In our department, clinical psychology is understood as the discipline that deals with research on the etiology, phenomenology and effective psychotherapeutic treatment of mental disorders by means of empirical methodology. For this challenge, a fundamental understanding of the disorders and their neurobiological underpinnings is essential. Furthermore, since effective psychotherapeutic treatment always affects brain processes, the main approach to clinical psychology at our department is a neuroscientific one.
Beside its research mission the department also contributes to the clinical duties of the CIMH by providing psychological treatment for both inpatients from the Department of Psychiatry and outpatients treated at our behavioral therapy unit at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience. In addition, the department is engaged in educating students at the Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim as well as in training psychologists and residents at the CIMH. |
