50 years ago, a group of leading psychologists gathered to form the first graduate school centered on the belief that every person is a work in progress and that each of us has the capacity and the responsibility for our own development. These scholars were the founders of the humanistic psychology movement.
While the establishment of Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center was a momentous event, its founders understood that for Saybrook to help affect significant change in the world, the institution would need to be willing to change with it.
That was the beginning of a long journey that has seen Saybrook evolve and adapt in response to challenges of the day. Within the past decade, Saybrook has expanded programs, beyond psychology, to offer graduate degrees in varied fields of study including: leadership and management, counseling, mind-body medicine, integrative and functional nutrition, transformative social change, and coaching.
Over its history, Saybrook University has grown to meet the needs of society by preparing scholars and practitioners to take leadership roles in inspiring transformational change in others, organizations, and the world at large. Saybrook scholar-practitioners unite “the library and the street” by relating scholarship and research to action and practice in a wide range of professional contexts.
What began as a small group of academic rebels seeking to change the face of higher education has now morphed into a small university finding its way once again in a sea of political and academic change. One thing has remained constant though—the university’s administration, faculty, staff, and students are intent on adhering to Saybrook University’s progressive mission of promoting a more just, humane, and sustainable world.
In March 2015 Saybrook University aligned its academic programs into two colleges focused on specific disciplines, with explicit career and professional outcomes:
College of Social Sciences
- Department of Leadership and Management
- Department of Counseling
- Department of Humanistic and Clinical Psychology
- Department of Transformative Social Change
College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences
- Department Mind-Body Medicine
- Department of Integrative and Functional Nutrition
- Department of Integrative Wellness Coaching
- Department of Psychophysiology
For more information on our path to the future, read the Saybrook Strategic Plan 2020-2025.