Dear Prospective Student:

I would like to introduce you to our counseling psychology doctoral (Ph.D.) program at the University of Southern Mississippi in order to assist you with making this very important decision about your future studies. We offer a wide variety of excellent training opportunities in the program and work with students to focus training based on individual goals. At USM we believe strongly in matching the goals of the student with training opportunities. We accept students at both the post-bachelor’s and post-master’s levels.

The Counseling Psychology Program has been fully accredited by the American Psychological Association since 1979, with our most site recent visit in 2006. Our program is housed within the Department of Psychology, and students take courses from and have easy access to faculty from Clinical, Experimental, and School Psychology programs. Financial assistance is available for students, which includes full-tuition remission. We espouse a scientist-practitioner model which essentially means that practice is grounded in scientific knowledge, and research is driven by clinical questions. We offer experiences in diversity issues and you are welcome to review faculty websites for individual multicultural interests.

Our program focuses on four primary areas: counseling, research, supervision, and teaching.  First, we have an in-house clinic with close supervision that offers excellent counseling training opportunities. Students also engage in counseling training at external placement sites (e.g., community mental health centers, hospitals, jails, youth program, counseling center) in order to enhance their experiences that fit their interests. We have found that fitting student interests with relevant placement sites increases their chances of obtaining an internship of their choice. By the way, our internship placement rate ranks above the national average and many of our students have been placed in some of the best sites available in the country.

Second, we are very proud of the fact that the program was recently ranked in the top 20 by two independent research studies. We have faculty conducting research in a wide variety of areas that are described on other parts of our website. These research interests incorporate both quantitative and qualitative designs, and we look for students whose interests match those of faculty. We have found that students are much happier when they find a faculty mentor who shares their interests.

Third, doctoral students have the opportunity to supervise master’s level students, and we offer coursework in supervision. Additionally, the program faculty offers excellent supervision experiences. Fourth, each student will have the opportunity to teach at least one course, a feature of the program not offered by many other programs. Overall, our graduates frequently inform us that they received excellent training while in the program and believe their skills are competitive with anyone in the country.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the program, at m.leach@usm.edu, or (601) 266-4543. If you’d like to speak to current students in our program I can arrange that easily. I wish you the best of luck with your career goals and hope that you will consider USM for your doctoral training.

Sincerely,