2022-2023 APPIC Internship Interview Invitation Thread

[tiredphdcounselingstudent]

Applied to 10, received 5 interviews. Matched to #1

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[asukaran]

I wonder if anyone knows any internship programs in which you can do like half neuropsychological testing and half therapy work (or 1/3 and 2/3 of your time)? It will not be a pure neuropsych track but therapy track also with an emphasis on neuropsych testing? Look for the chance of more flexibility during internship...

 

[iheartbacon]

I wonder if anyone knows any internship programs in which you can do like half neuropsychological testing and half therapy work (or 1/3 and 2/3 of your time)? It will not be a pure neuropsych track but therapy track also with an emphasis on neuropsych testing? Look for the chance of more flexibility during internship...

Have you looked at any VAs? Some have neuro tracks but many offer a more generalist experience in which you could also have a neuro rotation.

 

[szymk1sm]

I wonder if anyone knows any internship programs in which you can do like half neuropsychological testing and half therapy work (or 1/3 and 2/3 of your time)? It will not be a pure neuropsych track but therapy track also with an emphasis on neuropsych testing? Look for the chance of more flexibility during internship...

I did my internship at a VA as one of the neuropsychology interns and this is how it was set up -- 50% of the year (so two 3-month rotations) were in neuropsychological assessment and the other 50% were in two non-neuro rotations (our VA had tons to choose from and I did inpatient chronic pain rehab and outpatient mental health clinic - both heavy on the therapy). We also had to carry 2 long-term psychotherapy patients throughout the year.

At least for my site, if you were a non-neuro intern, you could do neuro rotations but you could not do them until after the first half of the year (which doesn't really benefit you for postdoc applications, as you won't have internship level experience to discuss or a letter from an internship neuro supervisor)....not sure if there was flexibility in this, so you'll want to ask questions pertaining to this at sties.

Happy to PM you my internship site if you request it. Otherwise, like the above poster said, check out the brochures for various VAs.

 

[WisNeuro]

I did my internship at a VA as one of the neuropsychology interns and this is how it was set up -- 50% of the year (so two 3-month rotations) were in neuropsychological assessment and the other 50% were in two non-neuro rotations (our VA had tons to choose from and I did inpatient chronic pain rehab and outpatient mental health clinic - both heavy on the therapy). We also had to carry 2 long-term psychotherapy patients throughout the year.

At least for my site, if you were a non-neuro intern, you could do neuro rotations but you could not do them until after the first half of the year (which doesn't really benefit you for postdoc applications, as you won't have internship level experience to discuss or a letter from an internship neuro supervisor)....not sure if there was flexibility in this, so you'll want to ask questions pertaining to this at sties.

Happy to PM you my internship site if you request it. Otherwise, like the above poster said, check out the brochures for various VAs.

Fairly similar to my VA internship experience, did about half time in neuropsych clinic (in and outpatient coverage) and also had rotations on PTSD treatment teams, general psychotherapy, and SCI.

 

[asukaran]

Thank you all for sharing your experience with me! However, as an international student, I am not eligible for applying for the VA positions :-( In addition, I only have 10 neuro reports by far and will apply in the upcoming year. I don't think I will have a competitive number of neuro reports for applying to a neuropsych track by that time (I might be able to get 20 but still don't think that is competitive...). Btw may I ask what is the average # of neuro reports for the neuropsych applicants? I am very interested in finding a future job position in which I could do nearly half-and-half neuro assessment and therapy work. I wonder if you know any non-VA internship programs that would offer that training opportunity? Thank you!

 

[niceman]

Thank you all for sharing your experience with me! However, as an international student, I am not eligible for applying for the VA positions :-( In addition, I only have 10 neuro reports by far and will apply in the upcoming year. I don't think I will have a competitive number of neuro reports for applying to a neuropsych track by that time (I might be able to get 20 but still don't think that is competitive...). Btw may I ask what is the average # of neuro reports for the neuropsych applicants? I am very interested in finding a future job position in which I could do nearly half-and-half neuro assessment and therapy work. I wonder if you know any non-VA internship programs that would offer that training opportunity? Thank you!

You can do a search using the APPIC directory:

APPIC

membership.appic.org

Choosing "US Citizenship NOT Required" under Geographic and neuropsych - adult and/or child (depending on your interest) under Training Opportunities should give you a list.

