Clinical Training

Dan Segal, PhD, our Director of Clinical Training, recently sent out a document that does a nice job of describing our program, including a list of faculty research interests. Every once-in-a-while I get questions through this blog about our program, so I thought I'd post the document here for anyone who might be applying to our department sometime soon.

As we are getting ready for the fall semester to begin, one of the administrators in our department asked the returning grad students for "wisdom" to pass on to the new students. My advice was this:

"Real" life doesn't stop because you're in grad school. Travel to somewhere new... climb a mountain... cultivate relationships outside of school... learn how to brew beer... have a baby... whatever it is that makes you happy. These are the things that will keep you going when grad school starts to drive you crazy and will make you a better psychologist in the long run.

At the end of May, I completed a practicum rotation in a long term care facility (aka nursing home). I discovered that I love working in that setting and its something that I hope to gain more experience with while I'm on internship.

Most of the time when we hear about Autism, we think about children. Surprisingly, or not, children with Autism grow up to be adults with Autism. I recently began a practicum rotation at The Resource Exchange (TRE) where I will be working with adults with developmental disabilities (DD). It has opened up a whole new world to me; the families of adults with DD face a lot of challenges that I've never considered before.

I've gotten a few questions recently on how one becomes a geropsychologist. While there are many paths leading to a career in geropsychology, here is one of the most efficient routes:

1) Get a bachelor's degree in Psychology: if not Psychology, another social science (e.g., Sociology) or physical science (e.g., Biology) is also helpful, as long as you take enough Psychology classes to get a basic, broad understanding of the field.

The Council of Professional Geropsychology Training Programs (CoPGTP) has created an evaluation tool using the Pikes Peak Geropsychology competencies. The purpose of the tool is twofold: (1) for psychologists to evaluate their on-going training needs and (2) for supervisors to evaluate geropsych graduate students' development during a training program.

One of programs I was involved in at the CU Aging Center this year was the At Home Mental Health Service program. We partner with a local social service agency for seniors to provide therapy for clients in their homes. These individuals typically have a number of physical or emotional problems that make it difficult for them to leave their homes to obtain services.

One of my clinical rotations at the CU Aging Center this year was in the Memory Clinic. The Memory Clinic provides brief cognitive screening for individuals who may be experiencing problems with their memory.

A lot of people who know me now probably wouldn't believe it, but I used to be an expert pessimist. I could ruminate on the worst aspects of any situation with the best of them. I've made several changes in my life in order to shift to a "glass half full" orientation; one of the things that helped me the most was to begin a "gratitude journal."

We received news this week that our Ph.D. program is accredited by the American Psychological Association. UCCS now has the first official Clinical Psychology doctoral program with a curricular emphasis in geropsychology!