Clinical Training question

[Sobe203]

1) If you're going to a research-oriented program, can you expect to get enough clinical training to make it a partial career focus later? (I'd ideally like a research/clinical practice career.)

2) If a program's lab says it treats things like depression, anxiety, etc., but not severe mood disorders, will I ever be able to work with those professionally despite the program's lab not treating them? Why don't they work with those?

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[erg923]

1) If you're going to a research-oriented program, can you expect to get enough clinical training to make it a partial career focus later? (I'd ideally like a research/clinical practice career.)

2) If a program's lab says it treats things like depression, anxiety, etc., but not severe mood disorders, will I ever be able to work with those professionally despite the program's lab not treating them? Why don't they work with those?

1. Yes, of course. Most students, even at the big research heavy schools end up going into a predominantly practice oriented careers. Remeber, the whole idea of the Boulder training model (i.e., scientist-practioner) is that you are fully qualified to do both. Alot of the BIG research schools (i.e., Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, UCLA, Yale, Vandy, Pittsburgh, just to name a few) will actively dissuade you from trying to pursue clinically oriented practica versus research oriented endeavors later in grad school, but this decision is totally up to you. You will be fully competent to do practice from big research schools, asuming you have made this a priority during your training.

2. I'm not really sure what you mean by "program's lab"? If you mean the individual research lab of a professor within a program, then this just happens to be the focus of their research within that lab. If your working in that lab, your research will likely have to fall within what they are studying. Obviously you don't want to have a mentor who is researching disorders or phenomena you are not at all interested in. So make sure your POI is a good match for your interests. You will still get adequate training and exposure to all the prevalent Axis I conditions (severe mood disorders, schiz, developmental disorders, etc.) in didactics, and experience with these patients during your practicums. Optimally, ones research and clinical interests are similar and convergent in grad school, and help that person to form somewhat of an expertise in a certain area. However, all psychologist are generalists before being specialists, and you will have a well grounded knowledge (both diagnosis and treatment) on many different psychopathologies by the time you get your Ph.D.

 

[Sobe203]

Thanks so much for letting me know about #1.

As for #2, I mean that the college itself has a clinic where community citizens and undergraduate students can come and get services. That clinic doesn't treat severe mood disorders. Does that mean I won't learn how to work with those kinds of clients? Why doesn't the clinic work with those disorders?

 

[erg923]

Well the University's walk in clinic will certainly not be the extent of your clinical training. Doing 3 years of clinical training at a university based training clinic will not provide appropriate breadth of experience. Of course clinical programs know this, and you will have opportunities for exterships at hospitals, and other various outside sites, primarily 3rd and 4th years. The university walk-in clinic is typically the first site students in a program train at specifically because they deal with "garden variety" and typically less severe psychopathologies. Trust me, better to start off with a depressed and anxious college student, rather than a floridly psychotic, chronically depressed, schizoaffective client with comorbid substance abuse..know what I mean?

University walk-in/training clinics typically employ psychologists (maybe one consulting psychiatrist) and aren't equipped to deal with with patients who are acutely psychotic and/or grossly manic and in need of pharmacological stabilization. That is what inpatient facilities are for. If you do see bipolar and schiz clients in a University training clinic setting, they are likely pretty high functioning and stabilized on meds so they can benefit from psychotherapy.

 

[Ollie123]

Pretty much what erg said.

A fair amount of your training may come through the in-house clinic, but I'm about as research-oriented as they get and even I expect to get a large amount of clinical training outside the clinic.

My hope is that #1 is by choice and not by necessity though If I end up having to practice even 50% of my time, I'll probably be heading back to school for something else...