Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology (in 30% English)

Head of Department:

Assist. Prof. Taha Burak Toprak

Along with solid methodological and theoretical foundations, the program offers an environment for research, research development, and practical applications. In addition to a comparative and multilingual academic education, the program is focused on the Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy approach, which is enriched with different psychotherapy approaches such as Positive Psychotherapy and Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy. An intensive clinical practicum opportunity is also offered at the Psychotherapy Application and Research Centre (IPAM) within the university. In addition, trauma, family therapy, and positive psychotherapy are prioritized as research and specialization areas.

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Visit the curriculum page.

Course Contents

PSY 600AE Seminar I

Doctoral seminar courses aim to raise the student's awareness of the up-to-date applied research topics in clinical psychology. In this way, students will be familiar with the literature regarding the research subjects they are interested in. Within the scope of the course, students will prepare a preliminary presentation on their thesis topics and a seminar they will qualify for based on the knowledge they have acquired during their doctorate education and scientific research methods.

PSY 600BE Seminar II

Doctoral seminar courses aim to raise the student's awareness of the up-to-date applied research topics in clinical psychology. In this way, students will be familiar with the literature regarding the research subjects they are interested in. In addition, within the scope of the course, students will present the points they plan to develop within the framework of their thesis topics with a seminar they will prepare by adhering to scientific research methods.

PSY 601E Advanced Research Methods and Ethics in Clinical Psychology

This course covers advanced research methods. In addition to research design and planning topics, students will gain advanced knowledge and application skills about a particular research method, such as quantitative analysis.

PSY 631E Introduction to Clinical Practice and Ethics

This course will cover principles and issues of professionalism and ethics in clinical psychology. The main goal of this course is to introduce students to clinical psychologists' ethical responsibilities, professional practice issues, diversity, professionalism, consent, confidentiality, and boundary issues. In addition, students are expected to challenge themselves to consider how their values and backgrounds will influence their sets of ethics. Hopefully, this course will assist students in their future work as professional clinical psychologists, facilitate decision-making and therapy skills when faced with ethical dilemmas, and help them develop and improve their professional identity.

PSY 632E Advanced Clinical Practice

This course is the second module of the Introduction to Clinical Practice and Ethics course. Students carry out clinical practices such as individual psychotherapy interviews, psychosocial group activities, test application and reporting, case presentations, and discussions at the Ibn Haldun Psychotherapy Research and Application Center.

PSY 635E Clinical Supervision I

This course provides intermediate-level supervised clinical experience, with an emphasis on aiming to help students with the further development of their professional identity. In addition, students learn how to develop case conceptualization concerning their patients' stories. Clinical supervision provides an additional level of clinical training and evaluation of students' competencies beyond that offered by theoretical training. Further, students discuss problems or difficulties they might face with their patients and their personal/professional/educational lives.

PSY 636E Clinical Supervision II

This course provides the advanced supervised clinical experience necessary for a creative therapist. İts about the nuances and subtleties of what to say, how to say it, and when to say that determine what the patient hears. The course's theoretical approach is the belief that therapy is NOT simply about techniques but about therapeutic relationships that work.

PSY 685E Advanced Statistics

In this course, advanced statistical analysis and interpretation of the results of these analyzes are taught to improve the statistical knowledge and application skills obtained in the master's experience.

Elective Courses

PSY 625E Clinical Positive Psychotherapy

Positive psychology is an approach that reveals and develops the strengths of people, relationships, institutions, and societies through scientific and practical strategies. This course presents basic concepts, methods, and clinical applications of positive psychology.

PSY 630E Narrative Therapy

In this course, the historical development, basic concepts, theoretical background of narrative therapy -one of the schools of post-modern psychotherapy- and its approach to humans and pathology, as well as its application in certain situations such as trauma-family, are discussed—psychologist candidates who will practice in the clinical field experience the applications of narrative therapy within this course.

PSY 640E Psychotherapy and Culture

This course aims to contribute to developing culturally sensitive and compatible psychotherapy models by examining the effects of cultural factors on psychotherapy practices and how psychotherapy applications can benefit from culture.

PSY 646E Couple Therapies

This course will cover basic approaches, concepts, and intervention techniques of family and co-therapy approaches. The development process from the birth of the idea of family and partner therapy to the present will be discussed at the level of individual schools and comparatively. Theoretical information, as well as clinical experiences, will be shared. Cultural conditions and culture-sensitive family and couple therapy approaches will also be introduced.

PSY 652E Psychological Trauma and Treatment

This course aims to understand all aspects of psychological trauma and its effects on individuals and societies. Therefore, the course covers the impact of psychological trauma on the cognitive, emotional, and different systems of individuals, the psychological disturbances it causes, its short and long-term consequences, and the treatment methods to be followed in solving these problems.

PSY 654E Differential Diagnosis

In this course, the necessary information to make the correct diagnosis during clinical practice, the questions to be asked to complete a differential diagnosis, the key points to be considered, and the symptoms specific to the diseases are taught and discussed together with case examples. 

PSY 662E Case Analysis

In this course, knowledge of pathology and clinical practice is reinforced through clinical case discussions and analysis.

PSY 667E Psychological Well-being and Resilience

This course discusses factors and practices that contribute to psychological well-being, the sources of psychological resilience, and applications to develop these resources. This course aims to develop programs to improve the individual's and society's psychological health.

PSY 670E Introduction to Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy: Theory and Practice

This course will give students an Islamic orientation to psychotherapy, entitled Traditional Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy (TIIP). It will explore the foundational tenets and principles of the TIIP model, including a discussion of Islamic epistemology & the presentation of an Islamic ontological framework of the human psyche. The course will also provide students with concrete skills to conceptualize and treat psychological disorders using this Islamic model.

PSY 671E Advanced Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy: Theory and Practice

This course will build upon the PSY670 introductory course on Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy to reinforce and solidify an Islamic orientation to psychotherapy, known as Traditional Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy (TIIP).   It will entrench the Islamic epistemological and ontological foundations of TIIP. The core principles of TIIP will be revisited with more significant layers of application across a variety of therapeutic contexts and complex pathologies.

PSY 675E Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Oriented Case Analysis

In this course, theoretical lectures and practical applications will be held on the basic concepts, philosophical backgrounds, and application processes of ACT. After the academic studies, ACT-based case analysis, role-play, real-play, and therapist-client interviews will be watched and interpreted.

psy@ihu.edu.tr