UMass Boston

We review applications comprehensively—looking across all aspects of the application for each applicant rather than having specific cutoff criteria in any one particular area. We no longer accept GRE scores as part of our admissions criteria.

Applicants must meet general graduate admission requirements in addition to the following program-specific requirements:

• Prerequisites. A minimum of 6 courses in psychology or a closely related social science field. A course in statistics is required before students enroll in our program, but it is not required at the time of application.
• Background. Highly qualified applicants who have a demonstrated commitment to a career serving the needs of minority and urban populations will be given priority. In keeping with the mission of the university and the particular emphases in the program, individuals from diverse racial, ethnic, and minority backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Research Fit. An important criterion for admission to the clinical psychology program is the fit between student clinical and research interests and the interests of the program’s faculty. We require each applicant to list the faculty research mentors whose team(s) they want to be considered for based on shared research interests. The research mentor works closely with the student, helping to plan course work and select practicum opportunities as well as guiding the student’s research training.
• Essay. Please provide an essay of about 1,000 words. The primary purpose of this essay is to introduce yourself, your passions, your interests, and your career objectives. Remember that we will be reviewing your CV, so there is no need to duplicate the information you present there. Instead of telling us what you have done, use this essay to tell us about you, why you have done what you have done, how it has affected you, and how it relates to what you are hoping to do in our program and beyond. This is an opportunity to tell us your story. In addition, the essay should:
  • Describe your personal, academic, and professional experiences and strengths that have led to your interest in clinical psychology and have prepared you for the challenges of graduate school and a career in clinical psychology.
  • Describe your interest in clinical psychology and how the UMass Boston Clinical Psychology Program, specifically, will contribute to advancing your academic, career, and personal goals.
  • Describe the research that you are interested in pursuing as a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Program at UMass Boston.
• Curriculim Vitae (CV). Please provide as part of your application.
• Letters of Recommendation. You will also be asked to provide three letters of recommendation within the GradCAS portal.
• Supplemental Information. You will also be asked to provide the following supplemental information in the GradCAS portal:
  • A list of all undergraduate psychology courses and any graduate psychology courses that you have taken at any time, the institutions at which you took them, and the grades you received for each course.
  • A grade point average for your undergraduate psychology courses (and only these courses).
  • Course name and grade of any statistics class that you have taken, as well as the institution, semester, and year you took it. (You will still be considered even if you have not taken a statistics class. This question is to help us track who will need to take a statistics class before matriculation.)
  • A 2-3 sentence summary of your research and clinical interests.
  • The name(s) of the faculty member(s) with whom you would like to work and a sentence or two describing your interest and match for the specific faculty member. Visit our faculty mentors page for an updated list of faculty mentors and their interests.
  • Agreement with our ethics policy related to trainees who experience conflicts working with diverse clients (you must agree to our policy for your application to be reviewed further).
  • Any notes or comments to the committee to expand or explain any aspect of your application that needs clarification.

Interview Policy

The Clinical Psychology Program receives approximately 600 applications a year. From this applicant pool, we undertake an extensive review of applications and invite approximately 40 finalists for a day-long campus visit and interviews.

The Admissions Committee schedules interviews for all finalists once all applications have been reviewed. Interviews are an important part of the application process. Interviews are usually held in February, and applicants are notified of an invitation to interview in late January or early February.

Unfortunately, due to the size of our applicant pool, our policy is that clinical faculty do not conduct interviews with applicants who have not undergone our review process and have not been invited for an interview. We appreciate your interest in our program.

*Interviews will be held on Friday, February 14, 2025 and Monday, February 24, 2025. 

Students are admitted to the Clinical Psychology Program to work toward the PhD degree only; the program does not offer a terminal master's degree. Applications are due in the Graduate Admissions Office by December 1 for enrollment the following September. There are no spring semester admissions in the Clinical Psychology Program. The program expects to admit six to eight students each year.

Application Fee: The nonrefundable application fee is $75. UMass Boston alumni and current students that plan to complete degree requirements prior to graduate enrollment can submit the application without paying the application fee.

Program Cost Information: See Bursar's website. Traditionally, we have been able to waive tuition and provide a stipend for students through at least the first four years and, for most, the duration of their on-campus years.

