APA accredited and non-accredited Pre-doctoral Internships

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DrMrsDr

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I attend an APA accredited program, and I am in the process of interviewing for an internship in order to finish my PsyD.

After going through all of my interviews for internship, I find that my top pick is a non-APA accredited internship site. This site offers the most assessment of any site I have interviewed at (significantly more in fact), as well as therapy and group work. The population of the clients is ideal, and the potential supervisors which I met with were very compatible with me.

I have multiple specific questions regarding the disadvantages of attending a non-APA accredited internship. I have looked at the FAQs on the APPIC website and know that FAQ 17 addresses non-APA accredited internships. I realize some states will not allow me to be licensed and that I will not be able to work at a VA. I have also heard I may have issues obtaining jobs at hospitals and research universities.

However, I am still left with questions regarding the difficulty of truly obtaining a job in psychology after attending an APA-accredited school and a non-APA accredited internship. FYI - I am interested in obtaining a position in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia.

I am especially interested in advice from people who attended a non-accredited internship site and can share what struggles they did or did not encounter in their professional career.


So,
  • What real life struggles have people encountered when trying to find a post-doc and/or job after attending a non-APA accredited internship?
  • What types of facilities or jobs are requiring APA accredited internship sites (Hospitals, Government Clinics, etc.)?
  • Out of 100 random jobs for licensed psychologists, about how many would you expect to exclude those having a non-APA accredited internship?
  • Do you know of psychologists experiencing problems finding jobs because solely they did not have an APA accredited internship?
  • Does the accreditation status of the internship actually have little to no bearing on obtaining a psychologist position?
Any advice you can give regarding difficulties I may or may not experience by attending a non-APA accredited internship site would be appreciated.


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The advice on the APPIC site is valid and definitely the place to start. Then you should talk with mentors or others you can network to in the relevant states and kinds of jobs you are interested in having. Oklahoma, Mississippi and the VAs definitely exclude non-APA internship candidates. Beyond that I think it becomes highly individualized and is much more about the fit between your training and a job and the caliber of recommendations you can offer when you first enter the field. I have supervised in a public health system that has trained students for 25+ years and we will probably never be able to afford APA accreditation costs. But the training is solid and our students have gone on to excellent jobs in public health, universities, managed care, etc. and licensure in a wide variety of states. You do have to do some added paperwork in route to licensure but APPIC non-APA sites are familiar with this and expect it. It is definitely important to have a good fit with your internship site so I would definitely caution against choosing a less-good fit only for the APA reason, unless your research among folks in those states with jobs you want say it is critical. It is far more important to talk to actual practitioners in the field now than to get cyber-opinions. And at some level you have to trust your intuition about what will be the best capstone to your clinical education
 
thanks for the reply. i have been asking many people i know (my current and previous supervisors/professors and professionals), as well as e-mailing as many professionals as possible. i am just seeking an overwhelming amonut of advice to see how the advice matches up and to make the most educated decision possible. obviously i will not solely base my decision on "cyber-opinions"; however, i do believe they have a lot of merit and value.
 
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