Health, Rehabilitation, and Neuropsychology Emphasis Area
On this page:
- About the Health, Rehabilitation, and Neuropsychology Emphasis Area
- Coursework
- Clinical Practica
- Dissertation and Advising
- Emphasis Faculty
About the Health, Rehabilitation, and Neuropsychology Emphasis Area
The overarching goal of the School of Professional Psychology is to train students in the basic skills necessary to be competent within a generalist model. The goal of the Health, Rehabilitation, and Neuropsychology (HRN) is to develop your readiness to function and compete for internships and postdoctoral opportunities within the fields of health, rehabilitation, and clinical neuropsychology. You will receive training aimed at establishing the attitudes, knowledge, and skills required to provide effective assessment and intervention services to clients requiring health, rehabilitation, and neuropsychology services. You will fulfill the usual requirements for clinical psychology, as well as take courses in more focused areas of health psychology, rehabilitation psychology, and neuropsychology. It is expected that dissertation, practice tutorial, practicum, and internship activities will also be oriented toward these areas of interest.
Health, Rehabilitation, and Neuropsychology Emphasis Objectives
- To develop graduates with strong clinical skills in the area of health, rehabilitation, and neuropsychology.
- To develop graduates who can be skilled to work within a variety of interdisciplinary settings, e.g., medical, rehabilitation, community treatment settings.
- To develop graduates who are critical thinkers in the area of practice and scholarship.
Note: You will be first admitted and later may choose to participate in the HRN
Coursework
You complete coursework designed to address knowledge, attitudes, theoretical concepts, assessment skills, and intervention skills relevant to the practice of health, rehabilitation, and neuropsychology. In addition to required courses, you are required to complete the emphasis specific curriculum in sequence, as presented below.
Courses, descriptions, and expectations specific to the HRP include:
- Neuropsychological Assessment: This course is an introduction to the field of clinical neuropsychological assessment. You learn to select, administer, score, and interpret neuropsychological tests in different clinical situations.
- Health Psychology: This course is an introduction to the field of health psychology. The course material will focus on the concept of health and wellness as informed by diversity variables and social conditions. Therefore, beliefs about health, illness, and disability across people, culture, and time will be explored. Resulting and current psychological theories and treatment interventions utilized by health psychologists and the role of psychological factors in the development, maintenance, prevention, and treatment of health related illnesses will be discussed and practiced. You will gain an appreciation of the complex interactions of diversity variables that impact behavioral, psychological, physiological, and social factors and further impact an individual’s health, create health disparities and resistance to recommended health habit changes. Critical analysis of public health policies, health-related research and the role of psychologists in integrated healthcare settings will also be incorporated into the material. A deeper understanding and appreciation of the patient-lived experience will be facilitated through discussions, guest speakers from the medical service delivery perspective, and patient perspective and experience-based activities.
- Rehabilitation Psychology: This course is an introduction to the field of rehabilitation psychology. The course material will focus on current psychological theories and treatment interventions utilized by rehabilitation psychologists and the role of psychological factors in the treatment of functional, psychological, and social impacts of disability. You will gain an appreciation of the complex interactions among behavioral, psychological, physiological, and social factors on an individual’s disability. Critical analysis of rehabilitation-related research and the role of psychologists in multidisciplinary medical settings will also be incorporated into the material. A deeper understanding and appreciation of the patient-lived experience will be facilitated through discussions, guest speakers from the medical service delivery perspective and patient perspective and experience-based activities.
- Additional electives: Elective courses that relate to the HRN area may be offered. Students in the HRN emphasis may take these courses as optional electives.
Clinical Practica
You are expected to gain supervised exposure to a range of clients and to learn basic skills required of all psychologists throughout their practica. They are also required to complete at least one practicum in a health, rehabilitation, or neuropsychology setting. The following clinical settings represent training experiences that potentially fulfill the emphasis-specific clinical practica requirement:
- Dayton Children’s Medical Center
- Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center
- Cincinnati VA
- Metro Health
Practicum slots are awarded competitively in conjunction with the sites. If there are more students in the HRN than there are practicum slots available, it is not guaranteed that all students will be assigned to a HRN site. It is not guaranteed that all students wanting to complete the HRN will be able to do so.
Dissertation and Advising
The HRN offers you the opportunity to work with our faculty who have expertise within those fields in a forum focused on facilitating the student’s professional development. Students in the HRN are required to complete a professional dissertation focused on issues relevant to health, rehabilitation, or neuropsychology, broadly. HRN faculty members review potential dissertation topics to determine if they meet this requirement.
It is not required that a member of the HRN faculty chair your dissertation. If you elect to work with a chair who is not affiliated with the HRN, the chair will be the student’s primary advisor (per policy) and a faculty member who is affiliated the emphasis will provide additional advising regarding issues related to the HRN.
Emphasis Faculty
Sara Michelle Bielek, Psy.D.
