Doctor of Psychology in Psychodynamic Psychology
Reiss-Davis History
Reiss-Davis traced its roots to the establishment of the Graduate Center for Child Development and Psychotherapy in 1976 in Los Angeles. The Graduate Center began as an independent, non-profit, and non-sectarian organization offering PhD, PsyD, MA, and certificate programs. The Center’s mission was to provide training in psychodynamic treatment for children, youth, and their families. It awarded 56 doctoral degrees during its first 31 years.”‹
In 2007, representatives from the Graduate Center approached Vista Del Mar’s Reiss-Davis Child Study Center, which offered post-doctoral testing and fellowship programs, with a request to merge. The institutions shared a similar purpose and commitment to child and adolescent diagnostics and psychotherapy. The merger occurred in 2008 and the Graduate Center for Child Development and Psychotherapy began to operate under the auspices of the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center.
Several name changes have accompanied the history of the graduate school. In 2015, the Graduate Center for Child Development and Psychotherapy rebranded itself as the Reiss-Davis Graduate Center for Child Development and Psychotherapy. A year later, the governing board approved a name change to the Reiss-Davis Graduate Center, which underwent one further modification in 2019 to the Reiss-Davis Graduate School. In part, the name change reflects the awareness that the Reiss-Davis degree programs are applicable to clinicians who work with clients from a young age through adulthood, and with families and communities.
Reiss-Davis sought SCU as their teach-out partner in 2025, after determining to close, to help ensure their legacy would continue. SCU assisted Reiss-Davis in the teach-out of the Reiss-Davis Graduate School Doctor of Psychology program in 2025 – and is now proud to carry the Reiss-Davis legacy into the future through a newly developed Doctor of Psychology in Psychodynamic Psychology at SCU, launching in 2026. SCU is proud to be authorized to utilize the Reiss-Davis name and is grateful to the Reiss-Davis faculty who have elected to help continue the successful tradition.
Program Heritage
The Reiss-Davis Doctor of Psychology Program at SCU recognizes and honors three seminal leaders in the founding of the Reiss-Davis Graduate Schools of Psychology:
Dr. Oscar Reiss was a preeminent pediatrician not only in Los Angeles but across the country. He taught and supervised at USC, held the position of Chief Medical Doctor at Vista Del Mar, and had a thriving practice in Beverly Hills. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he had a dream to develop a clinic that would offer lower income patients the same high-quality diagnostic and therapeutic services that young people in Beverly Hills received. He also wanted to create a center that would provide advanced training to psychology, psychiatry, and clinical social work professionals within a psychodynamic orientation. ”‹However, he was never able to see his dream come to fruition, as he died shortly before the opening of the Oscar Reiss Mental Hygiene Clinic on Fairfax Boulevard in Los Angeles on September 21, 1950. ”‹”‹ ”‹”‹
Dr. David Bennett Davis wanted to continue Dr. Reiss’s dream, becoming the first board president of the Oscar Reiss Mental Hygiene Clinic in 1950. Sadly, he unexpectedly died one year later. Shortly thereafter, the board of the clinic changed the name to the Reiss-Davis Clinic. In 1963, the expanding clinic moved to West Pico Boulevard, still in Los Angeles, and became the internationally known and well-respected Reiss-Davis Child Study Center.
Dr. James Incorvaia provided leadership to the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center, including the Reiss-Davis Graduate School, for 46 years. He worked ceaselessly to promote children’s mental health services and to inform the professional community of recent and relevant developments in psychodynamic child psychotherapy and psychology. He joined Reiss-Davis in 1972 as a postdoctoral fellow, was promoted as the Director of the Psychology Department and Training in 1975, and became the Director of Reiss-Davis Child Study Center and Institute in 1991. In 2007, he led the merger with the Graduate Center for Child Development and Psychotherapy, for which Dr. Incorvaia eventually oversaw Reiss-Davis’s WSCUC accreditation.