2026 Professional Psychology Newsletter
Message from the Program Director
Program Spotlights
Faculty Kudos
Message from the Program Director
Dear PsyD Community of Alumni, Students, Faculty, Staff and Supervisors,
First, I wish to congratulate and honor the program which has entered into its 30th year of offering doctoral level training in psychology. Since 1996, the program has graduated hundreds of psychologists, nearly all of whom are working with individuals and communities as psychologists, consultants, professors, supervisors and advocates. Our program’s psychoanalytic and psychodynamic commitment remains its core, since the initial years when Dr. Jim Miller envisioned a professional training space dedicated to these theories and practice. Notably, our PsyD program maintains a strong reputation and attracts remarkable applicants from around the globe. During the 2025-2026 academic year, the program received over 1,100 applications for approximately 20 doctoral spots. In addition, the program’s Center Clinic, which has also offered psychodynamic services to D.C. community members for several decades, remains an outstanding training space for students and an important mental health resource for the community at affordable costs.
The world remains a deeply challenging place for many individuals and communities. The work of psychologists continues to be vital in helping people connect with themselves and others, and understand in far deeper ways the complexity, beauty, diversity and sorrow that is part of being a human (a distinct psychodynamic lens). At the same time, psychodynamic tradition and our program remain a dedicated training that emphasizes what we know from science and research: centrality of relationships, reality of unconscious or implicit experiences, importance of history and influence of context. We look forward to building together on our past 30-year legacy of psychotherapy training and scholarship toward transforming the future, in our field and the world.
Sincerely,
Oksana Yakushko
Program Director
Program Spotlights
Celebrating the Program’s 30th Year Anniversary!
In June, 2026, we began our 30th year celebration during our End of the Year program event. The following is an excerpt of a message shared with our community by Dr. Dorothy Holmes, Professor Emerita and former director of the Professional Psychology Program:
A Salute to the GW Doctor of Psychology Program for Its First 30 Years – 1996-2026
Dear GW PsyD Program Colleagues and Friends,
I am so proud for you, and of you, as you celebrate 30 years of program success. As you know so well, success results from having a vision emboldened and enlivened by stick-to-itiveness, renewed by evolving opportunities, challenges and talents of faculty and students. I joined the program in 1998, two years into its formation, when the initial dreams and hopes for the program were still very fresh and highly energized by the program’s founding leader, James Miller, in collaboration with the then-President Trachtenberg.
To join the GW PsyD Program, I left the directorship of what was still a thriving APA-accredited clinical psychology internship program in the Department of Psychiatry at Howard University Hospital, the first accredited psychology program ever in a HBCU institution. I welcomed the opportunity to influence the growth and development of a new PsyD program, including moving it towards accreditation.
The program’s first few years were invigorating and demanding. Jim Miller, faculty and students, together, made a big bet on one another, that we could mold a program that would earn accreditation in its first attempt to do so. We did it! All students of the program have graduated from an accredited program.
When I retired from GW in 2011, we were fully accredited and in the able hands of a new director, Dr. Loring Ingraham. He created a master’s program in forensic psychology that increased program revenues, making it possible to reduce the number of students to a more optimal level.
Every new leader and every new group of students bring new visions, new possibilities and hope. I rest well knowing that the current students, faculty and your relatively new director, Dr. Oksana Yakushko, will meet your challenges and take all of you into a bright future.
Hearty congratulations on the program’s first 30 years!
With great appreciation for my association with the program,
Dorothy E. Holmes, PhD, ABPP, FABP
Professor and Program Director Emerita
Psychology and Cinema: Inside a Cannes Classroom
A one-of-a-kind study abroad course led by professional psychology’s Dr. Katherine Marshall Woods brought students inside the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on the French Riviera to explore psychology, specifically psychoanalytically informed psychology, behind storytelling. The class was featured in the CCAS Spotlight newsmagazine.
Faculty Kudos
- Dr. Cheri Marmarosh received a $538,335 grant from the John Templeton Foundation with focus on GW PsyD student support and training. Moreover, in addition to her APA Press book on attachment and group psychotherapy, she serves as the lead editor of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy.
- Dr. Oksana Yakushko served as a visiting scholar at Oxford University (UK) with focus on her book on the history of eugenics related to psychology. She also co-edited a book on Ukrainian psychoanalysis (Routledge) and has led several special issues on psychoanalysis and psychology in Ukraine.