Celebrating 40 Years of Trailblazing Collaboration in Clinical Psychology Training

“I interviewed at several other clinical psychology programs but chose the JDP because of the collaborative environment between SDSU and UC San Diego,” said Jessica Montoya, Ph.D. ’17, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine. “Each student is paired with a mentor who has their own program or research. This match is key, having someone to mentor your research but also on a personal level helps to provide stellar training.”

The JDP combines a traditional research-oriented academic Department of Psychology at SDSU with a research-oriented medical school-based Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego. The program starts with a two-year core curriculum of formal instruction and introduction to clinical practice at an in-house training clinic, followed by hands-on advanced clinical experience, including an American Psychological Association-accredited internship, and specific instruction in their chosen track: behavioral medicine, experimental psychopathology or neuropsychology. Students typically graduate from the program within five or six years.

“The founders of the program saw the importance of specialization,” said Vanessa Malcarne, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychology at SDSU and co-director of the program. “Today, many programs have specialized tracks, but back when the program was founded 40 years ago, that was unique. It has served our students very well in preparing them for the careers that they're going to have after they finish the program.”

Lauren Brookman-Frazee, Ph.D., professor in the UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry and co-director of the JDP, added that students also benefit from the variety of research opportunities and partnerships that being part of a two-university system program provides.

“Our students and our faculty are conducting cutting edge research across many areas of mental health and wellness,” said Brookman-Frazee. “They are developing, testing and implementing state-of-the-art evidence-based practices that are important for our society, but they are also working together and mentoring the next generation of scientists, clinicians and leaders in the field.”

Fifth-year Ph.D. student Elizabeth Rangel’s research interests lie in implementation and dissemination science, with a focus on reducing mental health disparities especially among underserved populations.

“This program has provided such incredible opportunities to be a part of different families’ trajectories with regard to health care,” said Rangel. “I’ve worked with neurodivergent children and their families and have learned so much about developmental disabilities and the way different systems of care talk to each other. I’ve worked with a variety of different populations in various settings including inpatient hospitalization programs and outpatient psychiatry. I could not have imagined that I would receive this depth of training.”

Expanding the reach

When the JDP was created it included faculty from the UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry. Today there are faculty members from several UC San Diego departments who serve as mentors and teachers including the Departments of Neurosciences, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Psychology and Cognitive Science. Faculty members from SDSU include those from SDSU’s Department of Psychology and School of Public Health.

“As the program grew, other departments wanted to be involved because our students are just so wonderful,” said Robert Heaton, Ph.D., distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego and former co-director of the JDP.  “The students really benefit from the multidisciplinary nature of the joint system. They're studying the important questions about mental and physical health and the consequences of brain problems that affect behavior and cognition. Those are, by definition, multidisciplinary issues. The fact that we have experts in all of these different departments really benefits the students and the faculty.”

In addition to working with faculty members at both universities, JDP students also benefit from exposure to different community partners and institutions. After their first year in the program, students complete a practicum in the SDSU Psychology Clinic. Then they complete their remaining practicum hours at affiliated sites including UC San Diego Health, the Jennifer Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego. Each institution offers a variety of centers or clinics where the students can further pursue research in their desired specialties.

“From the first day, the path students take follows a lot of commonalities, but the research they're doing is distinct to them, their mentor is distinct to them, and the practicum placements they're doing, with the exception of the psychology clinic, are a unique set of practical experiences tailored to their training needs and interests,” said Malcarne.

Preparing for the future

While it’s not a requirement to publish a certain number of papers, most students publish on average a dozen scientific articles by the time they finish the program.

“We like to see how the graduates integrate their research training into their careers in combination with their clinical training,” said Brookman-Frazee. “They can apply it in a primarily research position, or it may be in a blended clinical and research position, or maybe a clinical position that utilizes state-of-the-art research in their clinical practice.”

As the JDP celebrates its first 40 years, the founders, directors, alumni and current students are all so proud of what they have accomplished and look forward to what the next 40 years will bring.