Master of Science in Clinical Psychology

Studying Questions of Mental Health

How can mental health problems such as anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and grieving problems best be studied and treated? How can we prevent them from occurring, improve treatment results and prevent relapse? You will address these and similar kinds of questions in the Master’s program in Clinical Psychology. You will acquire and develop fundamental knowledge of and skills in evidence-based psychotherapies and become familiar with prevailing research methods in the field of clinical psychology.

Driven by Research and Clinical Experience

The lecturers from this Master’s program work in clinical practice and/or do state-of-the-art theoretical or applied research at Utrecht University. This integration of science and practice forms the basis of the teaching approach in this program.

Learn to Work in a Multidisciplinary Way

Clinical psychology is always interacting with other disciplines due to the context in which behavioral and health problems arise. Examples are medicine, biology, neurology, pharmacology, economics, sociology, and social psychology. This will, therefore, be a considerable focus of attention. Some lectures will also be taught by (guest) lecturers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. And finally, you will often work in a multi-disciplinary context during your internship as well. This means that clinical internships need to be done in native language organizations, which for international students often necessitates doing the internship elsewhere. For them, it is strongly suggested to try to acquire an internship position immediately after application.

International Character

The Clinical Psychology Master’s program will mainly be taught in English. Some skills-oriented tutorials will be taught in English and Dutch. Our program’s content and context have a strong international character and you will have plenty of opportunities for international orientation (thesis, internship, symposiums). On top of that, our student population is a true mix of people from different countries and cultures. This provides a strong basis for the international and diversity-oriented character of our program and our community.

Postgraduate Training Programs

The clinical Master’s degree offers Dutch-speaking students the opportunity to acquire the NIP’s basic certificate in psycho-diagnostics (BAPD). You can also apply for different postgraduate programs (Healthcare psychology; in Dutch: GZ-psycholoog) or pursue a Ph.D. position. For international students, formal accreditation needs to take place at an individual level by the national union of psychologists.