 

[asukaran]

Any non-VA, non-neuro intern programs that offer a neuro rotation or a lot of opportunities to do neuro testing? Thanks!

 

[boba_psych]

Any non-VA, non-neuro intern programs that offer a neuro rotation or a lot of opportunities to do neuro testing? Thanks!

Maybe look into rehabilitation psychology internships? There are some with significant assessment experience, but are largely intervention focused

 

[PsyDontWantToDoThis]

Did a 2023-2024 version of this thread get made yet?

 

[psychddd]

Did a 2023-2024 version of this thread get made yet?

Not yet, usually someone volunteers to make it. Doesn’t look like that’s happened yet.

 

[lagniappe4]

Did a 2023-2024 version of this thread get made yet?

2023-2024 APPIC Internship Interview Invitation Thread

 

[texanpsychdoc]

As anecdotal as this sounds, prestige of internship may be something to keep in mind, but I went to a sub-par APA-accredited Psy.D. program, matched to my 7th site at a VA in the middle of NOWHERE, then afterward, secured a GS-11 staff psychologist job with a VA ambulatory care center that allowed me to leverage that experience to work as a psychologist in a specialty clinic for the 4th largest VA in country and serve as an assistant professor at a leading AMC. Never would I have thought I'd achieve these things, but no, you don't need to have gone to a top-tier Ph.D. program, internship and post-doc program to secure a lucrative job, especially within the VA system.

I was actually a neuro-track intern and about halfway through the program I switched to generalist. Gained a lot of great experiences across the acute psych unit, PRRTP, SATP/PTSD residential units, and chronic pain.

 

[summerbabe]

As anecdotal as this sounds, prestige of internship may be something to keep in mind, but I went to a sub-par APA-accredited Psy.D. program, matched to my 7th site at a VA in the middle of NOWHERE, then afterward, secured a GS-11 staff psychologist job with a VA ambulatory care center that allowed me to leverage that experience to work as a psychologist in a specialty clinic for the 4th largest VA in country and serve as an assistant professor at a leading AMC. Never would I have thought I'd achieve these things, but no, you don't need to have gone to a top-tier Ph.D. program, internship and post-doc program to secure a lucrative job, especially within the VA system.

I was actually a neuro-track intern and about halfway through the program I switched to generalist. Gained a lot of great experiences across the acute psych unit, PRRTP, SATP/PTSD residential units, and chronic pain.

I'm biased since I did my internship and fellowship in VA and now work in VA and am involved in training but VA's are great training sites and don't shy away if you've never had experience working with veterans or don't see yourself wanting to work in VA in the future.

What I would look for are larger VA medical centers since they are more likely to provide a bunch of training opportunities with general outpatient mental health, specialty outpatient (PTSD, chronic pain, SUD), acute inpatient, specialty inpatient (spinal cord, polytrauma), assessment, and residential.

For folks considering this path, the training brochure will likely provide a lot of guidance. If it's a place that requires you to do a whole year of general mental health with 2 electives that you choose from a limited list, this is likely a small facility with limited training resources (compared to VA training sites as a whole), as opposed to a full fledged medical center that can provide breadth in training, including getting really valuable hospital-based interdisciplinary experiences that I think many of us lack going into internship.

But places that do 2-3 core rotations plus 2-3 elective rotations will likely be really good training sites to consider further. Even if a specific rotation is not great (e.g., poor supervision, disorganized), getting that core experience and being able to put it on your CV can be really helpful.

 

[roryportman]

As a NP person who only had experience at big academic med centers prior to internship, I was a bit unsure about the prospect of my VA internship. However, I have LOVED my VA experience as an intern so far. Only 4ish months in and I feel like a much more well-rounded (future) psychologist, while also still receiving great NP training from ABPP supervisors. As was stated, larger VA med centers with multiple rotations are definitely the ones to aim for!

Posting this in case there's current NP intern applicants in the boat I was in last year - don't be so quick to drop VAs from your lists/rankings! I was kind of "raised" to think of academic med centers as perhaps better training, but now I do not agree with such black and white thinking.

Maybe there should be a "2022-2023 Post Intern Match Reflections" thread 🙃