The
management here at Universidad San Francisco de Quito have given the go-ahead
for us to develop a new master’s degree for training clinical psychologists. It
will, without a doubt, be the best clinical psychology training course in
Ecuador. The core trainers all have doctoral degrees in clinical psychology
from highly respected institutes in the USA. In addition to this we have
several full-time psychology professors with research PhDs from top
universities in the USA and UK. None of the other universities can muster such
academic weight, with most of their professors having only masters’, or lower,
degrees. And often those master’s degrees were earned online.
The program
will be directed by Dr Richard West. It will follow an evidence-based model
with the psychotherapy component focused on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
This makes perfect sense, CBT has much more evidence to support its clinical
efficacy than any other psychotherapy.
Such a
course is sorely needed in Ecuador. Due to a lack of appropriate regulation, people with only undergraduate level training can call themselves ‘psychologist’
or even ‘clinical psychologist’. Consequently, there is much quackery passed
off as professional practice. The situation is changing though and soon a
postgraduate qualification will be needed to use the title ‘psychologist’- hence the new master’s program.
It won’t be
ready to go for a while, it still needs to be approved by the national
authorities, but it will likely have its first intake in 2016. In addition, a
second master’s degree is being planned that will take a more eclectic approach
and focus more on sub-clinical clients and counselling skills. That will be
directed by Dr Teresa Borja.
