T. John Akamatsu, Ph.D., Director

Psychological Clinic
The Psychological Clinic is the training site for graduate students in the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology in the Department of Psychology at Kent State University. Services are provided by master’s and doctoral students under the close supervision of clinical faculty members who are licensed psychologists.

The clinic was established in 1968 as the departmental training clinic when the doctoral program first received accreditation from the American Psychological Association.  The clinic has been in continuous operation since that time.  Annually, about 250 clients are seen in this clinic.  This number includes children and adults from the community as well as Kent State students.

The Psychological Clinic supports the Psychology Department's goals of graduate training, provision of service and contribution of new knowledge through applied research.  It has long been our belief that the training and service functions are mutually reinforcing. High quality training can only occur by providing professional level services. Conversely, high quality training is necessary to provide professional level services.

In addition to providing clinical services, the Psychological Clinic is also involved in numerous research activities.  For example, a standardized research protocol including diagnostic and personality data has been in place for many years.  Several master’s theses and doctoral dissertations have utilized this data to study the effects of characteristics of the therapist on treatment outcome and to validate personality scales.  Other projects have also been conducted as part of the clinical services, including evaluations of a group treatment format for eating disorders and a specialized treatment for depression.  Other studies are currently underway

Overall, our goal is to enhance the Clinical Scientist model of clinical training. The integration of research and applied aspects of psychology, greater graduate student exposure to faculty research and clinical interests, and a general expansion of the role of the Clinic within the training program are all facets of this goal.

We encourage people who are having difficulties with depression or anxiety, relationship problems, feelings of low self-esteem or other personal or behavioral problems to seek services from the clinic.