Originating in 1963, our Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)-accredited Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Training Program was developed to educate scientist-practitioners in the fashion recommended by the Boulder Model. From the start, we aspired to the highest levels of skill development in both research and clinical practice so that our graduates would achieve leadership roles in academic and applied psychology settings. Over the last three decades, about one-third of our graduates have consistently taken academic appointments and continue in a major role as researchers and scholars, while many of the remaining two-thirds going into clinical practice have assumed important positions as chief psychologists, leaders of large consultation practices, directors of internship training programs, officers of professional societies, and the like.
Our Clinical Psychology program offers fully integrated training in research and clinical practice, preparing students for a wide variety of professional roles that include clinical research, psychological assessment and psychotherapy, teaching, clinical supervision, and program evaluation.
In the Clinical area, applicants are typically first admitted to the MA program with the expectation that the student will continue to the PhD. The Clinical area also occasionally admits an applicant who already has an MA from another institution directly into our PhD program; however, the time savings toward the PhD may be modest (i.e. a year or less) because the year-by-year sequence of required clinical-training courses usually need to be started from the beginning.
Those wanting a terminal MA degree should look into graduate studies in Counselling Psychology, Educational Psychology, or Social Work instead of the PhD program in Clinical Psychology. The University of Waterloo does not offer Counselling Psychology or Educational Psychology.
Faculty and staff
- Elizabeth Nilsen, Clinical Research Area Head & Director of Clinical Training
- Marjory Phillips, Director of the CMHRT
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Janel Silva, Administrative Coordinator - Clinical Area & CMHRT; Psychological Test Librarian
- TBD, Assistant Director of the CMHRT
Clinical core faculty
- Dillon Browne
- Allison Kelly
- Tara McAuley
- David Moscovitch
- Elizabeth Nilsen Area Head
- Jonathan Oakman
- Christine Purdon
- Uzma Rehman
Faculty members who may be considering new clinical psychology graduate students for Fall 2027:
- Dillon Browne – the influence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), trauma, and socioeconomic status on human development.
- Tara McAuley – the development of executive control — across development, factors that influence its development, its relationship to other domains of function, and interventions to strengthen it.
- David Moscovitch – how social anxiety shapes people’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviours in social contexts, with particular attention to the role of autobiographical memory and self-schema processes.
- Jonathan Oakman – the change process in response to psychological interventions (i.e., case conceptualization, motivation, nonspecific factors in change processes, etc.).
- Christine Purdon – how anxiety and related difficulties develop such as obsessions, intrusive thoughts, worry, rumination, doubt, compulsions, avoidance, and fight/flight responses.
- Uzma Rehman – How emotional avoidance shapes interpersonal relationships, with a focus on its impact on sexual communication, sexual desire, and sexual well-being.
** Non-clinical faculty members can supervise a clinical psychology graduate student in their research (if indicated in the list above); having a non-clinical research supervisor has no impact on students’ involvement in the clinical psychology program (i.e., courses, clinical training), and can be a great option if that faculty member’s research interests the student.