The Safran
Center for Psychological Services is a nonprofit psychological services training clinic that helps ensure that students in the Clinical Psychology program at The New School for Social Research develop the skills and competencies essential
for success as clinical psychologists.
The Safran Center provides tailored foundational training in psychotherapy and psychodiagnostic assessment to clinical doctoral students through close supervision of practical application of learned skills. It also offers low-fee psychological
services to New School students and the surrounding community. Learn more about available psychotherapy services.
The Safran Center also partners with The New School;s Counseling Center to assess the eligibility of New School students for various accommodations. As part of a paid practicum, Clinical Psychology doctoral students in their second year are trained
in educational and psychodiagnostic assessment of cognitive functioning, learning and developmental disabilities, attention/executive functioning difficulties, and psychiatric conditions that may be affecting academic performance.
In line with the scientist-practitioner framework, the center’s therapy training model includes systematic collection of self-report measures from clients to be used for routine monitoring and quality assurance. This model meets the American Psychological
Association’s (APA) new Standards of Accreditation (SoA), including curriculum, competency evaluation, and supervision requirements. Because the SoA requires live or recorded supervision of students, each Safran Center session is video-recorded
with consent from both the student and the client, allowing close supervision of students’ work and likely improving outcomes for clients. The Safran Center has approval from the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) to establish a data
repository, which can be used for research purposes by Psychology faculty and students at The New School for Social Research.
Safran Center Staff
Director, Primary Supervisor
Melany Rivera Maldonado, PhD
Adjunct Faculty Supervisor
Daniel Gaztambide, PhD
Program Manager
Donna Mulcahy