Clinical Psychology

In 1971, the State Council of Higher Education approved VCU's doctoral program and the clinical program subsequently graduated its first doctoral student in 1975. In the same year, the APA Committee on Accreditation granted full approval to the clinical doctoral program, and the program has maintained fully accredited status since that time. The program was admitted to the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science in 1995. The clinical program presently has 45-50 students at various levels of training, which accounts for more than one third of the total departmental graduate student enrollment. Since our first graduate in 1975, we have graduated over 250 Ph.D.'s in clinical psychology who have taken faculty, staff, administrative, or practitioner positions in psychology programs housed in university departments of Arts and Sciences and medical schools, community mental health centers, clinics, hospitals, prisons, private practice, and state departments of mental health.

Program description and values

The clinical psychology program at VCU follows the scientist-practitioner model and operates within a bio-psycho-social perspective. Our cornerstone training guideline is that a scientifically embedded doctoral program needs to be based in the most up-to-date theory and empirical findings from basic and applied psychology.

Contact information

Director of clinical training
Bruce Rybarczyk

Assistant to the clinical director
Laurin Mack
Phone: (804) 828-1158
E-mail: Clin-Psy@vcu.edu (e-mail is preferred)

Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Psychology
Clinical Psychology Program
806 West Franklin Street
PO Box 842018
Richmond, Virginia 23284-2018