Is requalification possible?

[PsyHike]

Hello.

I have a general question that might or might not affect my decision for future career path: can a person who has a PhD in any other area of psychology besides clinical (experimental, forensic, social, etc.) requalify to become a clinical psychologist (maybe with additional internship), or do they have to start and finish Clinical Psychology PhD all over again despite having doctorate in another psychology field?

Thank you!

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[psych.meout]

Hello.

I have a general question that might or might not affect my decision for future career path: can a person who has a PhD in any other area of psychology besides clinical (experimental, forensic, social, etc.) requalify to become a clinical psychologist (maybe with additional internship), or do they have to start and finish Clinical Psychology PhD all over again despite having doctorate in another psychology field?

Thank you!

Well, the didactic coursework is going to be different (e.g. typically multiple courses in assessment and intervention) and other types of psych PhDs (except for counseling) generally don't have the clinical training through practica, internships, and post-docs, so I'm fairly confident that you'd have to do the full clinical psych program. They might exempt you from certain courses if you took comparable ones in your first PhD, much like they would for a student entering with a master's degree, and you definitely would have the research chops to make admission fairly easy.

 

[PsychPhDone]

You're looking for a respecialization program.
http://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/respecialization.aspx

I tried to find info about a couple of these programs on their websites and came up short, but at least you have the terminology now.

If you think you might want to go clinical, I'd do it from the outset.

 

[SLB-CO]

I had a wonderful mentor in graduate school who did just that. PsychPhDStudent gave you the right link - the programs are limited and vary in terms of their training, so definitely weigh your options carefully. My mentor was happy with the training received and is a skilled researcher and clinician....but that's an n of 1, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Justanothergrad]

Of the folks I know (which is... 2), they all got a second degree because there is substantial coursework not covered in their previous areas (assessment, therapy skills/evidenced-based practice, ethics, practicum aka actual clinical training, etc), not to mention internship. You'll notice that most of the respecialization programs are run by for profit schools.

 

[PsyHike]

Thanks for the replies! I'm trying to think about the right career path - or the possible one, given the insane acceptance rates in Clinical PhD programs. I have failed to get accepted once, thus I am doing Master's right now to strengthen my research experience side, and will try to get accepted again. I am still not sure about being a therapist, but the research of clinical issues interests me greatly.

 

[deleted343839]

Thanks for the replies! I'm trying to think about the right career path - or the possible one, given the insane acceptance rates in Clinical PhD programs. I have failed to get accepted once, thus I am doing Master's right now to strengthen my research experience side, and will try to get accepted again. I am still not sure about being a therapist, but the research of clinical issues interests me greatly.

Well, don't lose hope. I've known several social psychologists who back-door their way into clinical research despite having (IMO) some training gaps. If you're interested in clinical research, you can also collaborate with clinically trained folks. It depends on what you want to study but, generally speaking, there are a lot of ways to have a hand in clinical research.

Of course, if you have an interest in clinical practice you'd need a degree that will enable you to become licensed. I would never recommend pursuing a non-clinical Ph.D. with a plan to turn around and respecialize. That's just not a good investment of time or money.

 

[PsyHike]

Well, don't lose hope. I've known several social psychologists who back-door their way into clinical research despite having (IMO) some training gaps. If you're interested in clinical research, you can also collaborate with clinically trained folks. It depends on what you want to study but, generally speaking, there are a lot of ways to have a hand in clinical research.

Of course, if you have an interest in clinical practice you'd need a degree that will enable you to become licensed. I would never recommend pursuing a non-clinical Ph.D. with a plan to turn around and respecialize. That's just not a good investment of time or money.

Thank you for the advice! I have some soul-searching to do before I make a choice, and experiences I will acquire during my Master's will help as well, I'm sure.