Core Courses (33 Credits)

• PSYCLN 601 - Assessment and Testing I 4 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 610 - Culture and Mental Health ;3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 613 - Lifespan Psychopathology 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 620 - Intervention Strategies 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 641 - Cognitive and Affective Bases of Behavior: Life Span Development I 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 642 - Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior: Life Span Development II 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 650 - Clinical Psychology Proseminar I 1 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 651 - Clinical Psychology Proseminar II 1 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 660 - Physiological Psychology 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 670 - Advanced Statistics 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 675 - Research Methods and Ethics in Clinical Psychology 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 680 - History and Systems 3 Credit(s)

Required Practicum Courses (24 Credits)

• PSYCLN 785 - Practicum and Ethics I 6 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 786 - Practicum and Ethics II 6 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 787 - Practicum III& 6 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 788 - Practicum IV 6 Credit(s)

Elective Practicum Courses and Training (4 or More Credits)

• PSYCLN 690 - Introduction to Clinical Outreach and Intervention Practicum 2-3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 692 - Clinical Research Practicum II 1 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 781 - Assessment Practicum I 1-4 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 782 - Assessment Practicum II 1-4 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 783 - Advanced Clinical Research Practicum I 1 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 784 - Advanced Clinical Research Practicum II 1 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 791 - Advanced Clinical Outreach, Intervention, and Consultation Practicum I 1-4 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 792 - Advanced Clinical Outreach, Intervention, and Consultation Practicum II 1-4 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 893 - Advanced Community Practicum I 1 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 894 - Advanced Community Practicum II 1 Credit(s)

Master's Research Courses (6 Credits)

• PSYCLN 698 - Master's Research 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 699 - Master's Research Seminar 3 Credit(s)

Teaching Seminar (3 Credits)

• PSYCLN 891 - Teaching Seminar 3 Credit(s)

Elective Distribution Courses (12 Credits)

Complete four courses.

One course from must be taken from each of the four groups below.

Students may also enroll in additional non-required courses offered through other UMass Boston departments (e.g. language, psychotherapy, statistics, etc.) that may enhance their professional development.

Group 1: Therapy Approaches

• PSYCLN 721 - Child Therapy 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 726 - Cognitive Behavioral Theory and Therapy 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 727 - Emotion-Focused Psychotherapy 3 Credit(s)

Group 2: Assessment

• PSYCLN 701 - Neuropsychological Assessment 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 710 - Child Assessment 3 Credit(s)

Group 3: Advanced Methods and Analysis

• PSYCLN 770 - Advanced Statistics II - Latent Variable Modeling 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 775 - Qualitative Methods in Clinical Psychology 3 Credit(s)

Group 4: Diversity

• PSYCLN 745- Psychology and Activism for Social Justice 3 Credit(s)
• PSYCLN 879 - Advanced Community Psychology 3 Credit(s)

For more information on curriculum, including course descriptions and degree requirements, visit the Academic Catalog.

Complete a minimum of 82 credits from at least 22 courses including twelve core courses, four required practicum courses, four elective practicum credits, two Master’s research courses, one teaching seminar, and four elective distribution courses.

The program requires a minimum of five years of full-time graduate study that includes three years of residency at UMass Boston, and the completion of an APA accredited internship prior to awarding the doctoral degree. Students are required to complete all coursework and to have completed their dissertation proposal prior to applying for an APA accredited internship.

Doctoral candidacy: Passage of a written qualifying exam.
Master’s thesis: Complete an empirical master’s thesis. May be waived if successfully completed at another university.
Dissertation: Compose and defend an empirical dissertation.
Teaching experience: Students must teach in their fourth year of study.
Practica: Students must complete two year-long, part-time practica in their second and third year of study.
Internship: Students must complete a one-year, full-time APA accredited internship.

Statute of limitations: Eight years.

Brooke Craveiro, Assistant Director
clinical.program@umb.edu
(617)287-6340

The Clinical Psychology PhD Program at UMass Boston uses a clinical research apprenticeship model. Each first-year graduate student apprentices with a clinical faculty member who will serve as research mentor and advisor to the graduate student.

The following faculty members are interested in accepting one or more new students for fall 2025 admissions.

• Tahirah Abdullah, PhD
• Evan Auguste, PhD
• Abbey Eisenhower, PhD
• Sarah Hayes-Skelton, PhD
• Roberto Renteria, PhD
• Jean Rhodes, PhD

Other Clinical Psychology Faculty Members who are not accepting students for fall 2025.

• Devin Atallah, PhD
• Alice Carter, PhD
• Susanna Gallor, PhD
• Heidi Levitt, PhD
• Paul Nestor, PhD
• David Pantalone, PhD
• Lizabeth Roemer, PhD
• Tracey Rogers, PhD
• Karen Suyemoto, PhD
• Laurel Wainwright, PhD

Tahirah Abdullah, PhD
I am looking forward to working with a student with overlapping research interests who can thrive in and contribute to a collaborative environment, is able to think critically and creatively, is organized and ready to participate in moving projects forward, and is committed to social justice.

