Professionalization Group Requirements
During the first year, students participate in weekly Professionalization Groups that focus on topics related to professional psychology. Through readings and discussions led by a faculty member, students can begin to develop a professional identity and become familiar with current issues in clinical psychology. The groups are designed to provide a comfortable environment in which students can freely exchange concerns, questions, and issues relevant to their studies and their future careers. The faculty member who leads the student’s Professionalization Group also serves as his/her academic advisor.
Practicum Requirements
Full-time students will normally be placed in a Diagnostic Practicum and Seminar during their second year of study and in an Intervention Practicum and Seminar during the third year. For registration purposes, the practicum and seminar are treated like one course. The practicum/seminar carries a total of 3 credit hours per semester (2 credit hours per practicum/one credit hour per seminar) and 6 credit hours per academic year. Practicum usually begins in September and concludes in June. Throughout the year, the student will be required to spend 20 – 24 hours per week or a minimum of 720 hours in the practicum training experience (not including the seminar). All students enrolled in practicum must be concurrently enrolled in a practicum seminar class, which meets weekly throughout the academic year (fall, spring, and summer I). Concurrent enrollment in practicum seminars is mandatory.
Note: students who are placed in a 12 month practicum must enroll in practicum seminar class during the summer II term.
Further discussion of the practicum is found in the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i Doctoral Degree Program Clinical Training Manual.
Diagnostic and Intervention Practicum
The Diagnostic Practicum is designed to emphasize the observation and diagnostic interviewing of clients and provides exposure to psychological evaluation and other assessment procedures. The Intervention Practicum usually emphasizes some aspect of therapeutic intervention. Time is proportionately allocated to direct client contact, seminars and meetings, and supervision.
All students enrolled in a practicum must also concurrently enroll in a practicum seminar. The seminar meets weekly throughout the academic year and allows the student to reflect on various practicum experiences and to acquire additional skills and attitudes useful in field training. The specific content and emphasis of the seminar is geared to the nature of the practicum setting, the needs of the enrolled students, and the professional expertise of the faculty member. The seminar also assists students to prepare for the Diagnostic (second year) and Intervention (third year) Clinical Evaluation Conferences.
All students who enter the practicum application process must be in good academic standing, have a minimum grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale and have completed the academic planning that will allow for all the practicum prerequisite courses to be completed prior to the beginning of the practicum.
If a student who has accepted a practicum is placed on probation prior to the beginning of practicum, the student may not attend practicum. If the student is placed on academic probation during practicum, the student may be removed from practicum and referred to the evaluation committee to develop a remediation plan.
In cases of non-academic training difficulties, the student may be referred to the Clinical Training Committee for development of a remediation plan. The student may be withdrawn from practicum.
The goal of the practicum is to foster the training of competent clinicians capable of providing basic and effective assessment and therapeutic intervention. Evaluation of student progress in clinical field training focuses on three areas: theoretical knowledge bases, clinical skills, and professional attitudes. A thorough review of site and seminar evaluations is conducted by the Training Department, and an overall grade of “Credit” or “No Credit” is included in the student’s academic record. All students should be familiar with the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i Doctoral Degree Program Clinical Training Manual. The manual provides a comprehensive overview of the practicum and its requirements.
Comprehensive Examination Requirements
All doctoral degree program students are required to successfully complete a comprehensive examination. The successful passage of this examination marks the official acceptance of the matriculated student as a doctoral degree candidate. The material covered in the Comprehensive Examination includes required courses outlined in the Study Plan, excluding electives. The examination requires students to be able to integrate the material into a form demonstrating both mastery of the material and ability to organize and to apply what they have learned in a coherent and logical manner.
Students should demonstrate the ability to think critically, integrate ideas thoughtfully, and be self-reflective. They should further demonstrate an understanding and competency with issues of diversity.
Students who are unable to pass the Comprehensive Examination will receive information concerning their performance on the examination and assistance in constructing additional experiences and instruction aimed at enabling them to pass this program requirement. Students may take this exam up to three times. Three failures of this exam will result in dismissal from the program.
