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Consortium for Group Research and Practice

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BYU Clinical Psychology PhD Program

The Clinical Psychology program at BYU awarded its first Ph.D. in 1967 and it has been fully accredited by the APA since 1971. It admits approximately 8 PhD students per year and has a longstanding reputation for psychotherapy outcome and group treatment research. Faculty focusing on the latter over the years have included Richard Bednar, Sally Barlow, Addie Fuhriman and Gary Burlingame. Students are trained in a mentor model and have a large number of the opportunities for clinical training. Sites include:

  • BYU Counseling and Psychological Services
  • BYU Hawaii Counseling and Dvelopment Center
  • Child and Adolescent Treatment Specialists
  • Haven Home for Girls
  • Livingstone Psychological Services and Assessments (contract with Beehive Science and Technological Academy)
  • Mountainlands Community Health Center
  • Timpanogos Assessment and Psychological Services
  • Utah Valley Pain Management
  • Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (now Utah Valley Hospital) Behavioral Medicine
  • Wasatch Pediatrics
  • Utah State Hospital
  • Utah State Prison

BYU Counseling Psychology PhD Program

The Counseling Psychology Ph.D. program at BYU has been accredited by the APA since 2000. It admits approximately 6 PhD students per year and incorporates a scientist-practitioner model of training. This program primarily prepares individuals to work as counseling psychologists in academic departments and counseling centers in colleges and universities. Counseling Psychology students spend their first two years of practicum in BYU’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) where they are trained in individual, couples, and group psychotherapy. CPSE employs five joint appointees who allot 60% of their time to CAPS and 40% to CPSE. Currently, four of the joint appointee faculty members are part of C-GRP (Mark Beecher, Robert Gleave, Derek Griner, & Vaughn Worthen), and all four spend considerable time training CPSE students in group work and research. CPSE students have a large number of other training opportunities after their first years of practicum. Sites focusing on group treatment in recent years include:

  • BYU Counseling and Psychological Services
  • BYU Hawaii Counseling and Developmental Center
  • Mountainlands Community Health Center
  • Utah Valley University Counseling Center
  • Various Private Practices

For additional program information, please see: http://education.byu.edu/cpse/phd

BYU Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), though under various names, has been offering services to BYU students since the mid-1940s, and took a form similar to what exists today in the early 1970s. Currently, 26 full-time and 4 part-time PhD-level Psychologists and Marriage and Family Therapists work in the center, providing individual, couples, and group psychotherapy. CAPS has a robust training program, with 4 psychology interns, and approximately 25 psychology externs and practicum students from BYU’s Clinical and Counseling Psychology (CPSE) program. The psychology internship was developed in 1989, and was APA accredited in 1992. In 1993, a formal arrangement was developed between CAPS and CPSE in which CAPS became the official practicum site for CPSE doctoral students in their first and second years of seeing psychotherapy clients (approximately six students in each cohort). In 1996 an arrangement was formed between CAPS and CPSE in which five CAPS faculty became joint appointees, 60% CAPS and 40% CPSE, further solidifying CAPS commitment to training.

CAPS has one of the largest and best supported college counseling center group programs in the United States, running approximately 25 full groups each semester. CAPS offers process-oriented and psycho-educational groups for general issues and specific conditions. For descriptions of common groups offered at CAPS, please see: Typical groups run at CAPS. Nearly all groups are co-led by a faculty member/licensed psychologist and a trainee. The CAPS psychology internship provides abundant group opportunities and a possible group rotation.

CAPS is also strongly committed to evidence-based practice and the scientist-practitioner model. CAPS’ therapists regularly use practice-based evidence to supplement their clinical judgment and to monitor preparation, process, and outcome in individual and group psychotherapy. CAPS’ clients complete the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 before each session and therapists regularly administer the Group Questionnaire, Group Readiness Questionnaire, and Group Psychotherapy Intervention Rating Scale in the center.

For additional program information, please see: http://caps.byu.edu

Utah State Hospital (USH)

USH was founded in 1885, and has provided clerkship and internship locations for BYU Counseling and Clinical Psychology students. The USH has treatment facilities devoted to treating forensic, adult, child/adolescent and geriatric patient populations that generally fall under the seriously mentally ill classification. After medication, their primary treatment is offered in small groups followed by individual and family therapy. The USH group services have been described as “best practice” in national service audits. It houses a fully approved APA internship program, a postdoctoral program as well as offering practicum and externship training opportunities to doctoral students. More information on its training philosophy and group training opportunities can be found in the intern training manual.

For additional program information, please see: http://ush.utah.gov