psychology (assessment, therapy, and intervention) and cross-cultural psychology. I have been trying to find programs with a broader perspective but it has been difficult. My back-up option is Hispanic populations and psychopathology. Please let me know if you have in mind programs that match these criteria!
Thanks a bunch!

I'd really like to know why you're not looking at Counseling Psych PhDs! Multiculturalism is our forte! Research and interventions with Hispanic populations is also taking off in the field right now.

 

[mlwg1]

A little birdie told me that USC has a very cross cultural emphasis, and L.A is a good place study Hispanic culture. Very competitive, though. I think University of Illinois Urbana Champaign has a few cultural researchers as well, same story with the tough admissions (but that's true of most clin psych programs). I know there's many others but that's all that comes to mind at the moment. . .I'll come back if I think of any others. . .

 

[KillerDiller]

I agree that you should check out counseling psych programs as well. Several of them have cohorts of researchers who look into cross-cultural studies with various populations.

That being said, I actually found that all the schools I ended up applying to (both clinical and counseling) had a pretty heavy cross-cultural frame of reference. I think it's widely acknowledged now that culture and race need to be considered in every aspect of clinical psychology. Certainly the classes I've had in my program have gone out of their way to pull in cross-cultural research and to discuss how a cultural frame of reference impacts...well, everything.

So, if you're looking to do research in multicultural psychology, I would start by looking up some articles on your population of interest and seeing what schools they come from. If you are simply wanting to know that such things are integrated across the curriculum, I encourage you to look up the websites of the schools you are otherwise interested in and you may be surprised how many of them include multiculturalism in their mission statement. (Though, it's always good to talk to current students about the issue too, just to make sure).

 

[mutzi]

I'd really like to know why you're not looking at Counseling Psych PhDs! Multiculturalism is our forte! Research and interventions with Hispanic populations is also taking off in the field right now.

You are right that Counseling Psychology is way ahead when it comes to multiculturalism. However, most programs I've found in Counseling concentrate on topics such as vocational psychology, school psychology, family functioning, etc. and I would like to concentrate more on psychopathology and clinical assessment, therapy, and intervention with diverse populations who are more disturbed. I hope this answers your question

 

[mutzi]

A little birdie told me that USC has a very cross cultural emphasis, and L.A is a good place study Hispanic culture. Very competitive, though. I think University of Illinois Urbana Champaign has a few cultural researchers as well, same story with the tough admissions (but that's true of most clin psych programs). I know there's many others but that's all that comes to mind at the moment. . .I'll come back if I think of any others. . .

Thanks for your suggestions, mlwg1! Let me know if you come up with other names.

 

[JockNerd]

You are right that Counseling Psychology is way ahead when it comes to multiculturalism. However, most programs I've found in Counseling concentrate on topics such as vocational psychology, school psychology, family functioning, etc. and I would like to concentrate more on psychopathology and clinical assessment, therapy, and intervention with diverse populations who are more disturbed. I hope this answers your question

Look at psych-housed Counseling Departments. You can focus more on severe psychopathology there, usually; I'm going to do a prac with sex offenders and sexually violent predators in advanced prac next year. UF, Iowa State, and Miss-Columbia would be good places to start. UND does lots of stuff with veterans (highest % military state still, I think). Focus in that area on ethnic minorities would be an awesome niche.

 

[JockNerd]

That being said, I actually found that all the schools I ended up applying to (both clinical and counseling) had a pretty heavy cross-cultural frame of reference. I think it's widely acknowledged now that culture and race need to be considered in every aspect of clinical psychology. Certainly the classes I've had in my program have gone out of their way to pull in cross-cultural research and to discuss how a cultural frame of reference impacts...well, everything.

I'm gonna challenge a little on this one... I found that most departments are giving a lot of lip service to M/C but doing very little. Since M/C courses are required for licensure in some states, many programs just threw in a course. I'd make sure there's (a) a dedicated class and (b) it's taught by someone who's published in the area, but just some adjunct they threw the course to. Also, others profs in the dept. should be approaching research with a M/C framework; otherwise, I'd just call it lip service.

 

[psybee]

when i was applying i was interested in getting MC training and i found that if a school had a community MH center and the pop in that area was diverse, you were going to be dealing with those issues clinically, and there was more emphasis on multiculturalism, both in the training and also in the research, since a diverse pop was available. i know that's true in the school i ended up going to--haven't taken a dedicated MC class yet, but every single class addresses it as a unit and also deals with it in a serious way throughout the course.