Breaking News from the Floor of APA Council

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SaraL124

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I received this information in an email sent by the Director of Clinical Training at my school. I thought you all would be interested.


Council voted to adopt the following statement as APA policy:

The American Psychological Association affirms the doctorate as the
minimum educational requirement for entry into professional practice
as a psychologist.

The American Psychological Association recommends that for admission
to licensure applicants demonstrate that they have completed a
sequential, organized, supervised professional experience equivalent
to two years of full-time training that can be completed prior or
subsequent to the granting of the doctoral degree. For applicants
prepared for practice in the health services domain of psychology,
one of those two years of supervised professional experience shall
be a predoctoral internship.

The American Psychological Association affirms that postdoctoral
education and training remains an important part of the continuing
professional development and credentialing process for professional
psychologists. Postdoctoral education and training is a foundation
for practice improvement, advanced competence, and inter-
jurisdictional mobility.

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How is this different from how it has always been? I had been under the impression that the APA only recognized "psychologists" as those with doctorates.
 
JatPenn said:
How is this different from how it has always been? I had been under the impression that the APA only recognized "psychologists" as those with doctorates.

Couldn't you previously be recognized as a "school psychologist" with only a Masters? Is that the change in APA policy?
 
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i know in vermont, you can be a psychologist with just a master's

i don't see how apa has the right to make this change after the fact...i guess it applies to future psychologists?

apa gets way more authority than it deserves imo (look to the past)
school psychologists are in high demand now
 
no, no, no. the point of this is that now the APA is recommending to states to revise their liscensure laws to allow clinical psychologists (at the doctoral level) to accrue their supervised clinical hours prior to graduation so that you will a) be more easily able to accept an academic position after graduation and still be liscenced and b) not have to work in a low-paying clinical job for 2 or so years after graduating in order to sit for the liscensing exam. They are attempting to make the liscensure procedures more streamlined and similar to how medical doctors get liscenced.
 
SaraL124 said:
no, no, no. the point of this is that now the APA is recommending to states to revise their liscensure laws to allow clinical psychologists (at the doctoral level) to accrue their supervised clinical hours prior to graduation so that you will a) be more easily able to accept an academic position after graduation and still be liscenced and b) not have to work in a low-paying clinical job for 2 or so years after graduating in order to sit for the liscensing exam. They are attempting to make the liscensure procedures more streamlined and similar to how medical doctors get liscenced.
sorry i misinterpreted it, i get it now
 
JatPenn said:
How is this different from how it has always been? I had been under the impression that the APA only recognized "psychologists" as those with doctorates.


They do. The difference is that now you can accrue your hours necessary for liscensure prior to graduation.
 
SaraL124 said:
They do. The difference is that now you can accrue your hours necessary for liscensure prior to graduation.

Good news for me, then. Thanks, Sara :thumbup:
 
Yeah I was pretty happy about it too as I am planning on a career in academia.
 
Is this going to change the graduate school structure for people entering next year? I somehow doubt that, especially at heavily-research oriented schools, that they will set it up so that you get 3000 clincial hours before graduating?

Correct me if I'm wrong, so this is saying that people can now do a 2-year-long internship prior to graduating, and then get their license right after they get their degree? What's the advantage of this as opposed to getting the extra hours during a postdoc?
 
positivepsych said:
Is this going to change the graduate school structure for people entering next year? I somehow doubt that, especially at heavily-research oriented schools, that they will set it up so that you get 3000 clincial hours before graduating?

Correct me if I'm wrong, so this is saying that people can now do a 2-year-long internship prior to graduating, and then get their license right after they get their degree? What's the advantage of this as opposed to getting the extra hours during a postdoc?

It's not entirely clear. As it is written, it says that APA will require 2 years of full-time supervised professional experience. From my perspective, it can be interpreted in 2 different ways.

1. If "professional experience" is referring to clinical work, then you will not be able to be licensed immediately after internship. That is, training would most likely look like this:

- last year of grad school (for PhDs, not a full-time clinical year*)
- internship (full-time clinical year)
- post-doc (full-time clinical year)

If you are on a research track, you will most likely do 2 years of post-doc that will allow you to do half-time clinical work.

* For PsyDs, the last year of grad school might be a full-time clinical year, whereas for PhDs this is unlikely.

2. If "professional experience" refers to any kind of professional work (clinical, research, consulting, etc.), then you would be able to apply for licensure immediately after internship. Then the training would most likely look like this:

- last year of grad school (full-time professional year)
- internship (full-time clinical year)


If scenario #1 is correct, training will look no different than it already is. So I'm not entirely certain what this statement is all about.

Further, licensure is still under the purview of each individual state. So although APA can make this recommendation (whatever it means), it is up to the state licensing board to determine what to do with it.
 
In Florida, the law states that 2 years of supervised training is required to become licensed. The grad school internship counts as the first year. I'm guessing from the posts on this board that other states are not so generous.
 
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