Psychology Program Overview | 2026-27 Academic Catalog

Meridian offers four graduate degrees in Psychology that educate students to work in clinical and/or cultural contexts:

MA in Psychology
MA in Counseling Psychology
PsyD in Clinical Psychology
PhD in Psychology

These degrees provide a cumulative, emergent, and integrated curriculum, empowering the student’s transformation both personally and professionally.

Licensure Eligibility

The PsyD in Clinical Psychology and the PhD in Psychology are designed to meet the educational requirements for the state of California’s Psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT), and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) licenses. MFT and LPCC educational eligibility for the doctorates requires the student to engage in fieldwork that is done in accordance with BBS requirements. Because students entering with Advanced Standing status miss the first year of the program, neither the PhD nor the PsyD earned by advanced standing students meet the educational requirements for the MFT or LPCC.The Master’s in Counseling Psychology is designed to meet the educational requirements for California’s MFT and LPCC licenses.Students living outside of California who wish to earn licensure in their home state (or country) must check with their local psychology boards to determine requirements for licensure in their own locale, as curricula for each of these three California-licensable degrees may not meet various states’ requirements for licensure in clinical psychology, professional clinical counseling, and/or marriage and family therapy. Students who live outside of California are responsible for knowing their applicable state licensure requirements. Also, because requirements do change, students are responsible for remaining aware of current licensure regulations.

Educational Objectives for the MA in Psychology

To develop leadership capacities which further professional engagement with the profession of psychology.
To develop creative inquiry practices and skills.
To identify one’s own culturally constituted, perceptual lenses.
To acquire the knowledge base of Imaginal Psychology and to differentiate it from the major orientations to Psychology.
To develop competencies for bringing principles and practices of transformative learning into cultural contexts.

Educational Objectives for the MA in Counseling Psychology

The Masters in Counseling Psychology builds cumulatively upon the MA curriculum and entails the following elements:

To develop leadership capacities which further professional engagement with the professions of Marriage and Family Therapy and Professional Clinical Counseling.
To identify individual concerns and shadow issues relative to legal and ethical aspects of the helping professions and to apply legal and ethical principles to dilemmas that arise in psychological work involving conflicting values.
To demonstrate the ability to apply psychotherapeutic theories and methods directly related to Marriage and Family Therapy and Professional Clinical Counseling.
To articulate principles of the Recovery Model and client advocacy in public systems of care, as well as the understanding of how poverty and social stress impact psychological states and well-being.
To identify the strengths and limitations of different approaches to psychotherapy for specific clients, issues, and situations and to develop skills for working with trauma, anxiety, depression, and other states of psychological distress within individuals, couples, families, and groups.

Educational Objectives for the PsyD in Clinical Psychology

The PsyD curriculum builds cumulatively upon the Masters in Counseling Psychology curriculum and entails the following elements:

To develop leadership capacities which further professional engagement with the profession of psychology.
To develop creative inquiry practices and skills.
To articulate and apply key concepts and major principles of psychopathology to all levels of human systems.
To implement appropriate uses of psychological assessment resources with a specialized awareness of individual differences and cultural diversity.
To develop competencies for bringing principles and practices of transformative learning into clinical contexts.

Educational Objectives for the PhD in Psychology

The PhD curriculum builds cumulatively upon the Masters in Counseling Psychology curriculum and entails the following elements:

To develop leadership capacities which further professional engagement with the profession of psychology.
To develop creative inquiry practices and skills.
To develop cultural praxis skills.
To develop conceptual understanding and the capacities and skills to undertake participatory research that can create new meaning and serve to potentially revitalize personal and cultural transformation.
To develop competencies required to facilitate transformative learning with an understanding of human development and therapeutic outcomes across multiple domains of psychological practice and levels of human systems.

Psychology Program Learning Outcomes

Reflexivity: The capacity to engage with and be aware of those imaginal structures that shape and constitute our experience.
Empathy: The capacity to imagine into the other’s experience.
Collaborativity: The capacity to associate with others in ways that foster individuality, autonomy, complexity, dependability, and reciprocity.
Process Skills: Skills that enable creative responses to challenges entailing high complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity in psychotherapeutic, leadership, and organizational contexts.
Culture: Knowledge of stories, myths, values, and taboos that constitute how culture shapes individual and collective experience.
Social Justice and Diversity: Identify the consequences and antecedents of injustice and oppression in cultural, clinical, and systems contexts, informed by transdisciplinary perspectives.
Psychopathology: Knowledge of typologies and systems of psychopathology with an emphasis on trauma and addiction, as applicable to all levels of human systems.
Law and Ethics: Knowledge of legal and ethical principles, and theories of social justice, as applicable to the primary work of psychological practitioners: clinical practice, research, and teaching.
Psychotherapy: Knowledge of the principles and practices of psychotherapy including crisis intervention, with an emphasis on somatic and imagination-centered approaches.
Coaching/ Human Development: Knowledge of the principles and practices of coaching and associated perspectives on human development.
Neuroscience and Psychopharmacology: Knowledge of neuroscience and psychopharmacology.
History: Knowledge of the history of psychology, and transdisciplinary sources.
Assessment: Knowledge of the principles and practices of psychological assessment.
Research: Knowledge of the principles and practices of psychological research.

Psychology Fieldwork Requirement

Supervised fieldwork is an integral part of the psychology curriculum. It is an opportunity to implement skills and capacities developed through coursework and, for many, it is the beginning of a new phase in career development.For psychology students working towards a clinical license in California, Meridian provides assistance in understanding and documenting hours which meet the supervised experience standards of California’s licensing boards: The Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) for MFT and LPCC, and the Board of Psychology (BOP) for the psychologist license. Students become eligible to begin fieldwork after completing their first year of coursework. Depending on the degree, fieldwork must either be started while in coursework (by the beginning of the third year for students working towards the California MFT and/or LPCC license), or within six months following the completion of coursework.Every effort is made to support students in selecting and completing required fieldwork. Ongoing contact with fieldwork staff and clinical faculty are both helpful in navigating this process. Additionally, the psychology program’s Fieldwork Handbook assists students in planning a personalized course of fieldwork. This handbook, as well as the development of the student’s fieldwork plan, is discussed at length in the program’s first year.

Fieldwork Hours: Doctoral Students

Doctoral students must complete 750 hours of fieldwork. Doctoral level fieldwork is generally clinically oriented and can be done in accordance with the BOP or the BBS towards required hours for licensure. While PsyD students must do a clinical field placement, PhD students have an alternative option of doing fieldwork via other kinds of doctoral-level psychologically oriented work in such areas as teaching, community development, administrative leadership, and coaching. Such ‘alternative’ fieldwork is not accepted by either California state board for licensure hours.

Fieldwork Hours: Master’s in Counseling Psychology Students

Master’s in Counseling Psychology students must complete a 340 hour traineeship, which includes a minimum of 280 direct service hours. This work must be clinical in nature and must be done in full accordance with the BBS practicum requirement for the California MFT and LPCC licenses.