The PhD in Clinical Psychology is a 98-credit hour, five-year program designed to prepare students for licensure as clinical psychologists and for careers in clinical practice, research, and academia. Grounded in the scientist-practitioner model, the program integrates rigorous academic coursework, supervised clinical training, and mentored research experiences.

Students complete 82 credit hours of didactic coursework, 12 credit hours of clinical practicum, and a minimum of 4 credit hours of dissertation research. Clinical training begins in the second year with placements in the SBHS teaching clinic and expands to diverse outpatient and inpatient settings across UTHealth Houston and affiliated institutions. In the final year, students complete a full-time, American Psychological Association (APA) accredited or APPIC-member internship.

The curriculum is designed to meet the APA’s Standards of Accreditation and includes training in evidence-based assessment and intervention, ethics, cultural competence, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Students also engage in faculty-mentored research, contribute to scholarly publications, and complete a dissertation that advances the field of clinical psychology.

Graduates will be eligible for licensure in Texas and equipped to serve in a variety of healthcare, academic, and community settings. The program addresses the critical shortage of mental health professionals in Texas and aims to produce health service psychologists who are both clinically skilled and research-informed.

The PhD in Clinical Psychology is not yet accredited by the APA Commission on Accreditation. Any questions about accreditation status may be addressed to:

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st St. NE, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 336-5979
Email: apaaccred@apa.org

Admission requirements and required prerequisite courses for the PhD in Clinical Psychology include:

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution of higher education
  • If bachelor's degree is in Psychology, no additional prerequisites will be required
  • If the bachelor’s degree does not include a major in Psychology, 18 SCH in the following areas must be demonstrated:
    • Introduction to Psychology (3 SCH),
    • Experimental Methodology (3 SCH),
    • Social Psychology (3 SCH),
    • Theories of Personality (3 SCH),
    • Developmental Psychology (3 SCH), and
    • Abnormal Psychology (3 SCH).
• Students with international college transcripts must submit a course-by-course evaluation report by either World Education Services (WES) or Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE). Final transcript credential evaluation results must be submitted with the application through PSYCAS.  

• The program will use a holistic approach when reviewing applications, with the following components:
  • Preference will be given to applicants with prerequisites completed and an undergraduate overall GPA of 3.5 or higher.
  • Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) results are requested but will be weighed in the context of the totality of the application and will not serve as a stand-alone measure of potential success in a graduate program.
  • A statement (500-1,000 words) of research objectives, to include a description of the following:
    • Why the applicant wants to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology within SBHS
    • The areas of research of interest to the applicant
    • How the applicant has prepared for graduate study and research activities
    • Specific SBHS faculty members the applicant would like to work with while pursuing the PhD in Clinical Psychology PhD 
  • A statement of interest in the program, to include a description of how the program fits with the applicant’s long-term career goals as well as a description of how the applicant hopes to contribute to the Behavioral Sciences community and to the field of psychology as a whole; this should not be a repeat of the applicant’s statement of research objectives.
  • Three professional letters of recommendation from academic faculty and/or work supervisors who are in a position to evaluate the applicant’s qualifications for graduate study.