School Psych Clinical Internships

[schoolpsych12]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this site and wanted to see everyone's thoughts on this matter. I'm a rising 3rd year in a school psych program and interested in clinical APPIC internships. I chose school psych because of my interest in working with children and the range of children that school psychologists reach. However I've really become interested in clinical work, and interested in pursuing a career in pediatric psychology. I know that I'm not totally out of luck because a fair amount of school psychologists do work in hospital settings! I'm interested in pursuing licensure and working in children's hospitals down the line. Although I still have a few years to go, I was wondering what everyones thoughts were on what APPIC APA internships actually took school psychology students and what experiences I need to acquire in order to be competitive.

So far I have worked:
-public school district working with CST, and counseling students
-play therapist in a community mental health center
-outpatient unit with trauma victims
-emergency room within medical school
-researcher with college students
-clinic doing individual therapy, and assessments

Any feedback would be really appreciated! I'm really nervous about this process and just want to have all the information I could have to make informed decisions!

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[Chalupacabra]

I'm in a similar position so I can't offer much firsthand advice, beyond talking to your professors and current students to see how other students in your program have achieved these types of goals. Here's an older thread with some good info though - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/school-psychs-applying-for-appic.646490/

 

[futureapppsy2]

The nice thing about APPIC is that they list what types of programs previous intern classes came from. So, I'd look up pediatric psych sites in the APPIC internship director and look for ones that both meet your goals and have a history of taking school psych interns, if possible. I'd also talk to your DCT about where previous peds students from your program have interviewed or matched. Definitely try to get a peds psych practicum placement if you can. Do you have any peds-related research experience? That may help too.

 

[mcvcm92]

Definitely get in contact with older students who have successfully landed APPIC/APA internships in your area of interest - your DCT would be most helpful with that! Also on the APPIC internship search feature, you can click off to only show sites that accept school psychology applicants (I believe most children's hospitals "accept" SP applicants!).

Also since you're a rising 3rd year (2 years before internship), try to get some extern experience in a hospital if you can... I would think that would help before 5th year apps.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

While not a hospital site, Cypress-Fairbanks in TX is an excellent APA-acred option for school psych applicants.

 

[MessOfStress]

I interviewed at CyFair this year - it is a truly wonderful site! I was very impressed. The only problem is that they don't do any cognitive/achievement testing. The educational diagnosticians do all of it. I am hoping for a neuro postdoc so that was a deal breaker for me.

It is quite difficult to obtain a clinical internship as a school psych student. Some of the best students in our program (who did everything "right") were unable to match to sites that were not primarily school-based. However, those students were still able to obtain excellent clinical postdoc placements.