The overarching goal of my research program is to improve mental health and mental health services for Black Americans (including people in the U.S. of African, African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latine descent). This goal is rooted in the recognition that Black Americans are not a monolithic group and many cultural factors may bear on mental health outcomes and the effectiveness of standard interventions. My current research is focused on better understanding (1) Black Americans' mental health treatment experiences, help-seeking experiences, and related experiences and outcomes, and (2) the impact of racism on mental health and factors that may mitigate that impact for Black Americans.

Mental Health Treatment and Help-Seeking Experiences
One of my primary research interests is gaining a more complete understanding of Black Americans' mental health treatment experiences in an effort to improve them. My team and my collaborator, Dr. Jessica LoPresti (Suffolk University), conducted a qualitative study to better understand the therapy experiences of Black Americans who discontinued therapy after 1 or 2 sessions, as well as those who remained in therapy for 9 or more sessions. We have analyzed this data and are in the process of writing up our findings from this study.

We are beginning the data collection process for a new online survey study that uses mixed methods to examine the beliefs Black Americans hold about mental health and therapy, examine the role of structural, historical, and cultural factors in help-seeking, and determine what circumstances elicit mental health help-seeking from formal and informal sources.

Racism and Mental Health
An additional research focus is on racism and mental health among Black Americans. I am particularly interested in resistance against racism and how working to undermine racism on interpersonal and structural levels may mitigate the detrimental impact of racism on mental health. Dr. Karen Suyemoto (UMass Boston) and I, asking with our respective research teams, developed the REAR, a measure of Resistance and Empowerment Against Racism. We are now collecting data for studies to further assess the validity of the measure and examine in more nuanced ways the connection between racism and mental health, the connection between resistance and empowerment in response to racism and mental health, and other factors that may impact both of those connections.

You can read more about my research team and our work on our website: www.blackmhadvocacyandresearch.com.

Evan Auguste, PhD
This lab focuses on addressing the mental health consequences of structural anti-Blackness through the lens of Black liberation psychology. Currently, our research involves community participatory, qualitative, and quantitative methods to examine the effects of disparate exposure to justice-contact for Black adolescents and intergenerational traumas for Haitian people. We also focus on developing and piloting anti­carceral and community based health interventions, such as the Association of Black Psychologists' Sawubona Healing Circles to promote healing from an African-centered framework. Our advocacy involves connecting with local, national, and international coalitions to promote policy and community change.

An incoming student would have a key role in co-constructing the culture of this new lab. I am looking for students eager to work at the intersections of Black psychology and law. The following projects are currently active and available should a student desire to use the data for a master's thesis:

The Sawubona Healing Circle Study:
The Sawubona Healing Virtual Circle Study, funded by SAMHSA, is a longitudinal assessment of the efficacy of The Association of Black Psychologists Inc’s Sawubona Healing Circles. This study is a collaboration with Drs. Angela Haeny and Chyrell Bellamy at Yale School of Medicine and The Association of Black Psychologists Inc (ABPsi). In 2020, The Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) drew attention to how the history of racism in the U.S. had created and exacerbated extant medical racial inequities to the detriment of Black people. In consultation with the Black Family Summit, ABPsi developed a pilot investigation, the Sawubona Healing Circle (SHC) initiative, which are culturally-grounding healing circles to support Black first responders. Since then, the groups have been expanded to offer support broadly within the Black-identifying African diaspora. The use of African terms and concepts from various African ethnic groups can be especially beneficial for strengthening a sense of pan-African ethnic identity among Black people making the Sawubona Healing Circle a candidate as an adjunctive support for Black people seeking treatment for mental health or substance use challenges; however, limited quantitative and preliminary qualitative data exists on the feasibility and acceptability of the Sawubona Healing Circle among Black people with mental health problems or substance use disorders. For more info on the Sawubona Healing Circles: https://abpsi.org/programs/sawubona/

The Haitian Well-Being Study:
The Haitian Well-Being Study is a multi-site collaboration with Dr. Judite Blanc at the University of Miami and Dr. Ernest Barthelemy at SUNY Downstate. The study aims to advance empirical knowledge on Haitian psychosocial, physiological, and cultural well-being. This mixed-method, longitudinal study includes the assessment of physiological determinants of health, encounters with vicarious and lived trauma, mental health sequelae, and sociocultural variables (such as ethnic and racial identity, spirituality, and Africultural coping). Further, this study will result in the construction and validation of a novel measure of Anti-Haitian discrimination, which takes into account the transnational and dynamic nature of anti-Blackness. Participants include Haitians on the island and in the diaspora, with a key focus on those who have recently migrated. For more info on the Haitian Well-Being Study: https://drjuditeblanc.com/the-haitian-study

