Ut knoxville

[reluctantPhd01]

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Could anyone tell me about the reputation of the program? Any current students on the board? Are the psychodynamic in orientation? Would love to know opinions or thoughts from current students or people who applied

 

[erg923]

I do not attend there but I really cant imagine UT-Knoxville being slanted towards the dynamic in any way.

Although there will be those people scattered around departments here and there, most departments in the south and midwest will NOT be leaning that way as a whole...at least not anymore (I heard Auburn was quite dynamic in the 70s and 80s). Thats more something you will see in programs in the northeast, DC, and some on the west coast

 

[reluctantPhd01]

With all due respect, they have several dynamic faculty members, and they are a major producer of dynamic researchers. That being said, I had heard that was 3-4 years ago, and that the program has become more CBT focused in recent years.

Anyone have direct experience this program?

 

[Neuropsych2be]

With all due respect, they have several dynamic faculty members, and they are a major producer of dynamic researchers. That being said, I had heard that was 3-4 years ago, and that the program has become more CBT focused in recent years.

Anyone have direct experience this program?

I did a year long practicum from April 2009 to April 2010 alongside 4 students from that program at a long term residential treatment program. Three of the students had psychodynamic orientations. They seemed like a nice group of young people. (I am 47 and they seemed to be in their 20's). I know that some UTK students are members of the local Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society. My practicum supervisor at that site was also a graduate of the UTK program. She and the treatment program had a strongly psychodynamic bent so it fit my needs and orientation perfectly. Interestingly UTK has a clinical program and a counseling program housed in the same psychology department. I have not met any counseling students from there only clinical students. UTK has a very heavy research slant. By this I mean that students publish a lot while progressing through their program. So based on my experience, the psychodynamic orientation would be welcomed there. I don't know much about any of the faculty though.

 

[reluctantPhd01]

Anyone have experience with what the research mentoring is like? It must be a cheap area to live, right?

 

[Neuropsych2be]

Anyone have experience with what the research mentoring is like? It must be a cheap area to live, right?

What I was told is that the research mentoring is quite intense: hence the high publication rates. If you go onto their website, you can pull up student CV's and get a look at how they are publishing and with whom. The impression I got was that there are alot of research opportunities. As far as cost of living goes, Tennessee is quite cheap. I live an hour from Knoxville and I own a 1400 square foot home I bought new 5 years ago on half-an-acre of land in a brand new development. I pay slightly less than $600 a month for my mortgage and that includes taxes and insurance. We had no real estate bubble here and no real estate collapse. My mortgage is less than high end rent in my community but I think the cost of living can be quite cheap in Knoxville. Another Fielding student lives in Knoxville and has a house larger than mine i a bad neighborhood and pays about what I pay. The only down side to Tennessee is the shock you experience when you realize Deliverance was not fiction.

 

[LM02]

I know (or know of) several clinical faculty there, none of whom are psychodynamic. They're either behavioral or cognitive-behavioral in orientation. If they were a dynamic-leaning program, it was a while ago.

 

[hopeful8]

I'm not a current student at UT so I don't have too much firsthand info, but I did interview at UT a few months ago for their clinical psych PhD program. From what I remember, they do have several psychodynamic professors there, but they also have several others who are more CBT focused. Personally, I'm open to all approaches but have a general leaning toward CBT, and I didn't feel like UT was in any way lacking when it came to providing a variety of therapeutic approaches. They seem to have a pretty good reputation, and I know their match rate is very good. One thing I noticed (especially in the lab in which I interviewed) was that there was a lot of emphasis on independent work - in many ways, students seemed responsible for how much research they want to do, how many projects they want to take on, how hard they want to push for publication. And many do very well in that respect. The faculty seemed incredibly supportive of having students who want to focus primarily on research, but they seemed just as supportive of those students whose main focus on clinical work.