Training in Empirically Validated Treatments: What Are Clinical Psychology Students Learning?

Directors of clinical training (83%) and directors of internships with American Psychological Association approval (55%) responded to a survey concerning empirically validated psychological treatments in which their students received training. Most programs provided supervised clinical experience in a number of these treatments. However, over 20% of doctoral training programs failed to provide minimal coverage of empirically validated treatments in didactic courses, and internship programs typically did not require that students be competent in any of these treatments before completion of the program. The absence of didactic and clinical training in empirically validated psychodynamic therapies and interpersonal therapy was most marked. These findings suggest that programs need to be more attentive to teaching data-based treatments.