Clinical Psychology Internship/Externship Applications

[humanisticPOV]

Since this site was so helpful for me while applying for programs, I wanted to reach out for advice applying to my first round of externships! What should I look for in sites and interviews? What are things other people included in their letters of interest? Is it better to do just therapy site, just assessment sites, or to find a site with a combination of both?

[justacigar]

You might want to check out Student Doctor Network for questions like this, I know this site is heavily used by applicants while SDN is used more for those already in programs. 

[PsyDuck90]

I would echo justacigar. Also, definitely talk to your DCT and your advisor. Everyone will have different opinions on this. It also depends on what you ideally want to do. From what I've been told, you want to get a sense of the types of internships you may want and reverse engineer your externship experience to get the recommended experience your ideal internships would want. My program suggests a minimum of 500 intervention and 50-100 assessment (unless, you are going into neuro) by the time you apply for internship. This is based on APPIC match stats. Externships are hard in that you are told to get a breadth of experience while also showing a clear progression towards a career path. 

[JoePianist]

2 hours ago, humanisticPOV said:

Since this site was so helpful for me while applying for programs, I wanted to reach out for advice applying to my first round of externships! What should I look for in sites and interviews? What are things other people included in their letters of interest? Is it better to do just therapy site, just assessment sites, or to find a site with a combination of both?

Current 4th year Clinical Psychology PhD student here. In general, treat the externship application process similar to how you approached applying to graduate programs. Specifically, ask your prospective clinical supervisor questions like:

1. Describe your supervision/teaching model.

2. When is your availability for supervision?

3. What kind of cases can I expect to see in this externship rotation?

4. What types of intervention and assessment opportunities does your site provide?

5. (If doing an assessment rotation) How long do I have to turn in an assessment report?

In general, you need a supervisor who will provide about 15 minutes of supervision for your every 60 minutes of direct patient interaction/contact. Per semester, you also need around 4 hours of direct supervision per APA-accreditation standards (e.g., your supervisor sitting in during one of your therapy sessions, or observing you through a tinted window, or listening to a recording of your session). 

Regarding types of experiences to choose (therapy vs assessment), that really depends on your career goal. If you’re going the neuropsychologist route, you need to primarily focus on assessment work and report writing, though getting a little bit of therapy experience is still important. If you’re more interested in interventions and plan for a clinical or research career focused on interventions, focus on therapy work. And if you’re still undecided, try a balance between therapy and assessment work.

And, whenever possible, ALWAYS ask students about their personal experiences at the externship rotation and with the supervisor – ask if they had any specific issues at the site or with the supervisor, if patients typically showed up for appointments, what were the strengths and weaknesses of the site, etc.

Regarding your letter of interest, make sure you state what your current specific goals are for externship and how this particular site can help satisfy your goal. This again goes back to you knowing what your career goal is (e.g., what types of populations or issues are you most interested in, what type of work do you want to do as a professional, etc) 

Edited December 16, 2019 by JoePianist