Clinical Program Curriculum

The Wright Institute's Clinical Psychology curriculum enables students to acquire progressively sophisticated knowledge and clinical capabilities. This developmental approach to learning is based on a solid foundation of research, science, assessment, and theoretical knowledge.

The Wright Institute's innovative program immerses students in the broad body of psychological science and asks them to think critically, while using subjective and objective sources of knowledge in their clinical work. The curriculum emphasizes the interdependence of observer and observed, of clinician and client. Throughout the coursework - from the study of psychopathology, research, and psychological testing, to the clinical process, even the learning process itself - the student is asked to sharpen their awareness of the complex system of interpersonal forces that impact the clinical setting. This learning emphasis has two goals:

  • to help students become sensitive to their own constant, active participation in co-creating the human experiences they seek to understand, and
  • to help students recognize how their own experience may impact their understanding and experience of their client's inner world.

The Wright Institute Clinical Psychology curriculum continues the school's long tradition of a rigorous, in-depth clinical education with broad exposure to theory and research. A wide range of theoretical approaches is deeply valued at the Wright Institute; faculty members have expertise in the areas of contemporary psychoanalytic, cognitive behavioral, family systems, mindfulness-based, social justice, brief treatment, interpersonal, and other relational approaches. Faculty members believe that theory and research are deeply interrelated elements that are most useful to the practitioner when taught in a clinically relevant way.

Coursework at the Wright Institute can be completed in three years of study.

There are 36 weeks of coursework instruction per year. The fall and winter trimesters last 13 weeks; the spring trimester lasts ten weeks. The Wright Institute student is engaged in clinical practica in all three years. All academic coursework relates to this practice base through the Case Conference/Advanced Clinical Seminar Sequence, which spans all three years of academic residency. These small classes provide a home base for developing and supporting each student's professional identity.

The curriculum is requirement-based, rather than unit-based. Courses are offered sequentially within a fixed curriculum. Students are expected to take four courses each trimester. The Wright Institute uses a flat-rate tuition based on a full course load, thus, tuition is unaffected if a student adds an additional course, or retakes a course (click here for specific tuition information).

 

"The Wright Institute gave me a set of skills that translated into multiple areas of the psychological community. I am particularly grateful for the cultural diversity training I received. I am passionate about this aspect of my field, and the training has served me well as a professor and a clinician."

Dr. Mariah Hansen, Class of '07