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PsyD Clinical Training and Research

Welcome to Northwest’s PsyD Counseling program’s Clinical Training and Research Page. Here at Northwest, our PsyD program is dedicated to training effective, ethical, and culturally competent psychologists. We utilize the Practitioner-Scholar model which focuses on the integration of theoretical knowledge with practical, theory-informed, evidence-based skills.

Clinical training is accomplished through rigorous academic coursework, research and dissertation, as well as supervised field placements. Practicum and pre-internship sites are vetted by the DCT to provide organized, cumulative, and sequential experiences that are graded in complexity. Students are expected to apply to and attend APA accredited internships. Applications are submitted through the national Association for Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Center (APPIC) match system.

Program Sequence

  • Year 1 - Individual Therapy (10 hours), Theoretical/Scientific Foundations, Annual Assessment
  • Year 2 – Pre-Practicum Training, Psychological Assessment, & Research Methods Series, Cultural Immersion Trip
  • Year 3 –Clinical Skill Training, Practicum, Dissertation Prep, Qualifying Exams (Written & Clinical)
  • Year 4 – Clinical and Supervision Coursework, Dissertation, Pre-Internship/Advanced Practicum
  • Year 5 - Internship

Training Opportunities

  Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
  Practicum Advanced Practicum Pre-Internship Internship
Clinical experience hours 450 hrs minimum (includes 100 hrs of supervision) 500 hrs minimum (includes 100 hrs of supervision) 500 hrs 1500 hrs minimum
Direct client contact hours 150 hrs 50% of clinical hrs 60% of clinical hrs 25% of clinical hrs (minimum)
Supervision 100 hrs 100 hrs 2 hrs per 20 hrs of clinical exp.(1:10 ratio) 2 hrs per 40 hrs of clinical exp. (1:20 ratio)
Supervisor credentials At least one Licensed Psychologist At least one Licensed Psychologist At least one Licensed Psychologist At least one Licensed Psychologist; > 2 Psychologists on site
Concurrent coursework Practicum I, II, III Adv. Practicum I, II, III Pre-Internship I, II, III Internship I, II, III

NUhope Community Center

One of the Practicum, Pre-internship, and Internship training opportunities is at NUhope Community Center. The mission of NUhope Community Counseling Center is fourfold: first, to provide exemplary clinical training to graduate students in psychology; second, to train students to engage with human need by providing compassionate and evidence-based counseling and high quality assessment services; third, to provide an environment in which students will grow in providing culturally competent care through the integration of psychology, culture, and social justice as they reach out to people in the community with diverse counseling needs; and fourth, to provide high quality affordable counseling to members of the community.

Learn More About Our Community Clinic

NUhope does require that students sign Faith, Principles, and Community Standards Agreements. There are many equivalent training opportunities available to students from partners in the community who have provided exemplar supervision to our PsyD students over the years.

Clinical Training Sites

Name Type Services Clients Served
Affordable Counseling Community Mental Health Individual Therapy Children, Adolescents, Adults
Bellevue Child Behavioral Center Behavioral Health Individual Therapy, Assessment Children, Adolescents
Dayspring Behavioral Health Individual and Group Therapy, Assessment Children, Adolescents, Adults
Everett Clinic Behavioral Health Individual Therapy Children, Adolescents, Adults
Familywise Parenting services Group Therapy Children
Healthpoint Community Health Centers Behavioral Health Individual Therapy Children, Adolescents, Adults
Hope Central Autism clinic Community-based intervention Children, Adolescents
Meier Clinic Outpatient clinic Individual Therapy Adults
Monroe Correctional Complex Correctional Individual and Group Therapy Adults
NUhope Community mental health Individual Therapy, Couple’s Therapy, Assessment Children, Adolescents, Adults
Pacific Behavioral Health Center Community mental health Individual, Couples, and Group Therapy Adults
Pacific Lutheran University College counseling Individual Therapy Adults
Sandbox Therapy Group Community mental health Individual and Group Therapy, Assessment Children, Adolescents
University of Puget Sound College counseling Individual Therapy Adults
Western Washington University Inpatient Hospital Individual and Group Therapy, Assessment Adults

PsyD Research Policy

Consistent with the practitioner-scholar model on which our training is based, the PsyD program attaches a high value to scholarship that contributes to the field of psychology. In particular, we strive to carry out original, empirical research that extends the knowledge base of psychological science. We also pursue testing of innovative therapeutic approaches that address a variety of human needs. Moreover, we value the exploration of how individuals conduct making sense of their world, experiences and culture.

