Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology is a subfield of clinical psychology and a specialty in professional psychology that develops and applies scientific knowledge to the assessment, prevention and treatment of mental health problems in children and adolescents within their social context. The specialty in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology focuses on the understanding of the basic psychological needs of infants, toddlers, children and adolescents; influence of the family and other social and historical contexts on the psychosocial adjustment, cognitive development, behavioral adaptation and health status; and delivery of psychological services to children and adolescents.
Along with the increased awareness regarding the long-term adverse effects of child mental health problems for individuals, families and societies; training of professionals specialized in this field became an issue of significant importance.
Being the first of its kind in Turkey, TEDU’s “Developmental Focused Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology MSc Program (DF-CCAP)” aims to train highly-qualified professionals to work in academic or applied settings related to the field of clinical child and adolescent psychology. The program adopts a multidisciplinary framework bringing together clinical, developmental and family psychology. Being basically grounded on the discipline of clinical psychology, the program provides our students specific and extensive knowledge and skills related to child and adolescent mental health. Its “developmental focus” enriches the program by incorporating scientific knowledge, methodology and perspectives from developmental science. And the family psychology component complements it by presenting the context in which childhood mental health and disorders can be understood, and prevention, intervention and treatment efforts are realized.
The program is developed:
- on the basis of Scientist-Practitioner Model (Boulder Model) which is a training model for graduate programs that aspires to train students not only as “scientists” producing knowledge, but also as “practitioners” who are able to transfer this scientific knowledge into their applied practice. The curriculum based on this model covers theoretical and practical courses supervision and internships; as well as courses on scientific methodology and research.
- in accordance with the requirements of EuroPsy Specialist Certificate in Psychology. EuroPsy is a European standard of education and professional training in psychology set by the European Federation of Psychologists’ (EFPA) to demonstrate the achievement of a basic level of competence and expertise in practice of psychotherapy.
- as being compatible with the TEDU Quality Assurance System, which provides the students with the opportunity deepen their knowledge and skills in specific areas by taking elective courses. The students in MSc Program can either follow one of two tracks presented below or combine courses from both of them in terms of their professional and academic goals.
Family Track:
- PSY 526 Parent-Child Relationships
- PSY 547 Play Therapy
- PSY 549 Family Crises and Trauma
- PSY 550 Family Systems: A Developmental Perspective
- PSY 551 Application of Learning Theories to Clinical Practice with Children and Families
- PSY 552 Family Therapy
- PSY 554 Case Formulation in Child, Adolescent and Family Therapy
- PSY 556 Adolescence and Psychopathology
- PSY 544 Clinical Supervision II
Developmental Psychology Track:
- PSY 504 Research Colloquium
- PSY 522 Advanced Cognitive Development
- PSY 524 Development, Family & Culture
- PSY 525 Developmental Research: New Methods & Designs
Program Outcomes
TEDU Developmental Focused Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology MSc Program Graduates will be able to:
- recognize the context, process and characteristics of the normal development in children and adolescents.
- differentiate the characteristics of normal development from that of abnormal/atypical development
- explain and analyze mental health problems and psychopathology of children and adolescents within a developmental framework
- apply clinical assessment techniques directed to children and adolescents
- apply basic clinical interview principles and skills when working with children, adolescents and their families.
- provide psychotherapy to children and adolescents
- follow scientific developments in the field of clinical child and adolescents psychology
- design and conduct longitudinal and qualified scientific research with a developmental focus in the field of clinical child and adolescent psychology.
- present the results of a scientific research to the national and international audience
- take professional and ethical responsibility while conducting research and doing practice work
- engage in lifelong learning