PhD Abroad?

[Pastaguy]

Hello,

I have been exploring the idea of doing a PhD in Clinical Psychology (or analogous field) in Italy. I am bilingual Italian-English and I'm currently finishing an application for Italian citizenship through my parentage. I'm working on an MA in the US in General Psychology as a stand-alone degree. However, I'm wondering if doing a PhD in Italy or elsewhere in the EU is really a good idea. I have my eyes set on doing clinical work, not so much research, though I see research as kind of a step to get where I need to go, and important if it can lead to better practices with future patients. I have a focus on studying schizophrenia, though my BA thesis was nothing of that nature, my MA thesis most likely will be.

Would you say a PhD abroad is a good idea? If the Italian economy revives itself, I may even stay there. Has anybody ever tried this? I see Germany come up a lot as a destination.

Regards,

Pastaguy

[pataka]

I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea, but it depends on the program. I will tell you it's getting increasingly more difficult for people to get into Clinical Psychology PhD programs in the States with the intention of pursuing clinical practice; these programs are pretty research-focused. Not sure if that's the case in Italy, so that may be something worth exploring.

[Clinapp2017]

I don’t know any info, but if you want to do a clinical degree elsewhere but eventually do work in the states, I’d be sure to research reciprocity laws long and hard. Some degrees and training are not reciprocal. For example, I do research work with Latino populations, but if I wanted to, say, go to Peru for 3 months to do an internship, none of those hours would count back in the USA for my training. 

[PokePsych]

Be aware that accreditation varies a LOT between countries.

For example, an APA license does not necessarily qualify you to practice in Europe (at least Netherlands/Germany that I know of) and vice versa. Accreditation is usually needed for insurance reasons. 

The way you can get accredited also varies a lot between countries, even within the EU (in NL you have to do a post-master and on job training, PhD's don't lead you to be accredited and are only research-oriented in nature. To practice clinical psych here you need to do a master's - then post master's (expensive!) and then a couple of years of training). 

 

If you're serious about this - which you should be as it can be a cool opportunity - DO look into this. It's likely your first step. If you want to go to Germany you'd probably need to speak German (for obvious reasons - clients will predominantly speak German and not English).

[topsailpsych]

Also, look into institutions you might want to work for in the future to see if they will accept accreditation from other places.  The VA will only accept APA accreditation for PhD level folks, which means you have to have gotten your PhD in either the US or one of the handful of Canadian programs that are APA accredited.  Some large hospital systems are the same. 

It sounds like a cool opportunity, but I would double check you won't be setting yourself up for double the work before diving in head first.

Good luck!