Multicultural Psychology Certificate

Clinical Psychology Certificate Programs

Saybrook University offers three exciting certificate programs through our Department of Humanistic & Clinical Psychology (HCP). Whether you are a non-degree student who seeks to enhance your clinical counseling practice or a Saybrook student in one of our degree programs, you might want to consider these options.

Certificates offer career development in areas such as treating post-traumatic stress disorder and bringing ethnocultural perspectives to treatments.

• Complex Trauma and the Healing Process
• Foundations in Existential-Humanistic Practice (offered in collaboration with EHTP Specialization)
• Multicultural Psychology

For most 16-credit Certificates, you must complete four 3-credit certificate courses, one 3-credit practicum course, and a 1-credit integrative paper that ties course study and research together. If allowed, Saybrook students may transfer credits earned through a Certificate towards their degree program.

Program Description

We live in an increasingly multicultural environment, both in the United States and in the larger global community. Appreciating the complex and fascinating cultural variables at play in human interactions is critical for effective communication between individuals with differing worldviews. We are immersed in our own culture, and tend to be unaware of our values and their impact on others until challenged to understand alternative perspectives. Studying multicultural psychology allows us to make a commitment to understanding the wide variation in cultural values, histories, worldviews, and expectations, so that we are not left to interpret the behavior of others exclusively through the prism of our own culture.

This program will help professionals develop a multicultural perspective that is fully appreciative of the cultural diversity that exists within a pluralistic society. The coursework for this certificate is grounded in a global perspective. It is informed by the humanistic stance that has been nurtured at Saybrook and by an emphasis upon change and social justice. Broadening our perspective can dramatically affect our interactions with others and improve our ability to be effective educators, therapists, counselors, business people, or health care providers. This certificate can enhance one’s ability to develop effective assessment tools, training programs, clinical and community interventions, and government policy.

What You’ll Learn

To aid in developing this perspective, students learn about their own and other cultural perspectives. These perspectives include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, spirituality, and religion. None of us can become fully knowledgeable of the myriad ethnocultural groups we might encounter; however, the certificate courses will help students learn how to develop knowledge of unfamiliar groups and how one’s values affect this learning process. Cultural awareness includes an in depth exploration of the student’s own cultural background, laying a solid foundation for the further development of a multicultural perspective.

The Multicultural Psychology Certificate allows students to go beyond the basic level of knowledge and delve deeper into the complex study of culture, ethnicity, social justice, gender, race, health disparities, and socioeconomic issues and their relationship to clinical work and psychology in general. The certificate attracts students from within the university but it will also be useful for a diverse group of people in our larger community including educators, community organizers, administrators, lawyers, health care providers, psychotherapists, and others who serve the public.

Structure of the Multicultural Psychology Certificate

The Certificate is a 16-credit program for non-matriculating students, which includes five 3-credit courses and a 1-credit Integrative Paper. Matriculating Saybrook students have the option of integrating the 15-credit Certificate program into their existing studies, and need not complete the Integrative Paper.

All Certificate students take PSY 6010 Multicultural Psychology as their first Certificate course. The remaining four courses are chosen by the student from the other course offerings within the certificate. Not all Certificate courses are offered each semester; students will work closely with their mentor at the beginning of the program to chart out a plan which accommodates student interests and semester schedules.

1. Core Course: PSY 6010 - The Psychology of Multiculturalism in North America  
2. Four Elective Certificate Courses - see listing below
3. Integrative Final Paper (optional for matriculating Saybrook students) PSY 8950 - Certificate Integrative Seminar  

The cornerstone assignment of the certificate program is a final paper or project which integrates deep self-reflection and the knowledge and skills gained from the five courses in the context of each student’s individual interests. This assignment also gives students an opportunity to assess their strengths, identify further learning needs, and develop a specific plan for continuing their personal and professional development in the area of diversity and multicultural psychology.

Courses Offered in the Multicultural Psychology Certificate include:

CSIH 4530 - Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality in Their Cultural Contexts 
CSIH 3215 The African Diaspora: African American Cultural History and Psychology
TSC 6520 - Gender and Society 
TSC 6620 - Psychology of Disability, Rehabilitation, and Empowerment 
TSC 6570 - Race, Class, and Gender  

Multicultural Psychology Certificate courses currently in development include:

Multiculturalism and Social Justice

Humanistic psychology admirably shifted the field of psychology to appreciate fully the holistic lived experiences of the person and implications for practice (e.g., fostering self-actualization, transformation, etc.). However, the field of multiculturalism has posited a richness of evidence for the importance of context, understanding the self within the multiplicity and complexity of culture, as well as an expansive conceptualization of self. A critical review and exploration of the intersection and/or divergence of these two fields is intended for this course to afford the scholar-practitioner the basic tools to become a more effective agent of change. In this course, students will engage the multiculturalism literature as it pertains to social justice and change at all levels, including within clinical practice and at the organizational and global levels. Students will also explore the adaptability of Western theories across/within diverse peoples and settings and deepen their understanding of basic concepts and theories, centralized around self-awareness, regarding knowledge and skills acquisition, and interventions across diverse settings.