Our scholarship is driven by the pursuit of truth, that is, to expand psychological science as an authority source of knowledge about the world. However, we also recognize additional sources that offer facets of truth from alternate lenses. Brown’s (2004) resonance model asserts five domains of authority: experience, traditions, rationality, scripture, and science. These authority sources are viewed as bodies of information that together offer greater resonance of truth, by complementing what is offered through a single source. Understanding of a phenomenon is therefore fine-tuned through information from multiple domains, with more harmonious resonance suggestive of a closer intersection toward truth.

Viewing science through the resonance model aligns well with our Judeo-Christian heritage. Whereas research is a critical endeavor in the pursuit of truth, it does not preclude the importance of sacred authority that the biblical text holds for us. Our reasoning, logic, and ethical decision-making are essential tools for evaluating truth. Furthermore, human traditions and experience are greatly valued as truths for individuals, communities, and cultures.

The PsyD program, faculty, and student researchers are afforded a measure of academic freedom to conduct research that meets the expectations of rigor and ethics of psychological science. Yet as our pursuit of scholarship occurs within an institutional context, Northwest University’s mission serves as an important guiding principle that eclipses individual academic freedom (Ostrander, 2018). Our research is designed to contribute to engaging with human need while remaining grounded in the Christian beliefs that define who we are as a university—a body of Christ-followers joined in a learning community to seek truth and yield the next generation of citizens, professionals, and contributors to our society.

Faculty Research Interests

Research areas # Faculty # Grants
Gender identity development 1 1
K-12 school-based bullying prevention 1  
Faith-integrated psychology practice and training 2  
Marriage/Couples 3 1
Couples Therapy Outcome 1  
Eating Disorders 1  
Counseling Practices of Pastors 1  
Mental Health & Self-care of Pastors 1  
Adolescent/Adolescent substance use 2  
Mindfulness-based interventions 1  
Psychological dysregulation 1  
Forensics/Psychology & Law 2  
Self-care 1  
Shine theory 1  
Cultural immersion trips/study abroad 1  
College Students 1  
Social Justice 1  
Women's Studies 1  
Behavioral Economics 1  

Clinical Opportunities:

  • Acceptance/Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
  • Adjustment
  • Adolescents/At-Risk Adolescents/Delinquency
  • Advocacy/Public Policy
  • Affective Disorders/Depression/Mood Disorders
  • Aggression/Anger Control/Impulse Control
  • Aging/Gerontology
  • Anxiety Disorders/Panic Disorders
  • Assessment/Testing
  • Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Autism/Developmental Disabilities
  • Behavioral Therapy/Analysis
  • Child Abuse/Neglect
  • Child/Pediatric
  • Chronic Mental Illness
  • Cognitive/Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
  • College-University Counseling/Psychotherapy Centers
  • Community Psychology
  • Conduct/Disruptive Disorder
  • Consultation
  • Correctional Psychology/Prisons
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Day/Partial Treatment
  • Developmental Disabilities/Intellectual Disability
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy
  • Disabilities/Disabled Persons
  • Divorce/Child Custody
  • Early Intervention
  • Eating Disorders/Body Dysmorphia
  • Emergency Services
  • Evidence-Based/Empirically Supported Treatments
  • Family/Family Therapy/Family Systems
  • Forensic
  • Group Therapy
  • Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine/Stress
  • Homelessness
  • Immigrant/Refugee Populations
  • Interpersonal Therapy
  • Interprofessional/Interdisciplinary
  • Learning Disabilities
  • Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender
  • Marriage/Couples/Intimate Partner Violence
  • Medical/Inpatient/Hospital Services
  • Men’s Issues
  • Military/Armed Forces
  • Mindfulness
  • Minority/Cross-Cultural/Multicultural
  • Motivational Interviewing
  • Native American Health Services
  • Neuroimaging
  • Neuropsychology
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
  • Oncology/Cancer Care
  • Organizational
  • Pain Management
  • Parent–Child Interaction/Parent Training
  • Person-Centered Therapy
  • Personality Disorders
  • Play Therapy
  • Positive Psychology/Resilience
  • Prevention
  • Primary/Integrated Care
  • Private Practice
  • Psychiatric Clinic/Inpatient Mental Health
  • Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Therapy
  • Rehabilitation
  • Religion/Spirituality
  • Residential Program/Treatment Center
  • Rural Mental Health/Psychology
  • Severe Mental Illness/Psychosis/Schizophrenia
  • School/Educational
  • Sexuality/Sex Therapy/Sexual Offenders
  • Sleep Disorders
  • Spanish-Speaking Clients
  • Sports/Performance Psychology
  • Substance Abuse/Addiction
  • Suicide/Suicide Prevention
  • Supervision
  • Tic Disorders
  • Torture
  • Trauma/Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder/Disaster
  • Traumatic Brain Injury
  • Underserved Populations
  • Veterans Medical Center
  • Victim/Violence/Sexual Abuse
  • Vocational/Career Development
  • Weight Management/Obesity
  • Women’s Issues

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