To be able to sit for the Comprehensive Examination, students must have successfully completed all required courses outlined in the Study Plan, excluding electives. Courses that are transferred are considered successfully completed. Students taking the Comprehensive Examination must be in good standing and have a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
Students are required to take the Comprehensive Examination no later than the beginning of the fifth year after matriculation in order to meet the seven-year maximum time frame for completion of degree requirements. This examination is offered once each year in late August or early September. Students interested in taking the Comprehensive Examination should fill out the request form to do so during the preceding spring semester. A description of the exam, sample questions, and/or study packet will be provided to the students by the chair of the comprehensive examination committee.
Clinical Evaluation Conference (CEC)
The Clinical Evaluation Conference (CEC) is a competency-based examination that is designed to evaluate doctoral degree program students’ mastery of major clinical assessment and therapeutic skills.
Students are expected to demonstrate clinical competence both conceptually and in application. It is also expected that students, having learned theoretical and applied bases in classroom courses, will have made use of out-of-class clinical contacts (i.e., practicum, seminar groups, supplementary supervision, visiting lecturers) to refine and extend the skills to be evaluated by the CEC. Successful completion of the CEC is a requirement for passing the Clinical Interviewing course and the Diagnostic and Therapy Practicum Seminars.
There are three sections to the CEC:
- The First Year Clinical Interviewing CEC: This CEC takes place at the end of the Clinical Interviewing course during the fall semester of the first year.
- The Diagnostic CEC: This CEC takes place in conjunction with the Diagnostic Practicum Seminar during the summer I semester of the year in which the student is enrolled in the Diagnostic Practicum.
- The PsyD Intervention CEC: This CEC takes place in conjunction with the Intervention Practicum Seminar during the summer I semester of the year in which the student is enrolled in the Intervention Practicum.
The CEC is graded “Pass, Conditional Pass, Fail.” Students have three opportunities to receive a passing grade on each CEC. After the first failure, students will receive an informal remediation plan developed by the faculty involved in the CEC. After two failures, students will be referred to the Student Professional Development Committee (SPDC) for a formal remediation plan. After the third failure students will be dismissed from the program.
Further information about the CEC is found in the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i Doctoral Degree Program Clinical Training Manual.
Clinical Research Project (CRP) Requirements
the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i requires each doctoral degree program student to develop a Clinical Research Project (CRP) as a requirement for graduation. The CRP is a scholarly work that provides students with an opportunity to deepen their knowledge and thought about a particular clinical area, to demonstrate the ability to critically analyze methodological issues, and to produce an original and potentially publishable piece of research and/or scholarly work in the field of clinical psychology. Please refer to the CRP Handbook for detailed information.
Students must register for the Clinical Research Project during each semester in which they either consult with or use their CRP advisor or committee. This registration guideline applies to Pre-Interns as well as to Interns. Students must register for a minimum of two semesters of CRP in order to graduate. It is recommended that students successfully defend their CRP proposal by the end of the spring semester preceding their internship year. Students who are unable to do so will be required to register for CRP credit until the proposal defense is completed. Students who have successfully defended their proposal are not required to be enrolled for the CRP unless they are in contact with their committee. Students must register for CRP during the semester that they defend.
Advanced Practicum Requirements
A number of students opt to complete a practicum beyond the required two years of practicum. Advanced practicum students train in an agency or program, which is formally approved by the director of Practicum Training. Students are expected to provide services consistent with those provided by professional psychologists in clinical settings, including assessment, interventions, consultations, research, program development and evaluation, and outreach/educational services.
To be eligible for Advanced Practicum, students must be in good academic standing, have completed two years of required practicum, and successfully completed the CEC.
Clinical Practice Requirements
The Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i recognizes the responsibility of institutions preparing clinical psychologists to provide training experiences of the highest quality for their students and to ensure that this training protects the best interest of the public. It is entirely consistent with training goals for the institution to require that students not engage in professional activities that may infringe upon a primary commitment to training, have a negative impact on quality of mental health services, or are inconsistent with ethical and legal standards. The participation of students in outside work activities should be secondary to training and should also uphold and be consistent with the ethical and legal standards of the profession.
