Saybrook's Mission & Vision

Saybrook's Vision

At Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, we are committed to fostering a learning environment that is at once rooted in humanistic values and responsive to the conditions of our times. The founders of Saybrook inspired that purpose when they skillfully infused psychology with humanistic values and in doing so, advanced a movement that provided relevant alternatives to traditional psychology. Saybrook's mission is to address 21st century needs by educating leaders to bring humanistic principles to key elements of our world – educational reform, healthcare, the environment, vulnerable populations of our society, sustainable business development and practice and to affect positive change through that leadership.

Saybrook's vision for 21st century learning is one rooted in the values of the School's humanistic lineage, fundamentally recognizing that each individual has a unique role and influence in the world realized through one's life work. Saybrook inspires students to discover their influence and nurtures its development. At the core of Saybrook's humanistic principles is an appreciation of the infinite potential of human beings to grow and change in meaningful ways, regardless of the challenges they face.

Today, this humanistic vision is more relevant – and more needed – than ever, as we are living in a time in which caring for others and the planet must be addressed with innovation and long-term commitment. As custodians of this vision, we believe it is incumbent upon us to craft the next expression of these humanistic values by educating a new generation of scholar-practitioners who will make significant contributions to 21st century global community.

Scholarship

One of the central outcomes of Saybrook's planning process has and continues to be the renewed commitment to intensify and expand the School by emphasizing three foci of excellence: academic programs, scholarship and research and community service. Our strategic initiatives continue to flow from these three pillars in a synergistic way that will enable Saybrook students to reach a broader range of human beings in need. They continue to manifest the School's mission and celebrate its living legacy as pertinent for today's world to create multiple pathways for opening Saybrook to the world and the world to Saybrook.

In keeping with Saybrook's humanistic tradition, our new initiatives have as their goal developing a new generation of humanistic scholar-practitioners who are prepared for life-long learning and a life of service, whether that service is located in the library, researching new ideas, or in the streets of their communities. Our new programs continue to evolve and build upon each other and our existing programming base to empower our students to meet 21st century needs and to create sustainable and substantial new student enrollment growth.

Practice And Service

To fully realize our vision, we must be creatively engaged at the broadest and most public level possible. To this end, as an institution we are planning and implementing public programs and workshops to foster full, open, innovative and creative discussion of the challenges facing us as individuals and our society. We are developing this engagement through the Center for Research and Scholarship and the Center for Transformative Practice and Community Service. Both of these Centers will work synergistically to facilitate outreach to the broader community by Saybrook faculty, alumni and students and in so doing raise Saybrook's visibility with key external constituencies.

• The Center for Research and Scholarship will contribute new knowledge and awareness of humanistic principles to professional, local, and global communities by supporting scholarship and research efforts. As a key element of the strategic vision, the Center will provide fertile ground for an enlivened exchange of ideas and collaborative work both within and outside the institution. The Center for Research and Scholarship will interface with the existing Rollo May Center for Research.
• To support accomplishment of these goals we are planning to establish an Office of Sponsored Research to advance Saybrook's position in academia in areas where we want to be known for our scholarly work. We also plan to foster post-doctoral research by establishing relationships with community organizations and clinical facilities to help facilitate placements for students and alumni. As Saybrook sponsors public programs and conferences in partnership with other organizations and schools, these relationships can be cultivated for ongoing partnerships that would assist with both sponsored research as well as post-doctoral research.
• We are planning symposia and public programs to insert Saybrook into academic discourse and foster awareness and dialog on topics vital to humanistic practice. Our Saybrook Society events will be the seed for these programs. Our initial topics for public programs include adolescent issues, veterans and PTSD and psychology and architecture.
• As we develop and implement sponsored research and conferences and public programs, we will have a rich resource for reinvigorating publications and journals. Utilizing the content being produced by these events, Saybrook can publish ongoing articles on the work of faculty, students and alumni, both on the Saybrook website and in print.

• The Center for Transformative Practice and Community Service is a central element of Saybrook's learning model and will provide the vehicles for organizing practice initiatives and nourishing the synergistic relationships among teaching, scholarship, research and practice for students, alumni and faculty. The Center will be a place of experimentation, a laboratory for healing and a context for students, scholars, teachers and practitioners to serve community in a meaningful way. As such, its programs will offer opportunities to engage with the broader community via multiple channels that include: public programs and conferences; career development and alumni services; an incubator for clinical training and practice and experimental and service learning; and social entrepreneurship and community service.
• Like the Center for Scholarship, public programs by the Center for Practice will focus initially on adolescent issues, veterans and PTSD and psychology and architecture to build relationships with organizations in the community, in business and in academia around common interests. Career Development and Alumni Services will support the post-doctoral research efforts of the Center for Scholarship and provide the foundation for internship and other professional opportunities as well as career networking services for students and alumni. As an incubator and locus for social entrepreneurship, the Center for Practice will build upon its own initiatives and those for the Center for Scholarship to channel our faculty, students and alumni into community service aligned with their professional goals and life's work.
• Over the longer term, we envision the Center's role evolving to enable Saybrook to offer direct clinical therapy services with a humanistic approach, both face-to-face and at a distance, positioning us as a pioneer in developing at-a-distance mental health therapy utilizing video conferencing approaches now increasingly in use in the medical profession. We also envision the Center evolving into a think tank and incubator for new approaches to engaging social issues related to vulnerable populations. In addition the Center will support the work of our students who wish to start their own non-profit organizations.

Poised For Expansion

In the past 30 years, few methods of psychological thought have had as much influence on our culture as humanistic psychology. This affirmative approach to life addresses the art and science of human possibilities, and provides a level of understanding that can promote the power of personal choice and the care and effectiveness of social groups. Saybrook's role in advancing the humanistic tradition can be seen in the work of our students, faculty, and alumni. They are applying the results of their studies in a broad spectrum of practical ways: collaborating with Haitian peasant cooperatives to create sustainable economic development; introducing ethical and spiritual values into major medical decisions; helping the entertainment industry depict the dark world of drug addiction accurately and responsibly; and working with police officers to help them cope with a wide range of job-related stress and anxiety issues.

Given the continued relevance of Saybrook's humanistic approach, the School is now poised to greater expand its capacities to meet the pressing needs of our rapidly changing world. Implementation of our three-fold vision of scholarship, practice, service and related strategic initiatives is providing a continued source of dynamic and vital community energy to empower us as a contemporary institution of higher education. The creation of the Centers for Research and Scholarship and Transformative Practice and Community Service will offer additional resources for energizing, shaping and guiding Saybrook's future.