Clinical Training Opportunities

I believe that the objective of graduate training in clinical psychology is to produce clinical scientists capable of functioning in various positions and contexts as clinicians, teachers, and researchers. Clinical scientists are well-rounded psychologists who keep up-to-date with the current research, who apply scientific findings in their clinical practice, and who emphasize scholarship, critical thinking, and scientific integrity in their work.

In the UNC Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program, training in anxiety disorders treatment involves three steps:

  1. Seminars on the nature and treatment of anxiety disorders that include reading and discussion of influential research and theoretical work,
  2. Observation of advanced clinicians doing assessments and therapy (live and taped), and
  3. Co-therapy with an advanced clinician.

Following successful completion of these steps, students and trainees are typically ready to conduct effective psychological (cognitive-behavioral) assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders under appropriate supervision.

Emphasis is placed on teaching students how to:

  • conduct a functional (cognitive-behavioral) assessment of the anxiety problem,
  • generate a case conceptualization
  • derive a treatment plan
  • implement the treatment plan, and
  • evaluate the effects of treatment.

Training takes place in the UNC Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic.