CAPIC internships

[PsyDCalifornia]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I am currently a graduate student in a clinical psychology psyd program in California. I am interested in private practice, but I am considering working in community mental health as well. I do not want to relocate for internship for a variety of reasons, and there are not very many APA/APPIC spots in my geographic area. I have heard that doing a CAPIC internship will keep me out of VA and academic medical center jobs, but I am not interested in either of those. I was wondering if anyone has information about whether doing a CAPIC internship can adversely impact my chances at other types of jobs. I am also wondering how CAPIC internships may impact my ability to get a postdoc. Any information you have is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[erg923]

Many, many post-docs (not just academic med or VA) will require or heavily favor applicants with APA approved internships. I even saw a very "no-name" college counseling center post-doc position advertised this week (whose stipend was a measly 19k) that required an APA or APPIC internship. Many, many job advertisements that I see coming across on list serves have this as a requirement. Although some of them do state "APPIC/APA".... but it's my understanding that these CAPIC internships are not APPIC either.

Yes, all of us think the match imbalance is unfair and its true that not matching no longer automatically denotes bad training/personality. However, I don't think anyone on here would agree that CAPIC is the answer to this problem. CAPIC seems to only reinforce professional schools (who largely contribute the imbalance by having cohorts of 40, 50, and 60 students) to continue their irresponsible practices by simply steering people away from accredited internships (stating that they are simply "too competitive") and lowering the expectations of their students. This, in and of itself, puts a stigma on these students and makes them less competitive for jobs in the rest of the country. In other words, I think the CAPIC thing is only adding to the professional school grad's stigma, not helping it.

I understand that relocation may be an impossibility for several reasons (e.g., kids, spouse job, taking care of one parents), but one should be aware that they really are ruling out alot of lucrative career options for themselves (many formal post-docs, VA positions, hospitals and academic med centers). Many CMHCs, even in CA, will pay considerably less than most other types of employment settings. Not only that, but your earning potential tops out very quickly in these setting (unless one moves to a more administrative position). That's not all negative I suppose, but I think most people would like to see themselves climbing the pay scale as the years go by. Moreover, there is relatively little upward mobility within them. To me, this is way too restrictive a career choice, given that I have spent 5 years of intense clinical and research training in a Ph.D. program.

 

[O Gurl]

I just completed post doc search and the vast majority of position announcements require or strongly prefer APA internships. This is regardless of setting (med, VA, university, cmh, private practice) and even most CA sites at least preferred APA. So it will be limiting to say the least.

 

[docma]

The largest resource for formal postdocs in California, beyond VA/med centers/universities, is probably Kaiser and some, if not all, of their post-docs now require (or at least prefer) APPIC pre-doc placements.

You may find municipal/county systems with positions (but there are very few for budget reasons in these times) and those that have had quality CAPIC grads as post-docs or hires will definitely look at where you trained before rejecting CAPIC unilaterally.

CAPIC does have a long established network tied into private practice, group practice and some community-based agencies, so if you know specific settings where you wish to work long term, you need to be asking them directly, as well as talking to the alumni network through your school to get this question answered thoroughly.

There are some excellent training settings (eg UCSF Trauma Recovery UCSF Infant-Parent program) that are locked out of APPIC and APA by cost factors.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

If you do a search for CAPIC you'll find some good posts/threads that speak to both sides of the argument. I'd strongly recommend against applying to any program that isn't APA or in some cases APPIC. Working outside of CA with a CAPIC experience can be dicey. I'm not saying you can't get licensed, but you'll have to jump through a lot more hoops and never really be favored when applying to jobs. APA should still be the goal, as it is the standard for the field.

 

[DrGero]

Don't do it! Go APA/APPIC! Dooooon't limit your options!

I had to be away from my wife for a year (minus seeing her every other weekend) to complete an APA internship and it was very difficult. But in the end, worth it.

 

[PsyDCalifornia]

Thanks for all of the helpful advice on this thread. It sounds like in CA I will not have trouble getting licensed, but I will have trouble getting jobs other than community mental health with a CAPIC internship. Does anyone know of community mental health or county/state agencies that require APA/APPIC internships?

Also, can someone please explain whether an APPIC internship is favored over CAPIC and why?

 

[erg923]

I am not sure, as I actually haven't seen any CMHCs job postings come across lately. Keep in mind that the CA budget nightmare and Jerry Brown's methods probably arent going to be your friend here...know what Im saying?

As for your second question, that simply has to do with 1.) Accreditation 2.) Reputation and competitiveness. Keep in mind that many psychologists outside CA won't know what a "CAPIC Internship" even is, much less the quality of the training. It is my understanding that some are quite impressive, whereas others are little more than workhouses? Is that your impression as well? I would also encourage you to think about the ethics of working for such little pay...and NO PAY in many cases. Do you not find that practice/policy exploitative? Do you really want to condone such practices by participating in them?

I suppose these CAPIC internships would be ok if ones goal is PP, but keep in mind you would need to be networked pretty well to jump right into a PP after internship. Otherwise, the time it takes to build a refferal base would make for a rough start, financially.

If you really HAVE to do this, I would be very careful about where you go. Make sure it's one of the better ones, preferably with some sort of academic tie or affiliation. I think one of the biggest dangers/risk is that many of these places appear to be county or community centers where work and patient volume is going to be the primary order of the day...rather than a focus on science, empirically sound methods, and clinical learning/development. I know that's not going to be the case at every county or community organization, but my experience outside academic institutions (ie., a county medical center) was that it had little focus on these important scientific and clinical training issues.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

As far as the second question, that simply has to do with 1.) Accreditation 2.) Reputation and competitiveness. Keep in mind that many psychologists outside CA won’t know what a "CAPIC Internship" even is, much less the quality of the training? It is my understanding that some are quite impressive, whereas others are little more than workhouses? Is that your impression as well? I would also encourage you to think about the ethics of working for such little pay...and NO PAY in many cases. Do you not find that practice/policy exploitative? Do you really want to condone such practices by participating in them?

These are all really important questions to consider. Unfortunately many applicants get caught up in the, "I need an internship SOMEWHERE", and they do not understand the ramifications of securing an internship outside of the APPIC match. There may be some wonderful non-APA/APPIC training opportunities out there, but the perception of the training may hinder a person's ability to secure employment.