Competitive for Internships in Child/Family

[FridaK1]

I am hoping to tap into your collective wisdom for some advice on my upcoming internship applications. Unfortunately it took me quite a while to figure out what type of population I was interested in working with clinically (child/adolescent/families).

My question is: have folks been successful at securing a child/family focused internship (I am thinking children's hospitals) without significant child/family practicum experience. For reference, by the time I apply, I will have 1 full year (~300 hours) of adolescent/family work in an outpatient children's hospital setting. About 5 months in pediatric C/L same hospital, and about 5 months in a school based (elementary and middle) mental health clinic (the last two will be occurring concurrently). Previous to finding this focus, I had trained clinically with late adolescent and emerging adulthood (think UCC, two full year placements).

I would be thankful to hear form those who had less traditional training backgrounds but were successful in securing a child/adolescent focused internship and from those who perhaps made that switch later (post-doc?). Thank you in advance!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[eremitestar]

My training director recommended using the required essays as a way to discuss your journey and rationale for working with your population of interest. In your autobiographical statement, you could talk about starting your program working with university populations, later transitioning more to adolescents and their families. Highlight why you made that switch, what you enjoy about working with adolescents and families, and how the skills you've learned previously translate to that population. Now having experienced internship applications from the other side as a reviewer, I completely agree with my former TD's advice. A strong autobiographical statement goes a long way.

 

[SLB-CO]

Short answer - yes. I love across-the-age-spectrum care, and so when I applied to internship I had 1 year specialized adult care (complex trauma), 1 year adult community mental health (general), 1 year schools (child/adol), 1 year family therapy OP, and 1 year adolescent/young adult residential (+2 years court-mandated work pre-grad school that didn't count as hours, but I think helped my 'story'). I primarily applied to sites that had combined rotations, but also some pure child/fam sites that were in my specific, and got interviews at all save for the UCC I shouldn't have applied for (never worked in a UCC and only applied for the location). Ultimately I matched to my top choice. Sites seemed to really like that I had a breadth of experiences and I used my essays and cover letter to explain why they fit together so I didn't look like I was all over the place. I was strategic in my materials - I modified my conceptualization/treatment essay to the site slightly (child case for child-focused sites) and sent child reports to child-focused sites. I say go for it. Feel free to PM me with more specific questions.

 

[ariagirlno1]

I also think that this can be done, but that it hinges on essays and probably to a larger extent, cover letters. I did somewhat the opposite--I was generalist with a child/family focus and only did a prac at a UCC this year (the year I applied). Despite this, because I crafted a good story, I got interviews at many UCCs and was well-received in interviews. That said, I did end up a child/family site (my first choice). Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.