Springfield College is starting a doctoral program in counseling psychology

Springfield College is starting a doctoral program in counseling psychology that will have sports psychology among its focuses.

It will be the only program of its kind in the country, according to the college.

“Can you deal with difficulty?” said Judy L. Van Raalte, director of the PsyD. program and a professor of psychology at Springfield College. “We have kids who can deal with it on the field, but not in the classroom.”

For that reason, Van Raalte said, the doctorate program dovetails perfectly with Springfield College’s historic ties to the YMCA movement and its emphasis on youth development through sport. The college was founded on the idea of humanics, or the concept that mind, body and spirit come together to form the whole person.