Health Disparities in American Health Care

This will be an advanced course that will critically consider the growing literature and evidence pertaining to health disparities in American healthcare systems. Students should have some familiarity with field of health psychology and/or multiculturalism. Working from a medical or health care home model and biopsychosocialculturalspiritual conceptualization, clinical and health psychologists are strategically poised to effect change within complex medical and healthcare setting that will improve care for underrepresented and impoverished populations. There will be specific attention to the intersection with systemic oppression, cultural/historical trauma, multigenerational and complex trauma and implications for care. The course builds upon health psychology, multiculturalism, humanistic, and social justice perspectives of health and healing that can inform cultural competencies in healthcare. Students will acquire increased knowledge and skills in clinical conceptualization, assessment, and treatment planning, as well as organizational change processes.

Learning and Career Outcomes

What Can You Do With A PHD In Clinical Psychology?

Whether it is private practice, a hospital appointment, or a research position with a government program or private institution, clinical psychologists are in high demand.

Saybrook’s PhD in Psychology with a specialization in Clinical Psychology focuses specifically on the knowledge, experience, and practical skills you will need to directly enter the profession as a licensed therapist or researcher. This includes core courses, hands-on clinical practice at conferences, and close mentoring from faculty who are active and experienced in the field.

The program goals and student learning outcomes for the psychology PhD degree programs enable students to:

• Work to engage others in efforts to promote life enhancing change.
• Combine critical, empathetic, and creative thinking with self-reflection to develop self-knowledge, self-realization, and expansion of consciousness.
• Bring innovation and creativity in their use of methods, moving beyond disciplinary and paradigmatic boundaries.
• Place their work within a whole person perspective including multiple contexts, and acknowledge their own biases and unchallenged assumptions.
• Understand, critically analyze, and create psychological research.

Our graduates work in a variety of settings, including:

• private practice
• schools and universities
• community health centers
• hospitals,
• nursing homes
• prisons
• juvenile justice system
• substance abuse clinics
• corporate offices
• non-profit organizations government

HCP Faculty

Salaried
Joel Federman, Ph.D.
Louis Hoffman, Ph.D.
Zonya Johnson, Ph.D.
Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.
Robert McAndrews, Ph.D.
Steven Pritzker, Ph.D.
Ruth Richards, M.D., Ph.D.
Robert Schmitt, Ph.D.
Bonnie Settlage, Ph.D.
Richard Sherman, Ph.D.
Alan Vaughan, Ph.D., JD

Adjunct
Marc Applebaum, Ph.D.
Howard Barkin, Ph.D.
Carol Barrett, Ph.D.
Carolyn Bates, PhD
John Beebe, MD
Kusum Bhat, Ph.D.
Naras Bhat, M.D.
Abbe Blum, Ph.D.
Maria Chiaia, PhD
Scott Churchill, PhD
Jason Dias, Psy.D.
Susi Ferrarello, Ph.D.
Daniel Gaylinn, Ph.D.
Timothy Herzog, Ph.D.
Edward Hoffman, Ph.D.
James Hollis, Ph.D.
George Kent, Ph.D.
Cynthia Kerson, Ph.D.
Kirsten Klinghammer, M.L.S.
Walter Knowles, Ph.D.
Gerald Kozlowski, Ph.D.
Jurgen Kremer, Ph.D.
Orah Krug, Ph.D.
Monika Landenhamer, MLIS, M.A.
Paul Lehrer, Ph.D.
Jacquie Lewis, Ph.D.
Johanna Mayer, PhD
JoAnn McAllister, Ph.D.
Joy Meeker, Ph.D.
Edward Mendelowitz, Ph.D.
Marc Pilisuk, Ph.D.
Kirwan Rockefeller, Ph.D.
Susan Rowland, PhD
Todd Schirmer, Ph.D.
Kirk Schneider, Ph.D.
Mary Scholz, Ph.D.
Sandy Sela-Smith, Ph.D.
Marina Smirnova, Ph.D.
Drake Spaeth, Psy.D.
Patrick Steffen, Ph.D.
Kristopher Thomas, Ph.D.
Allyson Washburn, Ph.D.
Kevin Willmarth, Psy.D.
Nicola Wolfe, Ph.D.
Paul Wong, Ph.D.