Re-Re Specializing in Children

[FreudianSlippers]

For my first 2 years in graduate school (2013-2015) I primarily worked with children and adolescents, including child psychotherapy classes, 2 practicum placements at schools, and quite a bit of other supervised clinical work. However, since then my work and training has been with adults and young adults, including internship and post-doc. I am recently licensed and will be joining a small group practice soon. For the sake of diversity and building up a caseload, I think I want to see maybe 30-40% child/teen clients. However, it's been about 4 years since i've worked with this population. Any advice on getting back into it? I was thinking about reviewing my old materials and reading some of the latest child therapy literature. Since it's been 4 years, do you all think I should also seek professional consultation once I start seeing clients? Would love to hear about similar experiences, thoughts, advice, or general musings

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[WisNeuro]

Being so close to graduate study, and with that amount of time off, I would definitely seek consultation/extra supervision, for several reasons. One, simply for the sake of your patients and building that competency back. Second, for liability purposes. If something goes wrong and you have a lawsuit and/or board action, having that consultation/supervision would be a good arrow in the quiver.

 

[FreudianSlippers]

Being so close to graduate study, and with that amount of time off, I would definitely seek consultation/extra supervision, for several reasons. One, simply for the sake of your patients and building that competency back. Second, for liability purposes. If something goes wrong and you have a lawsuit and/or board action, having that consultation/supervision would be a good arrow in the quiver.

Thanks WisNeuro, your points make sense. Do you think it would be enough to join a weekly (informal-type) peer supervision group with local child psychologists, or would it be best to pay for individual, one on one supervision/consultation?

 

[WisNeuro]

Thanks WisNeuro, your points make sense. Do you think it would be enough to join a weekly (informal-type) peer supervision group with local child psychologists, or would it be best to pay for individual, one on one supervision/consultation?

I am probably more risk averse than others. At least for a certain amount of time (e.g., 6 months to a year) I would want something formal and documented in terms of one on one. After that the peer group would probably work. You pretty much want something official that you can show the board of they ever question your foundation of competence in a certain area. I've seen this come up in our state before, and actually have a colleague who successfully got someone's license taken away for practicing an area without training. Our state is probably more strict than most, though.

 

[FreudianSlippers]

I am probably more risk averse than others. At least for a certain amount of time (e.g., 6 months to a year) I would want something formal and documented in terms of one on one. After that the peer group would probably work. You pretty much want something official that you can show the board of they ever question your foundation of competence in a certain area. I've seen this come up in our state before, and actually have a colleague who successfully got someone's license taken away for practicing an area without training. Our state is probably more strict than most, though.

Yikes....that's really good to know. Honestly, I am definitely on the risk averse side as well. I would never want to practice outside of my competency for the sake of client welfare, but the license issue is really important also (i'm glad the board takes it so seriously). Thanks so much for the advice! Any thoughts on ways to start looking for somebody to supervise in this capacity? Do I just make cold calls or is there a place where people advertise?

 

[WisNeuro]

Yikes....that's really good to know. Honestly, I am definitely on the risk averse side as well. I would never want to practice outside of my competency for the sake of client welfare, but the license issue is really important also (i'm glad the board takes it so seriously). Thanks so much for the advice! Any thoughts on ways to start looking for somebody to supervise in this capacity? Do I just make cold calls or is there a place where people advertise?

The case I cite was fairly egregious, someone doing neuropsych with 0 training and grossly misdiagnosed an individual. As far as where to find it, if you have a good network that could be a place to start. Otherwise, maybe e-mail/call some of the boarded child/adolescent people in your area. That may help to lend some credence to the formal supervision/consultation. Though, I don't know how ubiquitous that board membership is. Neuro and rehab seem to the be the big ones.

 

[MAClinician]

Division 53 website or list server (?) might be another place to look. Good luck!