Black Consciousness Project:
A collaboration with the Black Consciousness Collective. Developing theory on collective Black consciousness (involves qualitative and archival methods, later quantitative methods), assessing the development of this construct in adolescents in distinct contexts (community and justice-involved; involved qualitative and quantitative methods). This will evolve into the MT-SIDE project which examines the effect of state contact on Black consciousness.

Intergenerational Haitian Traumas Project:
A collaboration with a working group extended from the UN’s permanent forum for people of African descent. CBPAR project assessing the psychological legacies of Haiti’s history of occupation, exploitation, and violence within Haitian families. During the next academic year, the first arm (the Elders project) will be completed, and we will be actively engaging in community events/interviews.

Decarcerating Care Program Evaluation:
Collaboration with the Institute for the Development of Human Arts assessing the effects of their programing on alternative methods to psychological care on clinicians and community members through qualitative and quantitative assessment. By the next academic year, interviews will either be nearing completion or fully completed, and data analysis will be beginning.

Abbey Eisenhower, PhD 
Our research team shares interests in the early childhood and school experiences, family factors, and relationships of autistic children* and other children during childhood and adolescence. We employ a neurodiversity-affirming lens to understanding autism and prioritize centering the first-person perspectives of autistic students and adults. Our projects aim to equip teachers to support their autistic students in the classroom and to uplift the views of autistic students and adults. As a team, we explore what it means to do autism-focused research in a neuronormative context where the vast majority of researchers are non-autistic. I am looking for a student who wants to be part of shifting this paradigm even while working within existing systems, and who is interested in actively grappling with their own positionality when working in a disability space. An incoming student would likely complete a master's thesis based on one of the below projects. Team members also collaborate with one another on projects, mentor undergraduates, and contribute to the below studies in clinical, consultative, and research roles.

The Smooth Sailing Study. Our team has a strong interest in offering trainings to educators that are neurodiversity-affirming and that focus on building positive relationships with neurodivergent students. With a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, we are conducting a randomized, controlled trial (RCT) of our Smooth Sailing program, a professional development program on autism for elementary teachers developed with Dr. Jan Blacher at University of California Riverside. In this multi-site collaboration with Dr. Blacher, Dr. Narmene Hamsho (Fairleigh-Dickinson University) and others, on a team of non-autistic and autistic collaborators, we are implementing and evaluating this professional development (PD) program with 120-150 teachers in the coming years. We are also developing a neurodiversity-affirming training on autism for preschool and child-care educators, which will be offered to Boston-area early childhood educators with support from the Deborah Munroe Noonan Foundation. Unfortunately, one in six autistic children are expelled from child-care or preschool settings; autism-affirming teachers and strong child-teacher relationships may reduce this risk of expulsion and related outcomes.

Grad students serve as coaches to teachers in these PD programs and help with recruitment, grant writing, program delivery, and developing training materials. Students can also examine our qualitative and quantitative data around children’s school experiences over time and the autism-related perceptions, needs, and strategies of educators. Student projects can also involve our already-collected longitudinal data on autistic children's school adjustment or our mixed methods data from consultation, focus groups, surveys, coaching sessions, and qualitative interviews with teachers, parents, and current and former autistic students.

The School Experiences Study, funded by a UMB Public Service Grant, is a qualitative interview study with autistic adolescents and adults regarding their school experiences, interactions with teachers and peers, and their identities as autistic students. Conducted in partnership with former grad student Sarah Levinson, Professor Shana Cohen at UCSD, and other non-autistic and autistic collaborators, our grounded theory-informed qualitative analysis has highlighted student-teacher relationships as affirming, empowering forces or ableist, exclusionary forces; the importance of intersectionality between students' autistic identities and other identities; and interactions between students' mental health needs and school-based discipline practices. These findings inform our development of training resources for teachers.

With a team of autistic and non-autistic collaborators, led by Nicole Nadwodny, this study has expanded in 2023-2024. In this student-led and collaborator-led effort, the team conducted additional interviews around questions of self-advocacy and is in the process of disseminating our findings around the school experiences of autistic adolescents and adults. Autistic and non-autistic team members, including non-researchers, engage jointly in qualitative data analysis and interpretation. Team members are now presenting this community participatory research model at multiple professional conferences, as an example to other research teams of centering autistic and neurodivergent perspectives in research.

