Some Movement Toward Hybrid Online Degrees for Psychologists and Psych Practitioners

[Jonathan Whatley]

The medium-residency hybrid PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Capella University is now an applicant for American Psychological Association initial accreditation, and the similarly scheduled PhD in Clinical Psychology from Saybrook University is now listed by the APA as intending to apply. Let me use the term “medium-residency” for a degree program that uses online education heavily and isn’t traditionally full-time on campus, but that has significantly more on-campus time than most programs called “low-residency.”

There has long been only one hybrid doctorate accredited by the APA, the PhD in Clinical Psychology from Fielding Graduate University. Fielding has long described its medium-residency format with meetings at regional centers not as distance learning or online but “distributed.”

There are a handful of APA programs with distinctive scheduling options (and another) that make their on-campus programs a bit more accessible to long-distance commuters, but the APA doctorate universe has been basically full-time on-campus except for Fielding.

Another interesting situation is that at least two universities now have both an on-campus APA doctorate in psychology, and a separate hybrid or online doctorate that’s non-APA but that teaches health service psychology and is designed for psychology licensure in a state that allows it: The Chicago School (the flagship of the same private university system as Saybrook), and National University (NU inherited an APA on-campus PsyD in Clinical Psychology when JFK University merged into NU, and a separate non-APA PhD in Psychology, specializing in Counseling Psychology designed for California licensure when Northcentral University merged into NU; now both degrees are granted by NU).

The APA only accredits programs in “health service psychology,” most of which are titled Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, and/or School Psychology. Programs such as Industrial/Organizational Psychology preparing business consultants, or General Psychology preparing professors and researchers, are outside the APA’s scope of accreditation, and outside most of the acts that define the practice of a licensed psychologist. Liberty University recently achieved APA accreditation on contingency for its on-campus PsyD in Clinical Psychology. Liberty offers an online PhD in Psychology, but it’s in areas of psychology outside those health service provider roles.

Meanwhile at the master’s level, the APA is expanding its pilot program to accredit master’s degrees to a regular part of its activity, and APA members are discussing proposed changes at the master’s level to their model state practice act. Proposed revisions posted by the APA define licenses at the doctoral level for Licensed Psychologist and at the master’s level for Licensed Practitioner of Psychology.

At a recent count 21 states and state-level jurisdictions (and 4 Canadian provinces) licensed eligible applicants with a master’s in health service psychology to a title such as Licensed Practitioner of Psychology or Psychological Associate. Of the remaining states, I believe some will allow a master’s in health service psychology to qualify for a Licensed Counselor type title. The Counseling profession has generally been moving to require master’s categorically in Counseling, and sometimes specifically CACREP accredited, but not every state has tightened their rules in those respects.

Capella’s low-residency MS in Clinical Psychology, Clinical Counseling track was one of the first master’s programs accredited by the APA – a surprise, and a good look for Capella. Note that this accreditation doesn’t extend to other Capella master’s in or around psychology, including their FlexPath CBE programs. All the FlexPath master’s in psychology are in non-licensure, non-health-service parts of psychology.

Others master’s programs in the first crop of APA accrediteds and applicants also seem to use some hybrid modalities.

The APA first accredited Fielding with its model of distributed regional residency intensives supplemented by distance learning in 1991. Since then – despite the explosion of online and hybrid programs in other mental health and health professions – for a long time there was no apparent movement toward online learning in APA land, excluding temporary adjustments for Covid.

Now we see movement on several fronts.

There’s an easy narrative that the APA was too stodgy or protectionist all that time. I’m not sure. They have accredited Fielding since 1991, and they’ve accredited numerous “professional schools” outside traditional universities, such as Alliant, Antioch, and the Chicago School, despite those being contentious in the profession, and sometimes high-volume in the number of students they train.

Maybe the APA just hadn’t received a good application for a new hybrid program since 1991. Maybe the market for “licensure degree in psychology, and hybrid, and APA, but not Fielding” wasn’t large or specific enough to attract new entrants. Some prospective students would accept Fielding despite their high price. Some would accept on-campus. Some would accept a non-APA hybrid or online psychology program like Saybrook or California Southern, licensable in some friendly states. Some would accept an adjacent field like counseling with a master’s-level license. But now, prospective new entrants.