What tips do you guys have for pursuing a neuropsychology career? I am interested in neurodevelopmental disorders and cognitive rehabilitation. I am currently a second-year PhD student and plan to pursue neuropsych-based practicums along with a masters thesis that utilizes psychophysiological methods and participants with TBI. However, my program does not offer a neuropsychology concentration. While some of the alumni from my program have gone onto pursue neuropsych careers, I'm not sure if I'm being unrealistic in my goals especially given the competitiveness of neuropsych internships.
Advice on pursuing a neuropsychology career
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Does your PI do neuropsych research?
Unfortunately, my program is on the small side and does not have any neuropsych PI's. He's a cognitive psychologist.
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That will make things harder, especially not having a clinical neuro/psychologist as a mentor, nor any neuropsych faculty. Does your program not require your main advisor to be a clinical psychologist? Any AMCs nearby with active neuropsych research going on?
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I can't find the document offhand, but it outlines the various pathways to becoming a neuropsychologist (like if you have a neuropsychology track in grad school vs. neuropsychology experiences, coursework to focus on, etc.). I'll try to locate today or tonight when I have more free time.
The program differs from traditional models whereby you apply for the program as a whole instead of applying to work with a PI (I recognize that this may not have been the brightest idea given my new career aspirations but it is too late now for me to leave my program).
thanks, greatly appreciated
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Ok, looking at past history, you're not a US citizen and you're in an unfunded program. So, you have some things working against you from the get go. There may be a program issue, depending on which unfunded program it is, as some of them have terrible reputations, and that alone can sink your application. The second big issue, is, that not being a US citizen, closes a huge amount of training opportunities, such as the VA (unless they have recently changed their rules).
So, you need to go above and beyond to make up for these things, possible program quality issues, and the significant limitation you have on sites you can even apply to. The two major things that would be essential are getting neuropsych prac experiences with board certified folks, and getting a quality dissertation project that is in the realm of neuropsych. Without those, it will be very hard to make up for those two issues, assuming the rest of the application is above average, at best.
So, you need to go above and beyond to make up for these things, possible program quality issues, and the significant limitation you have on sites you can even apply to. The two major things that would be essential are getting neuropsych prac experiences with board certified folks, and getting a quality dissertation project that is in the realm of neuropsych. Without those, it will be very hard to make up for those two issues, assuming the rest of the application is above average, at best.
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These may not directly answer your questions, but are useful documents to review:
Also consider the advice offered by others in this forum. You're early on in your program, but there will likely be a lot of leg work needed to bring you up to par with your peers who are in programs with more neuropsychology emphasis.
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1) Get neuropsych experience
2) Get hospital based experience
3) Find any potential avenue to start some form of connections in the neuropsych world. Conferences are a must.
4) Publish
5) If you are interested in cognitive rehabilitation, look into Rehab Psych. Again, get experience in practica, internship, then post doc. Those are easier post docs.
6) Autism Spectrum is weirdly not fully in the neuropsych realm. Clinical Child and Adolescent, and Behavioral might be alternative pathways into this area. Again, get experience in practica, internship, then post doc.
Opinion: Consider what you want your day to day practice to look like. Some subjects are great to read about, but horrible to practice in. Consider the smells of each practice area.
2) Get hospital based experience
3) Find any potential avenue to start some form of connections in the neuropsych world. Conferences are a must.
4) Publish
5) If you are interested in cognitive rehabilitation, look into Rehab Psych. Again, get experience in practica, internship, then post doc. Those are easier post docs.
6) Autism Spectrum is weirdly not fully in the neuropsych realm. Clinical Child and Adolescent, and Behavioral might be alternative pathways into this area. Again, get experience in practica, internship, then post doc.
Opinion: Consider what you want your day to day practice to look like. Some subjects are great to read about, but horrible to practice in. Consider the smells of each practice area.
I was wondering about autism, do you need to be a neuropsychologist to diagnose for autism? Because I know some clinical psychologist can just diagnose alone
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Neuropsychological measures can be helpful to differentiate in some cases, but they are not required to diagnose autism.
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No, not at all.
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Nope. 4 of us doing ASD assessments for my agency, and only one of us would identify as a neuropsych.
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Check NAN. They have supplemental coursework in neuro that you can enroll in. Otherwise, try to land a neuropsych practicum in an AMC. This may also open doors for doing research with a supervisor and getting a strong LOR for internship.
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I’d recommend you check out the resources available through New2Neuropsych: New2Neuropsychology – Building the next generation of neuropsychologists
Their consultation program for trainees may be especially helpful to get some specific advice.
I agree with the others that without a neuropsych mentor in your doctoral program you’ll have to work a lot harder to find the necessary training opportunities. You’re doing a good thing, though, of asking about this early and often!
Their consultation program for trainees may be especially helpful to get some specific advice.
I agree with the others that without a neuropsych mentor in your doctoral program you’ll have to work a lot harder to find the necessary training opportunities. You’re doing a good thing, though, of asking about this early and often!
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In addition to the resources above, there's also a pretty recent book called The Neuropsychologist's Roadmap that may have some helpful information.
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You can still get there it may just take extra work. Ultimately if you are able to get a lot of neuro practicums you can get there.
I came from a PsyD program that was weak on research and I am now doing a neuro post doc in a well known academic medical center in a neurology department and one of my cohort member with a similar profile to mine is also doing his in another top academic research center.
So, while lots of people might tell you, you can't do it without a ton of research or a known program, that is not true. You can set yourself apart with more clinical experience, a wide range of both neuro and therapy practice, or other things. Taking additional classes and attending conferences to learn more about neuro is another thing you can do to have the needed knowledge when the time comes.
There are a lot of neuro internships and while some of the medical center may be more competitive and less realistic without the typical funded PhD path, there are lots in medical center, inpatient psychiatric hospital, or community center that will give you the experience you need for post doc, and post-docs are less competitive especially if you're open to doing it in a private practice or smaller setting. If you're interested in child assessment you can also do that without doing neuro (doing more ADH/ADHD type evals) and there are lots of internship that focus on that (and good money to be made in that area)
I came from a PsyD program that was weak on research and I am now doing a neuro post doc in a well known academic medical center in a neurology department and one of my cohort member with a similar profile to mine is also doing his in another top academic research center.
So, while lots of people might tell you, you can't do it without a ton of research or a known program, that is not true. You can set yourself apart with more clinical experience, a wide range of both neuro and therapy practice, or other things. Taking additional classes and attending conferences to learn more about neuro is another thing you can do to have the needed knowledge when the time comes.
There are a lot of neuro internships and while some of the medical center may be more competitive and less realistic without the typical funded PhD path, there are lots in medical center, inpatient psychiatric hospital, or community center that will give you the experience you need for post doc, and post-docs are less competitive especially if you're open to doing it in a private practice or smaller setting. If you're interested in child assessment you can also do that without doing neuro (doing more ADH/ADHD type evals) and there are lots of internship that focus on that (and good money to be made in that area)