The ABCD Early Screening Project, a collaboration with Dr. Alice Carter and others, is a now-completed, NIMH- and HRSA-funded study in which we implemented a multi-stage, early screening protocol with three local Early Intervention (El) agencies to address disparities in identification and service access for children of color, English learners, and children with low socioeconomic resources. The project originally emerged from UMB alum Frances Martinez Pedraza's dissertation and expanded to include 2300+ children and over 500 developmental evaluations. Student projects in this rich, longitudinal dataset can examine questions around service access, parent-provider interactions, disparities, parent-child interactions, El- and school-based service experiences, and other areas.

Student Projects
A sampling of current and recent projects my students are conducting is below:

• The social and language development of bilingual versus monolingual Spanish- and English-speaking toddlers diagnosed with autism
• A critical autism studies approach to understanding quality of life and identity among autistic children and adolescents
• The experiences and needs of early childhood educators working with autistic and neurodivergent young children
• Autistic adults' experiences in therapy and mental health services
• A qualitative study of autistic adolescents’ and adults’ views on factors enabling or impeding their self-advocacy in schools
• An examination of autistic students’ Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for content reflecting ableist or affirming messages about autism
• A critical examination of carceral practices in schools and the intersection with ableism and sanism for autistic students
• How student-teacher relationships shape autistic students' school experiences.

*Identity-first language is used to reflect the preferences of many autistic individuals (e.g., Taboas et al., 2022; see Bottema-Beutel et al., 2020 for details).

Sarah Hayes-Skelton, PhD
My primary research involves examining the mechanisms and processes responsible for change in psychotherapy (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapies or acceptance and mindfulness-based therapies) for social and generalized anxiety disorders, in other words, how and why treatments work. I am also currently expanding this work into perinatal anxiety (anxiety during pregnancy and after the birth of a child), with a focus on developing an acceptance-based prevention program for perinatal anxiety. Across my work, I am particularly committed to enhancing the cultural-sensitivity of treatments.

Within this larger interest, there are several types of projects that are in different stages of development:

Perinatal Anxiety Prevention Program
We are developing a prevention program to address perinatal anxiety (or anxiety during pregnancy and during the postpartum period). This program involves acceptance-based strategies and has provided an opportunity for students to be involved with treatment development work.  Along with this prevention program, we also have a questionnaire study examining potential mechanisms of perinatal anxiety. I am particular interested in mentoring a student on a Master’s thesis focused on some part of this perinatal anxiety research.

Treatment and Mechanism Research
Most of the people on our team have an interest in treatment mechanisms. This takes many forms including the use experimental paradigms to examine potential treatment mechanisms in lab-based analogue studies. For example, one student dissertation examined whether self-efficacy and finding personal meaning as predictors of approaching an anxiety-provoking situation.

We have recently completed a treatment study examining mechanisms of change within a standard group CBT for individuals with social anxiety disorder. Within this study, there was a particular focus on the combinations of specific mechanisms and processes of change. Several students have used data from this project for their research. There is the potential for additional projects stemming from this study. For example, the video recordings of sessions could be coded for additional mechanisms of interest. We have also used this study to write about adaptations to enhance the cultural sensitivity of CBTs.

Similarly, we have developed and piloted an acceptance-based behavioral exposure therapy for social anxiety disorder that combines acceptance-based approaches with more traditional exposure exercises. We are currently preparing to run a study comparing this treatment to more traditional cognitive behavior therapy. This study will also provide an avenue for students on our team to learn these two therapies.

Social Anxiety Research
Our team has a particular interest in the development, maintenance, and treatment of social anxiety. In addition to the treatment research described above, our team also has been collecting questionnaire data on structural, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and sociocultural factors that may influence the development of social anxiety. I would also be interested in mentoring a student on a Master’s thesis focused on this kind of social anxiety research.

Student Projects
Students on my research team have recently completed projects on:

• The development of a self-report measure of decentering
• The role of cognitive reappraisal in social anxiety
• Qualitative interviews with clients from our treatment study examining the kinds of experiences clients have following treatment
• A case study of cultural sensitive adaptations to CBT for social anxiety
• Examining trajectories of mindfulness, acceptance, and valued living across therapy for GAD
• Examining levels of social anxiety among individuals self-identifying as a sexual minority
• A vignette study examining trust development across the first session of therapy for clients of color.
• A workshop study to examine the influence of self-compassion training on one’s roommate

I am interested in mentoring a graduate student who has a long-term interest in studying anxiety, perinatal anxiety, and/or psychotherapy or the contextual factors affecting these.  We are a team-oriented lab and so members of the lab mentor and work collaboratively on ongoing projects.

