Master of Arts in Applied Psychology (Clinical and Counselling Practice)

Description

Mental health concerns are on the rise in developing countries like India. The globalising world is witnessing increasing stress levels. The processes of urbanization, modernization and globalization have led to an increased momentum of change. Poverty, migration, industrialisation, rising inflation, violence, upwardly mobile lifestyles, growing aspirations and media exposure are all contributory factors to the rising tensions in everyday life. The gap between individuals’ resources and life demands is increasing day by day. While the burdens are increasing on a daily basis, the existing support systems provided by the family, the school, the peer group, and the workplace are proving to be insufficient to deal with the surging multitude of demands, expectations, roles and tasks placed on the individual’s shoulders.

The Mental Health Survey (2015-16), showed that the treatment gap for mental disorders ranged between 70 to 92% for different disorders. Anecdotal reports suggest that the total number of psychiatrists in India could be between 3,500 and 5,000 which translates to one psychiatrist to 200,000 to 300,000 people. The existing training infrastructure produces about 320 psychiatrists, 50 clinical psychologists and 185 mental health nurses per year. Scarcity of trained and supervised services and professionals is one of the fundamental barriers to the progress of mental health services in India. This clearly points out to the need for training mental health professionals who can effectively respond to the mental health needs of communities.

It is in the context of the scarcity of trained professionals to provide mental health services in the country that the School of Human Ecology (SHE), in the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai first launched the M. A. in Counselling program in 2009. Since then, through the process of constant reflection, feedback from the students and from the field, the School of Human Ecology has designed a single Masters program to be titled MA Applied Psychology (Clinical and Counselling Practice).

The scope of the proposed M.A. in Applied Psychology (Clinical and Counseling Practice) course is to make interventions; the aim of which is enhancing person-environment-fit, building resilience for effective coping and enhancing well-being and Quality of Life. The program will focus on the development of practitioners with a sound base in research as specified in the Boulder Model for clinical psychology training (Frank, 1984), as scientist-practitioners. However, the stance informing the course contents and pedagogy will be a developmental and contextual one. Training will be geared towards increasing awareness of diversity and socio-cultural contexts in which individuals are enmeshed.

The specific goal of the M.A. Applied Psychology (Clinical and Counselling Practice) will be to equip learners to practice developmental, mental health and issue-based assessment and interventions with a focus on primary prevention and therapeutic interventions. The current M.A. programme aims to develop students’ self awareness and a sound theoretical base from which they can build skills necessary for practice in fieldwork and internship settings. The emphasis is on a seamless blend of theory and practice. The focus is also on developing research capacities of students. Supervision is inbuilt into the practice component allowing students to benefit from feedback provided by trained professionals in the field.

Semesterwise Courses:

Note:The curriculum structure is tentative and subject to change.

Fee Structure:

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