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Home Counseling, Educational Psychology & Research Counseling Psychology Prospective Students

Counseling Psychology Prospective Students

Students and Faculty

Welcome Prospective Students!

We are delighted that you are interested in learning more about the APA-accredited doctoral program in Counseling Psychology (CPSY) in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Research at the University of Memphis (UofM).

There are several unique features of our program:

  1. Rather than admitting students specifically to work with individual faculty, the CPSY program uses a cohort model, which means that we admit a class of students who roughly follow the same curriculum. Students are assigned an adviser when they are accepted, but are given the option to change advisers as they progress through the program. Cohorts establish close relationships which can provide support throughout graduate school.
  2. There are many opportunities to collaborate, and students are encouraged to participate in multiple research teams, providing exposure to different research topics and mentoring opportunities.
  3. We offer a unique dissertation format option, where students develop a manuscript-length dissertation that will be submitted for journal consideration after the student's defense.
  4. Most of our students enter with a masters degree, which allows them the possibility of completing all coursework in three years. Lastly, our students complete practica in a very wide variety of placements including counseling centers, neurological assessment centers, veteran's affairs sites, community agencies, inpatient and intensive outpatient eating disorder clinics and hospitals.

The CPSY program has six core faculty members: Ashley Batastini, Sara Bridges, Sue Lease, Richard Lightsey, Rosie Phillips Davis, and Chrisann Schiro-Geist. We pride ourselves on our faculty's involvement in our students' success. We also value and embrace our faculty's diverse research interests, including assessment, sexuality, international issues, race/ethnicity, microaggressions, resilience, disability, and incarcerated populations.

We are extremely proud of our focus on multicultural and social justice. We strive to weave these principles in to all training experiences in our program (i.e., coursework, practica, and research). We offer several elective courses that highlight our focus on diversity (e.g., Counseling with Transgender Individuals, Counseling Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Individuals, Gender Issues in Counseling, Social Justice in Counseling and Counseling Psychology-I, Social Justice in Counseling and Counseling Psychology-II, Health Psychology with Diverse Populations). Further, many of our students are heavily involved in the Diversity Committee. In addition, our faculty hold multiculturalism and diversity as a core value in their research and service activities.

Memphis is a robust city in west Tennessee. It is the second largest city in the state with a metropolitan population of more than 1.3 million people. Memphis has numerous museums (e.g., the National Civil Rights Museum, Stax Museum, the Pink Palace Museum, the Brooks Museum) and social attractions (e.g., Graceland, the Memphis Zoo, Beale St., the Pyramid, the Greater Memphis Greenline, Shelby Farms Park). Memphis is famous for its BBQ and music. Memphis is also home to Fed-Ex and the world-renowned St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Please feel free to further peruse our website. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me and/or reach out to any of our faculty members.

Sincerely,

Sara K Bridges

Sara K. Bridges, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Co-Training Director, The University of Memphis