Roberto Renteria, PhD
The overarching aims of my work are to produce research and knowledge that both mitigates existing health disparities and promotes well-being and flourishing among marginalized populations. I draw from intersectional and minority stress theories to examine how multilevel factors (systemic, community, individual) contribute to the onset, development, and exacerbation of a range of health issues (psychological, physical, and substance use) among marginalized populations.

My primary focus is on health among Latiné and sexual and gender minority (SGM) communities yet am interested in research on sexual and gender minority people of color (POC) broadly. I am particularly interested research that challenges assumptions of homogeneity among minoritized groups (Latiné is a vastly heterogeneous population) and seek to identify novel approaches to conceptualizing and measuring intersectionality in psychological research. Finally, I am in the process of establishing collaborations with local partners to develop community-engaged projects that will provide direct benefit to members of these communities. I am especially interested in three related areas:

1. Examine risk factors and mechanisms underlying mental health and substance use among Latiné sexual and gender minority populations
2. Explore the role of group-specific (e.g., identity-related) and general psychological processes (e.g., coping) on health outcomes among SGM POC
3. Engage in community-based collaborations to co-create interventions geared towards promoting health among local Latiné and LGBTQ+ communities

An incoming student would be vital in the co-creation of the identity and culture of this new lab. I am particularly interested in a student committed to social justice advocacy through science and clinical practice, with specific interests in working with Latiné populations. The incoming student will also have direct involvement in the development of new research projects and will be encouraged to integrate their own ideas.

Current research and future directions
Intersectional discrimination and health among Latiné sexual and gender minority
A main area of my research is examining the role of intersectional discrimination (e.g., racism in the LGBTQ+ community) on health among Latiné sexual minority adults. I collected a sample of Latiné LGBTQ+ adults (Bienestar Latiné LGBTQ+ Project) to examine a wide range of risk and protective factors on mental and physical health. A current manuscript under review found evidence that racial/ethnic discrimination and heterosexism within one’s racial/ethnic community were associated with worse depression and physical symptoms. Future studies from this project include exploring the effects of intersectional discrimination on substance use outcomes.

My work has identified relevant risk factors (e.g., intersectional discrimination) and potential mechanisms (e.g., identity conflict) by which minority stress may contribute to worse health. Yet there continues to be a dearth in longitudinal research on Latiné SGM, thus little understanding of how these processes develop over time. This is a crucial barrier to developing effective, culturally-informed interventions. Thus, I plan to conduct a longitudinal study with Latiné LGBTQ+ adults to elucidate the risk and protective factors and mechanisms underlying health and substance use outcomes. This longitudinal study will advance our understanding of intersectional influences on health outcomes and how these processes change over time.

Intersectional discrimination and alcohol use outcomes among bisexual people of color
One of my areas of focus is to elucidate the risk factors and mechanisms underlying health outcomes among bisexual people, especially bisexual people of color given the documented health disparities among this population. During my NIH-funded fellowship, I collaborated with Dr. Brian Feinstein’s research lab to recruit a longitudinal sample of bisexual adults. I am currently analyzing the data to examine the effects of different types of discrimination (bisexual, racial/ethnic, and intersectional) on future alcohol use outcomes and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among bisexual people of color. Additional planned manuscripts will examine the mechanisms underlying these associations (coping and identity conflict) and identity-related protective factors (bisexual and racial/ethnic identity affirmation).

Jean Rhodes, PhD
The Rhodes Lab is focused on the role of both informal and formal mentoring in the lives of marginalized adolescents and young adults. In recent years, we have become particularly interested in strategies that help bridge gaps in mental health and other services. Across various projects and collaborating labs, volunteer and paid mentors are being trained to assume the role of paraprofessionals (i.e., helpers to whom an aspect of a professional task is delegated but who are not licensed to practice as professionals) who deliver appropriate engagement, support, and/or service delivery activities under the supervision of professional mental health providers. We are currently developing a therapeutic mentoring models. The hope is that this will bridge gaps in mental health care.

We are also exploring how mentors can support technology-delivered interventions. The potential of online interventions to offer accessible and low-cost support has been limited by low use and high rates of noncompletion of even the best technology-delivered tools. In the new mentoring models we are exploring, mentors are trained to boost students' engagement by providing them with what behavioral scientists refer to as "supportive accountability"--that is, regular check-ins, monitoring, troubleshooting, and other interactions.

