Forensics and practicum sites

[crazypsychstudent]

I just applied to practicum sites for my first year as a prac student. Our program tells us to aim for a generalist site, which I agree with, but so far have been getting interviews with specialized severe mental illness at hospitals and the VA. My goal for internship is to get a Forensic site with adults with SMI. Therefore, I was wondering if it would hurt if I did my first prac at a hospital, VA, clinic, etc. instead of a "general" site, and then completed my last two at a forensic-related site. Basically I'm wondering if this would hurt my chances when applying to solely forensic and/or SMI internships? For the sake of this question, please assume I do not change my mind along the way... Haha thank you

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[cupoftea2]

"specialized severe mental illness at hospitals" sounds pretty general to me, unless you mean that you'd be on a track where you'd be seeing only individuals with OCD, for example.

 

[crazypsychstudent]

"specialized severe mental illness at hospitals" sounds pretty general to me, unless you mean that you'd be on a track where you'd be seeing only individuals with OCD, for example.

They consider places like college counseling and some clinics to be general because "anything could walk through the door," whereas an inpatient unit would mostly consist of psychotic disorders, mood disorders, etc.

 

[erg923]

Your likely desired internship sites will want to see some experience in that area, but everyone has to start somewhere. Breadth of experience to start.

Think of your training over the years like a funnel. Broad exposure, but tell a story. This will maximize chances of internship match.

 

[PsyDr]

Having talked to sevreal "big name" psychologists over the years, the most interesting thing has been the extreme difference between what they wanted when training started vs the area in which they specialized.

 

[smalltownpsych]

My VA practicum was excellent broad experience as I did three separate rotations over the course of the year. Inpatient experience is invaluable. When I selected internship sites, I chose inpatient settings because I wanted to be prepared for whatever walks in the door when I am in outpatient settings. I work in a primarily outpatient setting now and feel very comfortable because of that backstop of experience with some of the most severe mental illnesses. I also honed my clinical skills by working with these difficult populations. By interviewing psychotic or unstable patients, I learned pretty quickly how not to say the wrong thing. Most of my outpatients won't even react when I make a mistake. They just don't come back.