Program Requirements

Program Requirements

The Ph.D. in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at CIIS is a part-time online doctoral program that consists of 36 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.

This course is designed to situate the fields of integral and transpersonal psychologies in global and historical context. The student will be invited to consider how the history and systems of psychology have been shaped by the context of Western philosophy. The course will pose the question of how psychology might be transformed in the context of other world philosophies, such as Advaita Vedanta, integral yoga, Buddhism, shamanism, and integrative western philosophies that attempt to reflect values of interconnectedness. The course also introduces embodiment practices for use in the scholarly context.

This course offers tools and processes of critical thinking in the context of an overview of integral and transpersonal approaches to psychology. Major concepts and theorists as well as developments of the transpersonal field will be considered. The student will have opportunity to learn and practice both intellectual discrimination and intuitive discernment in thinking about whole-person approaches to psychology.

This course examines research methods that draw together various strategies in the context of creative-expression approaches to psychology. Integral methods include approaches such as grounded theory, mixed methods, theoretical research, and somatic phenomenology; further, creative expression considers artistic expressive activity as meaningful participation in the healing and revealing processes of transformation. The student will have the opportunity to consider potentials for creative applications of integral research approaches through examining research in creative expression approaches to psychology.