Academic Advising

Advising assignments are made by the Department Chair. Students are generally assigned the same advisor for the entire length of their course of study in the Program. Although students may request a change in Advisor, all such requests must go through the Department Chair for review. A student who wishes to change advisor must complete and submit a "Petition for Change of Faculty Advisor" form to the Department Chair. If approved, advisor changes will be implemented in the fall term of the following year.

For questions about your advisor, please contact the following individuals:

• Clinical Doctoral Department: Dr. Stacey Lambert, stacey_lambert@williamjames.edu
• School Psychology Department: Dr. Jason Kaplan, jason_kaplan@williamjames.edu
• Counseling and Behavioral HealthDepartment: Dr. Nilda Laboy, nilda_laboy@williamjames.edu
• Organizational and Leadership Psychology Department: Dr. Suzanne Devlin, suzanne_devlin@williamjames.edu
• Bachelor's in Psychology and Human Services: Dr. Kerri Augusto, kerri_augusto@williamjames.edu 

Advisors have significant roles in overseeing students’ progress and can have a major impact on the development of their professional identities. As educators, advocates, evaluators, and mentors their responsibilities include:

• Making themselves available for regular contact with advisees.
• Assessing students’ academic backgrounds, strengths, training needs, and goals.
• Approving students’ registration, coursework selections, field site selections, and field training contracts.
• Managing the Assessment and Planning Conference at the end of each academic year.
• Monitoring students’ progress toward completion of degree requirements.
• Helping address problems; consulting with course instructors, field supervisors, Department Deans, Heads, the Academic Policies and Standards Committee, and/or the Dean of Students in situations where problems arise; and advocating on behalf of the student in such situations when such advocacy is appropriate.

Advisors should have regular contact with their advisees, but must at a minimum initiate contact and meet with each advisee at the following times for the stated purposes:

• Beginning of students’ first Fall semester:
  • get acquainted
  • review Field Education Contract and stated goals for field training
  • review fall course schedule; discuss spring course planning
• Beginning of first Spring semester:
  • Review mid-year Field Education Evaluation
• End of Year One in program (Must be completed by the end of summer semester):
  • Review the final Field Education Evaluation
  • After obtaining feedback from faculty and field placement, meet with student to hold an Assessment and Planning Conference and document this in the appropriate form

This process continues yearly throughout the time the student is at William James College

Since the ultimate tool a psychologist brings to his/her work is their own self, William James College also emphasizes personal and professional learning and growth of students in their training. A student’s advisor (with other professors and supervisors) models, teaches and evaluates the following attitudes and attributes that a student is expected to make their own:

1. An overall knowledge, appreciation, and acceptance of the ethical standards and guidelines for the practice of psychology.
2. A demonstration of the capacity to work collaboratively and respectfully with others throughout all ranges of professional training experience (peers, colleagues, supervisors, patients/clients, other professionals, faculty, advisors, administrators, support staff, etc.).
3. A demonstration of and willingness to assume responsibility for learning by utilizing appropriate available resources to fulfill clinical and academic responsibilities (e.g., consultation, supervision, literature, etc.).
4. A demonstration of and willingness to meet professional obligations in a timely and responsible manner.
5. A sustained awareness of one’s effectiveness and functioning in clinical and academic settings, as well as an awareness of one’s personal/professional impact on others.
6. A receptivity to constructive commentary and/or criticism with a demonstration of a capacity to address such issues that may have been identified.
7. A demonstration of the capacity for perceptiveness and empathy and a growing sense of how to use these qualities effectively in the service of others or of professional role responsibilities (i.e., in both clinical and applied work as well as in general commerce within school, field, or other work settings).
8. A demonstration of the capacity to interpret accurately and reasonably the conduct of one’s self and of others.
9. A demonstration of the capacity to evaluate one’s self and others honestly, fairly, and sensitively (e.g., in supervision, in classroom exchanges and exercises, during A&P conferences, etc.).
10. A recognition of, appreciation of, and sensitivity to individual differences and diversity in the human experience and the relevance of such understanding for the practice of psychology.
11. A desire to provide human services and to acknowledge and address both individual and broad psychosocial issues within the scope of psychological knowledge, practice, and professional responsibility.

These attitudes and behaviors, together with academic achievements and field supervisors’ evaluations, are the content for review in terms of assessment and planning. A robust and ongoing relationship with an advisor contributes to a deeper and more meaningful discussion of a student’s development.

Advising is not a confidential and/or therapeutic relationship; advisors might need to identify those issues that belong in personal therapy rather than in advising.