Doctoral Program

Program Description

You are strongly encouraged you to reach out to a potential supervisor from our list of Faculty Staff to discuss your application in advance of applying to the Doctoral program.

Counselling Psychology is a helping profession devoted to preventing, remediating and ameliorating emotional, cognitive, behavioural, and interpersonal difficulties as well as enhancing human potential and quality of life. These aims are achieved through the integration of science with practice and the development of awareness and skills to work with diverse populations from individual, social and organizational perspectives.

The Doctoral Program in Counselling Psychology is based on the scientist-practitioner model and is dedicated to training leaders of the profession through pursuing disciplined inquiry, understanding and respecting human diversity, and developing, using and evaluating effective counselling practices. Scientist-practitioners engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research while routinely monitoring their own counselling effectiveness. The objectives of the Doctoral program are: (1) the scientific development of knowledge in counselling psychology; (2) the scientific application of psychological knowledge to counselling practice; (3) the promotion of ethical behavior; and (4) the understanding of and respect for human diversity. These objectives are accomplished via research, coursework, and supervised practice. The program operates from an integrative theoretical orientation whereby students are exposed to a wide variety of counselling approaches.

The Doctoral Program in Counselling Psychology at the University of Alberta has been accredited by the Canadian Psychological Association since 2001.

Entrance Requirements

Students applying to the Doctoral Program in Counselling Psychology must have:

1. obtained a four-year baccalaureate degree in psychology or education,
2. obtained a Master's degree in Counselling Psychology (preference will be given to applicants who have successfully completed a Master's thesis),
3. successful completion of at least one half-year graduate course, or a two-semester (or two one-semester) senior undergraduate course in:
   • Biological bases of behaviour (e.g., physiological psychology, comparative psychology, neuropsychology, psychopharmacology)
   • Cognitive-affective bases of behaviour (e.g., learning, sensation, perception, cognition, thinking, motivation, emotion)
   • Social bases of behaviour (e.g., social psychology; cultural, ethnic, and group processes; sex roles; organizational and systems theory)
   • Individual behaviour (e.g., personality theory, human development, individual differences, abnormal psychology)
4. successful completion of at least one half-year graduate course in:
   • scientific and professional ethics and standards
   • research methods
   • systems of counselling
   • statistics
5. acquired graduate training in:
   • psychological assessment
   • test construction and psychological measurement
   • group counselling
   • individual counselling
   • cross-cultural counselling
6. provide three letters of reference; two of which must be from someone knowledgeable about the applicant's scholarly abilities and potential, and one of which must be from someone knowledgeable about the applicant's counselling abilities and potential.
7. provide a Statement of Intent,
8. complete a Supplementary Application form.

Exceptional applicants, on the basis of previous academic record, academic background in area of interest, relevant experience, letters of recommendation, and statement of intent, who do not meet all of criteria 3, 4 or 5 above may be admitted into the Program on the condition that they complete courses to address any deficiencies in addition to the required courses listed below. The additional courses they would have to take would then become co-requisites for their doctoral program.

Please note that the following faculty will be accepting students for the upcoming admissions cycle: Drs. Taymy Caso, Rebecca Hudson-Breen, Noorfarah Merali (open to co-supervising doctoral students only), Phillip Sevigny, Gwendolyn Villebrun, and Sophie Yohani.

Drs. Jessica Van Vliet (on sabbatical) and William Whelton, will NOT be accepting students for the upcoming admissions cycle.

Program Requirements

The program is comprised of (minimum) 6 three-credit courses, one six-credit internship, an oral candidacy exam, and a dissertation.

1. Required Core Courses *18

The Doctoral Program in Counselling Psychology consists of the following courses:
(P) indicates a practicum course

• EDPY 615 Program Evaluation *3
• EDPY 632 History and Systems of Psychology *3
• EDPY 633 Advanced Counselling Practicum I (P) *3
• EDPY 634 Advanced Counselling Practicum II (P) *3
• EDPY 630 Counselling Psychology Internship *6

Students in the Doctoral Program in Counselling Psychology must successfully complete a 1600-hour internship accredited by the Canadian Psychological Association or American Psychological Association. Students must, therefore, participate in the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) matching process (Phases I and II). In order to meet this requirement, students should be prepared to attend an internship beyond the greater Edmonton area. Prior to applying for internship, students must complete all required coursework and their doctoral candidacy exam. Students are encouraged to have at least collected their dissertation data prior to commencing the internship.

Please note that for the practicum courses listed above, considerable time is required in addition to the regularly scheduled lecture and seminar. Further information about practicum requirements will be specified in class.

2. Elective Course Credits * 6

• One Doctoral Research Course *3
• One Graduate Level Option *3

3. Oral Candidacy Exam

4. Dissertation

5. FGPS Ethics Requirement

Students will complete the FGPS Ethics Requirement if not completed in previous graduate program. The Graduate Ethics Training can be found at: https://www.ualberta.ca/graduate-studies/current-students/academic-requirements/ethics

Length of Program

Students are expected to complete a minimum of three academic years of full-time, resident graduate study and one year of internship. The maximum time allowed to complete the program is six years.

The table below describes the applicant pool, acceptance rates, composition, and the average GPA of the students enrolled in the doctoral Counselling program for the past seven years.

• In the past 7 years, 1 student has failed to complete the Doctoral Program in Counselling Psychology
• In the past 7 years, all 40 graduates have successfully become registered psychologists

Breakdown of the applicant pool, acceptance rates, composition, and the average GPA of the students enrolled in the doctoral Counselling program for the past seven years.

		2014-2015	2015-2016	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021
Applicant Pool		11	24	27	21	14	14	14
Gender	female	8	19	19	18	11	10	11
	male	3	5	8	3	3	4	3
Accepted into Program		6	7	7	4	7	5	6
Gender	female	4	5	6	3	5	5	5
	male	2	2	1	1	2	0	1
Age	range	25-35	24-29	26-43	25-41	25-38	25-36	25-43
	average	28	26	33	30	30	32	32
GPA	average	3.6	3.9	3.8	3.9	3.9	3.8	3.9

• In the past 7 years, 1 student has failed to complete the Doctoral Program in Counselling Psychology
• In the past 7 years, all 40 graduates have successfully become registered psychologists