Clinical Psychology Residency Program
Mission
The Clinical Psychology Residency Program (CPRP) is designed to prepare psychology residents to be competent providers of psychological services in support of individuals, families, and organizations within the U.S. Army. Training is based on a practitioner-scholar model and espouses the premise that specific training goals should be directly related to career outcomes. We prepare each resident for a career as an Army clinical psychologist—essentially a dual career, that of military officer and professional psychologist. Training is guided by a competency model approach which focuses specifically on ensuring that the individual resident meets a minimum threshold expected of an independent and advanced specialty practitioner of clinical psychology across nine core and specialty-specific competency domains (described further below). Sound performances on prescribed benchmarks measuring these domains are expected to prepare the resident to meet eligibility criteria for board certification in Clinical Psychology.
Program Overview
Training occurs through yearlong activities including intake interviews, assessments, psychotherapy, military-specific occupational evaluations, training seminars, case conferences, and supervision, as well as through opportunities for trainees to provide briefings to military leaders/units, and training, teaching, and supervision to Interns and paraprofessionals. The training program is structured in a manner that is sequential, cumulative, and graded in complexity. During the first nine months of the training year, our Residents are provided with weekly formal didactic training hours that are focused on the foundation skills required to be successful during the residency year and beyond. The training focus is primarily experiential, starting with more straightforward cases for assessment and treatment.
Residents complete a self-assessment of their skill and competencies at the beginning of the training year, using the Quarterly Progress Report, which is the same assessment measure used to evaluate their performance at three-month intervals during the training year. In cases of direct accession, Residents also complete the CPRP Skill Sets Self-Evaluation, which allows the training faculty to better determine these particular Residents training needs. Additionally, with faculty support, Residents establish Individualized Development Plans to detail their goals, strengths, and areas of training focus. This also helps to guide the training experience, as it allows Residents to identify personal training goals.