Graduate Handbook | Overview | Curriculum | Experiential Learning | Faculty 

Effective Fall 2009 the Combined Doctoral Program in School and Counseling Psychology is no longer accepting new applicants.  Northeastern University now has two separate doctoral programs:

PhD in School Psychology
PhD in Counseling Psychology

Overview
The School/Counseling Psychology Doctoral Program (SCPDP) is a full-time doctoral program accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) and approved by the National Register of Health Service Providers. Additional information on APA accreditation can by obtained from the Committee on Accreditation, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242 (202/336-5979). The SCPDP curriculum prepares graduates of both the school psychology and counseling psychology tracks to meet licensure requirements in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The program adheres to the practitioner/scientist model of training and is intended to develop psychologists who have (1) knowledge of psychological theory, (2) a broad range of assessment, intervention, and applied research skills, and (3) the ability to use their knowledge and skills to improve the psychological health of individuals, couples, families, and groups. Students are prepared for remediative, preventive, and health-promoting clinical practice with culturally diverse children, youth, adults, and families in schools, colleges, medical centers, and community mental health settings.

One of the strengths of the SCPDP is its focus on individual and cultural differences. The varied composition of the faculty and student body, the training model and the content of the curriculum, the research and professional activities of the faculty and students as well as the nature of the advanced fieldwork and internship sites, reflect a serious commitment to offer substantive training in the areas of individual and cultural diversity throughout the curriculum.

Read our Ecological Perspective

Program Information Sheet (pdf)

Curriculum
Counseling and school psychology students are required to take a minimum of twenty courses and fifty-four semester-hour credits. Students must pass all parts of the comprehensive examination, satisfactorily complete their advanced fieldwork and internship, and write a dissertation.

Curriculum and Course Work Outline

Program Competencies

Required Courses

School Psychology track program plan

Counseling Psychology track program plan

Experiential Learning
In addition to academic courses, you will be expected to complete nine months of advanced fieldwork, typically twenty hours per week, usually during your second year of study. You must also complete a calendar year of full-time doctoral internship (or two years of half-time internship) in an APA-approved setting or its equivalent.

You will be supervised at your fieldwork and internship sites by site-based supervisors who have the appropriate credentials. In addition, you receive small-group supervision by Northeastern faculty. Before beginning your internship, you must have all components of the comprehensive examinations and all academic work, including the dissertation proposal.

In the past four years, ninety-seven percent of our students have been placed at internship sites that are approved by the APA. The following is a selection of some of the internship sites where our students have worked:

• Boston Medical Center
• Boston Regional Medical Center
• Cambridge Hospital
• Children’s Hospital (Boston)
• Dallas Public Schools
• Devereux School
• Kennedy Kreiger Institute (Johns Hopkins University)
• Louisiana State University Counseling Center
• The May Institute
• McLean Franciscan Child and Adolescent Inpatient Unit
• McLean Hospital
• Riverbend Community Mental Health Center
• South Shore Mental Health
• Suffolk University Counseling Center
• SUNY-Buffalo Counseling Center
• Tewksbury State Hospital
• University of Houston, Counseling and Psychological Services
• University of Massachusetts Medical Center
• University of Massachusetts-Amherst Counseling Center
• VA Hospitals in Boston, Bedford, and Brockton
• Westborough State Hospital
• Yale University Medical School 

Faculty
The program’s core faculty consists of 16 full-time culturally diverse department faculty members. The faculty has extensive expertise in many areas including: consultation; child, family, and systemic interventions; assessment; feminist theory; human behavior in organizations; early intervention; cross-cultural counseling and assessment; development; developmental disabilities; prevention; neuropsychology; and gender issues. 

Carmen G. Armengol, Ph.D., ABPP, Pennsylvania State University	214B Lake Hall	x5917
Mary B. Ballou, Ph.D., ABPP, Kent State University	204 Lake Hall	x5937
Jessica Hoffman, Ph.D., NCSP, Lehigh University	212B Lake Hall	x5257
Debra Franko, Ph.D., McGill University	210B Lake Hall	x5454
Deborah Greenwald, Ph.D., University of Michigan	324 Lake Hall	x2486
Gila Kornfeld-Jacobs, Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo	215 Lake Hall	x2470
Louis Kruger, Psy.D. Rutgers University	216 Lake Hall	x5897
Chieh Li, Ed.D., University of Massachusetts at Amherst	211 Lake Hall	x4683
Karin Lifter, Ph.D., Columbia University	213 Lake Hall	x5916
Emanuel Mason, Ed.D., Temple University	214A Lake Hall	x5043
Barbara Okun, Ph.D., Northwestern University	323 Lake Hall	x5150
Tracy Robinson, Ed.D., Harvard University	201 Lake Hall	x5936
William Sanchez, Ph.D., Boston University	204 Lake Hall	x2404
Gretchen Schmeltzer, Ph.D., Northeastern University
Ena Vazquez-Nuttall, Ed.D., Boston University	209 Lake Hall	x3297
Robert Volpe, Ph.D., Lehigh University	202 Lake Hall	x7970

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Click here for the Combined PhD Program in School and Counseling Psychology (PhD) handbook (pdf)        

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
Bouvé College of Health Sciences
School of Health Professions
Department of Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology

Accredited* by the Committee on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association
750 First Street NE
Washington DC 20002-4242                                           
Phone:  202-336-5979

*The APA accredited the SCPDP initially in May 1996. Full accreditation was granted in October 2000 for seven years. In 2008 the program was re-accredited for another seven years.