We have developed a Supportive Accountability platform, MentorPRO, and are testing it across multiple contexts from K-12 to higher education. We have several other projects underway. This includes comprehensive meta-analyses of various types of mentoring, analyses of longitudinal data set, and evaluations of youth-initiated mentoring approaches across various schools.

Professor Rhodes works closely with her Associate Director, Dr. Alexandra Werntz to provide research training to her graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, along with funding for assistantships, summer salary, and travel to professional meetings and statistical workshops. Her students' rigorous work has been recognized both within and beyond the university including the Chancellor's Distinguished Dissertation Award and the APA Division 27's Dissertation of the Year Award. Many of her students now hold tenured or tenure-track positions at top national and international universities. We are a grant-supported, research-oriented lab and particularly interested in mentoring graduate students who are obsessed with research, have research experience, and can work independently--but also want to work collaboratively on our ongoing projects!

(Revised Spring 2017)

Accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association since 1993, University of Massachusetts Boston’s (UMass Boston) program in clinical psychology is based on a scientist-practitioner-activist model. The program prepares clinical psychologists who have an excellent foundation in psychological science and can translate their basic knowledge into practical applications to meet the mental health needs of children, adolescents, and adults from diverse sociocultural groups. Graduates of the program have the requisite skills to advance understanding of key human problems through research, scholarly activities, clinical practice, teaching, professional service, advocacy, and activism.

Our clinical psychology training model is biopsychosocial in its scientific orientation, and places special emphasis on the roles of culture and context in understanding the complexities of multiple dimensions of human behavior and functioning. This emphasis includes, but is not limited to, bringing to the study of clinical psychology an understanding of social justice, equity, oppression, systems of privilege and marginalization, procedural and relational justice, and epistemological and methodological marginalization. This includes a commitment to training a diverse workforce of scientist-practitioner-activist clinical psychologists. Among the many skills students learn in our program, we aim to develop within them a lifelong commitment to using clinical psychology to serve the general population and to meet the needs of marginalized individuals and communities by being culturally humble and responsive researchers, mentors, clinicians, supervisors, teachers, leaders, advocates, activists, and community members. The training in our program results from an affirmative commitment by both faculty and students to engage in ongoing personal reflection and reflection upon the practices in our field—to increase our self-awareness and guide thoughtful psychological practice and relevant social justice actions.

Our educational mission is to train scientist-practitioner-activist clinical psychologists who will:

1. Engage in social science research, critical scholarly inquiry, and educational activities including scholarly analysis that specifically address social and structural inequities affecting psychosocial health and functioning, including but not limited to inequities based on social class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, disability, age, language, citizenship, immigration status, and religion.
2. Provide affirming and empowering evidence-based clinical services to people across sociocultural groups and statuses.
3. Serve as leaders, role models, and change-makers to promote social justice within their organizations, the profession of psychology, and other contexts. We aim to foster students’ capacity to serve as advocates and activists.
4. Apply their developed awareness of how the field of clinical psychology is socially situated, reflect critically on the practices and purposes of our field, and understand how it can privilege or marginalize certain identities and lived experiences, treatment and assessment practices, and epistemological and philosophical positions.

To achieve these long term goals for our graduates, we have the following Learning Objectives for their time within our program. Our Learning Objectives line up with the longer term goals for our graduates related to Research (1), Practice (2), and Activism (3) above. The fourth aim above reflects our overall approach to how we approach all aspects of our training. It focuses on applying a reflective practice in critical social justice theory across all aspects of the work. In this way, it does not have specific learning objectives associated with it, but rather it serves as the lens through which we view research, practice, and activism.

Goal 1: To produce graduates who engage in clinical psychology research, critical scholarly inquiry and analysis, and educational activities that specifically address social and structural inequities affecting psychosocial health and functioning.

Objectives for Goal 1:

To provide students with:

• 1.1 Foundational knowledge in the science of psychology with specific attention to training in addressing social and structural inequalities with appropriate conceptual, methodological, and culturally sensitive skills.
• 1.2 The basic skills necessary to become critical consumers of the existing research literature, identifying gaps in the literature and developing the skills to design and implement rigorous research projects.
• 1.3 The skills necessary to evaluate research critically in relation to issues of contextual and cultural diversity and to design and conduct research that helps advance the field in understanding and attending to these issues.

Goal 2: To produce graduates who are knowledgeable about and skilled at providing affirming and empowering evidence-based clinical services to people across sociocultural groups and statuses.

