Voices of the Five Doctoral Training Councils in Psychology: Seeking Common Ground on Combined-Integrated Training in Psychology

Doctoral training programs in psychology are accredited by the American Psychological Association in four areas: Clinical, Counseling, School, and Combined-Integrated (C-I) psychology. Each area of doctoral preparation in psychology has its own council, which represents its interests within the field and to external constituents. Despite the fact that Combined-Integrated training programs have existed since the mid-1970s, the Consortium representing this area\u27s interests only formed in the past two years. The purpose of this article was to obtain input from representatives of all five training councils regarding the role of the newly formed council in relation to the other councils and the role of Combined-Integrated training. We begin with a brief description of each of the five councils. We then summarize the representatives\u27 responses to narrative questions regarding advantages and disadvantages associated with meeting to discuss the combined model. Finally, common and divergent themes across the councils in training psychologists are presented, and the future role for Combined-Integrated programs is discussed

Back to Our Future? The Consensus Conference and Combined-Integrated Model of Doctoral Training in Professional Psychology

Is it possible and advisable for the profession of psychology to articulate and endorse a common, generalist, and integrative framework for the education and training of its students? At the Consensus Conference on Combined and Integrated Doctoral Training in Psychology, held at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA (USA), May 2 to 4, 2003, participants from across the spectrum of education and training in professional psychology ultimately answered “yes.” This article, the first in this special series on the Consensus Conference and Combined-Integrated (C-I) model of doctoral training in professional psychology, essentially provides an overview of the conference rationale, participants, goals, proceedings, and results. Because the other 12 articles in this series all reference the Consensus Conference and C-I model, this overview provides a good starting point for understanding what occurred at the conference, what it means to educate and train from a C-I perspective, and what the potential implications of such a model might be for the profession of psychology