While matriculating at the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i, students are specifically prohibited from being involved in private practice unless the following standards are met:
- Any student who has appropriate state registration, certification, credentialing, or licensure relevant to the practice and delivery of mental health services is entitled to practice independently in that particular area of registration or certification.
- It is the responsibility of any student engaged in private practice to notify the program chair of this private practice and to provide evidence of appropriate current registration, certification or licensure by the state in which the practice occurs.
Failure to comply with these policies may result in dismissal from the program.
Training in the Place of Employment
Clinical training may not be done in the student’s place of current employment. This restriction recognizes that training most optimally occurs in settings uncomplicated by dual relationships, employment pressures, and financial demands. Students also profit from training in diverse organizational “cultures” or structures.
Occasionally, the interpretation of what constitutes “place of employment” is unclear. For example, a large corporation may own several smaller corporations that operate at different sites, managed by different supervisors, serving different populations. A student may request the opportunity to train at a subsidiary of the parent organization in which the student works. In order to identify what constitutes a student’s “place of employment”, the school has developed the following guidelines:
Dual Relationships The field training supervisor periodically evaluates the student’s progress in training and submits reports to the school. These reports must be objective, fair, and candid. Therefore, the student should not be evaluated by someone who is a co-worker, work supervisor, or employer. The director of Practicum Training or the Clinical Training Committee will evaluate the student’s training request to ensure that no dual relationship exists.
Multiple Identities A student should enter a training site with a single identity: a professional-in-training. Students attempting to train in their place of employment continue to be identified as an employee. This identity can place competing demands on a student and thus compromise the training that a student receives.
Financial Relationships Students enter a clinical field placement as a student, not as an employee, private practitioner, or independent contractor. Ideally, financial matters do not impinge upon clinical training education; however, a minority of advanced Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i practicum sites will offer paid practicum. Practicum trainees at such sites may be required to assume “employee status” in accordance with Hawai‘i State Labor Law and the U.S. Department of Labor. These paid practicum sites will be carefully selected by the practicum training director to ensure that the educative and training mission of the clinical practicum are not compromised by financial considerations such as compensation based on “productivity” or “collections.”
Geographical Relationships Occasionally, health organizations, like other corporations, merge with or acquire other companies that are at some geographical distance from one another. In these circumstances, the corporations continue to operate independently of one another and are united “in name only.” Under these circumstances, a student may train at the separate corporation, so long as the other criteria are met.
Power in Relationships Students enter training programs to be the recipients of educative, professional training experiences. This arrangement places the student in a role in which the student depends upon the supervisor and the agency for a successful training experience. Students may not hire their supervisors, nor pay the agency for their training experience. Such arrangements remove the professional-in-training from the student role and elevate the student to the status of business partner in the training process.
No student will be waived from the practicum requirements. Whenever possible, students who come to the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i with extensive clinical backgrounds are placed in practicum sites offering experience in areas where they have an interest and do not have previous experience.
Internship Requirements
All doctoral degree program students are required to complete a one-year, 2,000 hour, full-time 12 month, or a two-year, half-time APA or APPIC pre-doctoral internship as a condition for graduation. This intensive and supervised contact with clients is essential for providing breadth and depth to the student’s overall training experience. Typically, full-time students will begin the internship during fifth year of enrollment.
In order to be eligible to begin the internship application process, the student must have completed the following requirements:
- Students must make an initial application for approval by the director of Internship Training who will evaluate students for internship eligibility and readiness. If all requirements are met, the student will receive written approval from the director of Internship Training for application to internship sites.
- The student must have successfully completed the Comprehensive Examination prior to the fall internship application process.
- While the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i encourages its students to obtain an APA-approved internship, the school is aware that there are several reasons why this may not be possible. For example, currently there are a very limited number of APA-approved internships within the state of Hawai‘i. the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i recognizes that relocation to the mainland to attend an APA-approved internship may be a hardship due to economic, social, and/or cultural factors, and many students are dedicated to deepening their knowledge and experience in the provision of services to the under served populations within the state of Hawai‘i.
- The student reviews the approved and active internship sites and discusses these possible sites with the director of Internship Training and their academic advisor. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain further information and application materials from the sites.
- Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i students are to submit a list of internship preferences to the director of Internship Training. After gaining approval for site applications, students submit application forms directly to the internship site and request that the School provide sealed copies of transcripts. Requests for transcripts and reference letters must be made in advance and in writing by the student.
- It is the student’s responsibility to request letters of recommendation. The director of Internship Training will assist the student by providing letters of eligibility for internship when appropriate.
Students may petition the program director of Internship Training for local-only application in cases where there are extenuating circumstances. Petitions must be made in writing.
In order to be eligible to begin the internship, the student must have completed the following requirements:
- The student must have successfully completed all sections of the Clinical Evaluation Conference.
- The student must have successfully completed all course work and all practicum with no “Incompletes” and good academic standing.
- The student must have a GPA of 3.0 on a scale of 4.0.
- The student must have completed at least one Clinical Research Project seminar credit.
- The student must have an approved CRP proposal prior to going out on internship.
Failure to do so will require registration for CRP credit while on internship until the proposal is approved.
Further elaboration of the internship application process is found in the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i Internship Applicant Handbook.
Course/Credit Transfer
Transfer of Courses/Credit from Other Institutions
The Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i does not automatically transfer credit from graduate coursework taken at other institutions. Students who have taken graduate courses elsewhere may petition to have these courses apply toward transfer credit for courses in the curriculum. Course transfers are not reviewed or granted until the student has been accepted and paid the initial deposit following admission to the program.
For a course to be considered eligible for transfer credit, the following conditions must be met:
- The course must have been taken no more than five years before the student’s entry into the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i.
- The course must have been a graduate-level course, taken for graduate-level credit from a regionally accredited college or university. In the case of institutions outside the U.S., the appropriate state or national accreditation is required.
- Any course submitted towards a transfer of a3 credit course must have itself carried 3 or more graduate credit hours.
- A student must have earned a grade of “B” or better in any course submitted for transfer credit.
- A maximum of five courses (15 credit hours) may be transferred towards the master’s program in psychology.
Argosy University does not accept any credit earned as military credit, credit by examination, credit by correspondence, credit for life experience, or graduate credit from non-accredited schools. A student who desires to submit a course for transfer review should notify the Student Services Department and obtain the appropriate Transfer Request Form. This form should be completed and returned to the Student Services Department. Only requests made in writing are reviewed.
Course/Credit Transfer Procedures
All credit transfer requests must be submitted during the first academic year of the student’s enrollment. Students petitioning for transfers may be requested to provide course descriptions, syllabi, exams, diagnostic test protocols and write-ups. Transfers are granted by a faculty member if there is an 80 percent overlap in course content and objectives between the course submitted for transfer credit and the course as it is offered at the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i. Students may obtain the procedures to be observed in submitting transfer requests from the Student Services Department.
Students who wish to submit a course for transfer credit:
- Must complete a separate form for each transfer request
- May submit the request anytime before the end of the first academic year
- Will provide a transcript and other supporting documentation, such as course descriptions, syllabi, exams, diagnostic test protocols and write-ups
- Must submit the appropriate forms to the Student Services Department
Transfer of Credits to the Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology Degree Program from other Programs
Students who wish to transfer PP7370 Cognitive Assessment , PP7371 Objective Personality Assessment , and PP 7372 Projective Personality Assessment will complete the above review process, and, if they are determined to be eligible, may be required to pass a practical competency exam in order to be granted a course transfer. The Student Services Department may answer general questions about the transfer examination procedure and will direct specific questions to the faculty members who administer the examination.
Non-Transferrable Courses
The following is a list of courses that may not be transferred into the PsyD in Clinical Psychology degree program:
Transfer of Courses/Credit from another Argosy University Campus
If students internally transfer within the Argosy University system, approved transfers are transferred if the course is identical to the one offered at the campus to which the student is transferring. If the course is similar but not identical, the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i will review for approval or denial. Credit transfers are only accepted if the course being transferred is a requirement of the degree program at thje Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i.
All transfer requests must be submitted during the first academic year of the student’s enrollment. Students petitioning for transfers may be required to provide course descriptions, syllabi, exams, diagnostic test protocols and write-ups.