Objectives for Goal 2:

To provide students with:

• 2.1. Didactic and clinical training needed to become proficient in testing and assessment theory and practice that is both informed by scientific knowledge and is culturally responsive.
• 2.2 Didactic and clinical training needed to become proficient in a continuum of intervention skills in a manner that is culturally informed and responsive, guided by scientific knowledge, and that considers individual assessment performance in the context of developmental and broader systemic factors.
• 2.3 Introductory level knowledge of competencies in supervision and consultation skills, through exposure to the literature on best practices supervision.
• 2.4 Didactic knowledge and skills to understand, recognize, and address the contextual factors, positionality, and power dynamics inherent in co-constructed therapeutic relationships and embedded in clinical settings.

Goal 3: To produce graduates who have the awareness, knowledge, and skills to serve as leaders, role models, and change-makers to promote social justice within their organizations, the profession of psychology, and other contexts. We aim to foster students’ capacity to serve as advocates and activists.

Objectives for Goal 3:

To provide students with:

• 3.1 Didactic experiences to provide foundational awareness, knowledge, and skills to engage in activism within clinical practice and research activities.
• 3.2 Training aimed at fostering growth to apply activist-informed awareness, knowledge, and skills across professional contexts.

Our program coursework and training experiences emphasize:

• A biopsychosocial approach. Students learn to conceptualize and treat problems in living by considering not only problem behavior and mental disorders but also by considering the person within their physical, psychological, developmental, and social contexts. Research training gives students skills for analyzing problems from a variety of theoretical perspectives.
• Assessment and psychotherapy skills. The program trains students in a broad range of assessment and intervention skills that enable them to promote healthy adaptation, prevent the development of individual and social problems, and treat problem behavior and mental disorders. We teach students to critically reflect upon our field's use of assessments and clinical approaches and guide students to utilize or create culturally responsive, equitable approaches to serve all their clients.
• Sociocultural context. Within a broad understanding of sociocultural factors, our coursework highlights systemic oppression and privilege, power dynamics, and social and cultural approaches to clinical psychology. We emphasize the ways in which these factors affect individual development across the lifespan, relational interactions, and social groups and dynamics for all people-with a particular emphasis on how marginalized and disadvantaged individuals and groups are impacted. As a foundation for developing this understanding, and the ability to apply it to psychological activities, students reflect upon their own personal cultural situations and positionalities to better understand the experiences of others. They examine and develop skills regarding how to best advocate for their professional values in diverse and complex settings.
• Developmental phenomena in typical and atypical pathways. In our program, students learn about the range of lifespan developmental trajectories from infancy through adulthood. This focus helps to elucidate the ways in which relationships and other environmental factors can support or hinder adaptive or maladaptive development, with the recognition that behaviors which are adaptive in one context may be maladaptive in another. Consistent with our biopsychosocial orientation, students embrace the complexity of developmental processes by taking into consideration the dynamic and transactional interplay of physiological, genetic, social, cognitive, emotional, and cultural influences across time.
• Skills toward practice. Students have the opportunity to take coursework and engage in supervised pre-doctoral clinical training experiences that can be used towards attaining licensure in Massachusetts and many other states.

Policy Statement for Clinical Training

Program Policies Related to Trainees Who Experience Conflicts Working with Diverse Clients (Adapted from the Sample APA Policy Recommendations) (see Handbook)

As articulated in our program policy statement, we are committed to a training process that ensures that graduate students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to work effectively with members of the public who embody intersecting demographics, attitudes, beliefs, and values. In our Counseling Center practica and in the training we provide in our other on- and off-campus practicum courses we are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our community. Consistent with this principle, the Counseling Center policy and our policy for on campus practicum experiences require that trainers and trainees do not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or socioeconomic status in the services provided at the training clinic or practicum site.

In some cases, tensions may arise for a student due to differences in beliefs or values with clients. Because the students will have to navigate these sorts of clinical situations in their future practice careers, the program has a responsibility to prepare students to do so in a safe and ethical manner. The program will respectfully work with students as they learn how to effectively practice with a broad range of clients. Thus, students should expect to be assigned clients that may present challenges for them at some point in training.

If trainees do not feel comfortable or capable of providing competent services to a client because it conflicts with the trainee's beliefs or values, it is the trainee's responsibility to bring this issue to the attention of his/her supervisor. Because client welfare and safety are always the first priority, decisions about client assignment and reassignment are the responsibility of the faculty/supervisors.

Other Policies

You may view our mental health policy as well as our other policies in the clinical handbook.