Ph.D. in Psychology, concentration in Integral Transpersonal Psychology
San Francisco, USA
DURATION
4 up to 7 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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STUDY FORMAT
Distance learning
Scholarships
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Introduction
CIIS’ Integral and Transpersonal Psychology Ph.D. is one of the few programs in the world that offers an online Ph.D. in whole-person approaches to psychology. It is a research-oriented program dedicated to systematic knowledge-building and the advancement of transpersonal psychology.
Whole-person psychologies expand the horizons of conventional Western psychology to include mystical and spiritual experiences that transform human consciousness.
Our approach engages a comprehensive framework that includes the living systems of body, community, society, and the world as interconnected processes of evolution in a living, breathing cosmos. From this perspective, it becomes possible to ask new and compelling research questions that lie close to the heart of what it is to be human.
Our doctoral graduates are trained for professional careers in education and academia, activism and organizing, psychology, and fields related to personal development, social change, and environmental protection. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them: cultural and historical consciousness studies, spiritual experiences, tantric meditation, altered consciousness and unusual/anomalous experiences, neuroscience of hypnosis and meditation, brain architecture and neurorehabilitation, creative process and cognition, and somatic, developmental, psychoanalytic, and trauma-based psychological theories.
Admissions
Curriculum
The Ph.D. in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at CIIS is a part-time online doctoral program that consists of 36.2-37.5 units of coursework plus a dissertation. Students are required to attend five-day residential intensives each fall and spring. The remainder of coursework is completed online. The course of study consists of core requirements, research courses, an area of focus (12 units) that includes advanced seminars, two comprehensive exams, and a dissertation written using original research. With advisor approval, admitted students may elect to add a second focus area to their program, thereby extending their course of study for an additional year.
Areas of Focus
Students choose from three focus areas: Integral and Transpersonal Psychology, Consciousness Studies and Contemplative Neuroscience, and Somatic Studies.
Integral and Transpersonal Psychology At least two courses from electives offered within the Integral and Transpersonal Psychology Ph.D. program. Students may add up to two program-approved, doctoral-level courses from within other online doctoral programs at CIIS (East-West Psychology, Transformative Studies, Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness, Women's Spirituality). (12 units)
Consciousness Studies and Contemplative Neuroscience This focus area is designed to bring together consciousness studies, contemplative psychology, and neuroscience. Whole-person approaches bring to neuroscience the ability to ask new and thought-provoking questions that arise from the more holistic and systems perspectives of integral and transpersonal standpoints. The focus area will address issues of philosophical context through courses in consciousness studies that are offered within this program and other doctoral programs at CIIS. (12 units)
Somatic Studies The focus area in Somatic Studies is designed for students with experience or strong interest in movement, potentially including martial arts, a bodywork practice, a specific movement or dance practice, an advanced sport practice, or a gyrotonic, Pilates, or other similar practice. Coursework will consider the worldwide burgeoning of embodiment literature beginning in the mid-20th century and rapidly growing into the present, as well as its relevance to consciousness studies. (12 units)
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Ideal Students
There are three main groups of students for whom this degree is well suited. One such group is those with existing professionals who wish to advance their education and contribute to the development of better research and scholarship in their professional areas of work, such as psychotherapists, social workers, psychologists, counselors, consultants, activists, organizers, leaders, teachers, researchers, nurses, physicians, lawyers, or others in fields related to personal development, social change, or environmental protection. Another group consists of individuals who are entrepreneurially oriented, and who may wish to use their degree as the basis for consulting or writing and teaching in the public arena about their area of expertise. In addition, some students wish to pursue a Ph.D. as a means to more fully developing their personal gifts and potentials.
English Language Requirements
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