School Psychologist (MS.) confused about pursuing Clinical or School Doctorate

[Brooklyn08]

Hello all,

I really appreciate this forum and am hoping for some guidance on this particular advancement. I've done a fair amount of research on the subject to be as informed as I can about the tracks, but each has it's own considerations...

I'll start by saying I'm more passionate about training in psychotherapy and practicing, and realize that I probably should've gone on an MHC/MSW track than the direction I took, but I enjoyed my graduate school experience. At the time of my post-bachelors, I was not a strong candidate for a clinical doctorate program. As of now, I am strongly considering applying for a doctorate in either Clinical or School psych. as I would like to work in a university-based counseling center, a therapeutic school/day hospital for children, or with families in a group practice or center.

I feel comfortable about getting admitted to a Sch. Psy. Psy.D advanced-standing program; however I think it would be extremely challenging for me to obtain an APA internship in a non-school setting. Does anyone have suggestions for experience I can obtain now to appear more competitive to medical centers, who typically hire a majority of clinical students? I have under-grad clinical experience in an inpatient children's hospital, but that is long ago... I'm even thinking of leaving my current full-time position in pursuit of an unpaid Research Assistant job so that I have more experience prior to applying, but then again, research is not my main interest.

On the other hand, I'm not quite sure about my chances for admittance to a clinical program, and whether I would be re-starting at a pre-Master's level. This is not something I'm excited about, but if I could not look at it as "starting over" I think a clinical program would afford me more specific training in my interests, and give me better odds in obtaining an APA internship. Does anyone know if clinical programs admit School Psychologists, and what I would need to "prove," so to speak, to be taken seriously in this realm of psychology given I didn't pursue this track from the start?

Oddly enough I'm more anxious about my chances of obtaining an APA internship because I understand the importance of gaining quality training and supervision. Thank you for your guidance. Feel free to ask questions if need be.

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[AcronymAllergy]

As a quick reply--when applying for APA-accredited internships, sites generally aren't going to look at or care about pre-doctoral experiences. They may give some attention to terminal masters-level work (e.g., your time as a masters-level school psychologist), but that's generally about it. The crux of the decision-making rests on your doctoral training and experiences. In this regard, you're going to want to obtain experiences working outside the school setting, and you're also going to want to have some research productivity (which shouldn't be difficult in a school psych doctoral program).

RE: "starting over," the vast majority of reputable doctoral programs aren't going to give you much in the way of advanced standing for any masters degree, regardless of what it was in or what you did while there. You may be able to skip a few classes and, if you completed an empirical thesis, forego that particular step, but in general, it's not going to shave any time off your length of training (clinical programs in particular are pretty hard-nosed about this). And honestly, I don't really know that it should, given the differences in training experiences and philosophies between the types of degrees.

 

[Brooklyn08]

Thank you for your reply. It helps to know that I should set my sight on obtaining a non-school extern experience first and not necessarily leave my paying job right now. It's my goal to gain this experience; however, during my last graduate school experience, the program did not offer much help in finding extern/intern sites so I want to be as prepared as I can.

I agree with you about clinical and school being different in philosophy, and I don't want to miss out on any pertinent courses, and especially externship/internship. My reference of "starting over" comes from discouragement in going through a program and gaining a position that wasn't quite the right fit for me. However, it has made me become more informed now, and perhaps overly-anxious about the next process working out.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Just to clarify--I'd meant that you should focus on finding externships outside of schools once in a doctoral program (in addition to the school training they'll give you). Getting that now likely wouldn't help much.