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The mission of the Â鶹¹ú²úAV Clinical PhD Program is to graduate clinical psychologists who are prepared for clinical, academic, and research careers. The Program seeks to provide training that is balanced in science and practice to graduate ethical clinical psychologists who are equipped to integrate theory, research, and practice. The Program strives for graduates who are skilled in providing culturally competent care and in evaluating and conducting research to prepare them for  careers as health service providers, as academics, or in the range of careers clinical psychologists contribute.

The Â鶹¹ú²úAV Clinical PhD Program follows a scientist-practitioner approach that assumes science informs practice and practice informs science. Science forms the foundation of clinical psychology. The Program is committed to training graduate students through classroom instruction, continuous research engagement, supervised clinical experiences, and programmatic evaluation and feedback to become skilled clinical psychologists competent to work with a diverse public.

Students may ultimately opt to enter academia, clinical practice, industry, governmental institutions. Regardless, competent clinical psychologists must articulate current concerns, formulate creative solutions to those concerns, and test hypotheses for those solutions by systematically gathering empirical evidence. Effective clinical psychologists need to be prepared to work with a diverse range of clients, which requires a foundational appreciation of biological, cognitive, developmental, social, affective and cultural influences on human behavior.

To accomplish our Program’s aims, the education and training is deliberately gradual and sequential. Students receive broad training in psychology, including social and affective bases of behavior; biological and cognitive bases of behavior; developmental bases of behavior; and statistics, psychometric theory and research design. Graduate students who successfully complete the Program will be competent in research; ethical, legal, and professional standards and behavior; individual and cultural diversity; communication, consultation, and interpersonal and interdisciplinary skills; and assessment, intervention, and clinical supervision.

Students are admitted to the Â鶹¹ú²úAV Clinical PhD program with a specific research mentor. Please see the faculty page to identify who is recruiting. Applicants are encouraged to contact potential research mentors for additional information and to express interest in their research lab. 

Several Â鶹¹ú²úAV faculty contribute to research mentorship of graduate students, including both core and affiliated faculty in the Psychology department. Click the faculty member’s page to learn more about their research interests and projects. Please check back in MAY 2025 for an update on who is recruiting for next year’s 2026 class.

Find Your Mentor ►

The Â鶹¹ú²úAV Clinical PhD program is committed to recruiting applicants who bring a variety of lived experiences to the program. Applications are evaluated holistically, including evidence of personal attributes that are compatible with the rigors of graduate training and personality characteristics suited to clinical work. Successful applicants must hold a baccalaureate degree from an accredited university with substantial academic background in psychology. Applicants are evaluated on a number of dimensions, including:

• Academic background and preparation (coursework completed, which much include psychological statistics and research methods; grade point average)
• Research interests and prior experience
• Clinical interests and prior experience
• Written responses to application prompts for personal statements
• Curriculum vita
• Three letters of recommendations

Note that the GRE General test is optional. Because we evaluate applications holistically, applicants may elect to submit a strong test score to strengthen their application should they wish to offset a weaker area. However, applicants are not required to take the GRE nor will they be penalized for not submitting a GRE score.

An interview is required for admission. All applicants will receive notice in January if they have been selected for an interview. Interviews will occur on one of two possible dates: January 30, 2026 or February 6, 2026. To avoid financial hardship to attend these interviews, the Program will cover the costs of travel and offer housing. Our prior experience with in-person interviews and feedback from applicants affirms the critical value of this in person experience. These will be the only two days for interviews. If you are seriously considering the Â鶹¹ú²úAV PhD clinical program, please reserve these dates on your calendar.

To submit an application, please be prepared to complete all of the following required elements:

• the general graduate school application;
• upload a copy of all transcripts from post-secondary institutions you have attended (unofficial is acceptable but if admitted, we will require the complete transcript);
• curriculum vita
• personal statements
• contact information for three references

Admissions for academic year 2024-2025 is CLOSED. The portal will reopen in August.

• Required: Analysis of Variance & Experimental Design (1^st year, Fall), Regression and Correlational Design (1^st year, Spring), Research Methods (1^st year, Spring)
• Optional: Multilevel Models: HLM, Structural Equation Modeling, Longitudinal Data Analysis

• Year 1: Identify research question(s) and develop a research design for master’s thesis; propose the thesis to an approved master’s thesis committee
• Year 2: complete the master’s thesis with thesis defense before Oct 1 of Year 3.
• Year 3: Identify research questions and develop a research design for doctoral dissertation; propose the doctoral dissertation to an approved dissertation committee before Oct 1 of Year 4. Students have the option to complete a traditional monograph style dissertation of a three-paper dissertation.
• Year 4: Collect data and prepare to defend doctoral dissertation.
• NOTE: All students must submit at least one lead author journal publication or have two first-author conference presentations prior to applying for the predoctoral internship.

• Virginia Health Sciences at Â鶹¹ú²úAV (formerly Eastern Virginia Medical School)
• Veterans Affairs Medical Center-Hampton
• Virginia Beach Public Schools & Adult Learning Center
• Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters
• Child Advocacy Center
• Â鶹¹ú²úAV Counseling Center
• William & Mary Counseling Center
• Fishing Point Recovery Center
• Indian Creek Correctional Center and St. Brides Correctional Center

Consistent with all PhD Clinical Psychology programs, the final year of the program involves a one-year Predoctoral Internship, which is completed outside the Program. Students apply for these predoctoral internships in their fourth year in residence among the APA approved clinical internships across the country. This full-time clinical experience reinforces clinical skills, provides an opportunity for specialization, and prepares graduate students for their work as a clinical psychologist.

Â鶹¹ú²úAV is a minority serving institution. We strive to cultivate an atmosphere of inclusion and mutual respect that honors the lived experiences of the diverse members of our community and society overall. We thus seek to ensure that we contribute to training graduate students that that can serve the wider community and we welcome the perspectives of those from historically marginalized groups. The Program also strives to advocate for and support the interests of our diverse society, including but not limited to, all races, sexes, gender identities, gender expressions, sexual orientations, religions, ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic backgrounds, physical and mental abilities, residency statuses, and the multitude of these intersectional identities. The Program strives to train graduate students who are prepared to work competently and effectively with members of this diverse society. Our work aims to address social problems that confront our local, state, national, and global communities. We acknowledge that creating such an atmosphere is an ongoing process that requires continual recommitment both personally and professionally.

This Program policy statement was derived from work by the APA Board of Educational Affairs Working Group on Restrictions Affecting Diversity Training in Graduate Education (see Wise, Bieschke, Forrest, Cohen- Filipic, Hathaway, and Douce, 2015).

In our program, we are committed to a training process that ensures that graduate students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to work effectively with members of the public who embody intersecting demographics, attitudes, beliefs, and values. When graduate students’ attitudes, beliefs, or values create tensions that negatively impact the training process or their ability to effectively treat members of the public, the program faculty and supervisors are committed to a developmental training approach that is designed to support the acquisition of such professional competence. We support graduate students in finding a belief- or value-congruent path that allows them to work in a professionally competent manner with all clients/patients.

For some trainees, integrating personal beliefs or values with professional competence in working with all clients/patients may require additional time and faculty support. Ultimately though, to complete our program successfully, all graduate students must be able to work with clients placed in their care in a beneficial and non-injurious manner. Professional competencies are determined by the profession for the benefit and protection of the public; consequently, students do not have the option to refuse to develop professional competencies because of conflicts with their attitudes, beliefs, or values. Trainees are required to work with multiple populations with diverse, intersectional presentations.