Seeking for advice on Neuropsych externship/practicum

[Kjun6]

Hello!

I am a second year clinical psych student in the NYC area, and I am currently doing a neuropsych placement seeing primarily children and adolescents (this is my first externship practicum). As we are approaching the time of the year to apply for 2017-2018 externship, I would like to seek out opinions on the types of training that I should be looking for in my 2nd externship practicum to be competitive for neuropsychological internship matching. Should I (a) continue seeking for neuropsych training for the next practicum, or (b) get a 1-year non-neuropsych practicum to hone my therapy skills, and continue with neuropsych training in my 3rd practicum? Do you guys think it will make me less competitive if I decide to pursue a year of externship training in psychotherapy even though my goal is for a neuropsych internship?

Thanks!

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[Therapist4Chnge]

You should have a solid foundation as a psychologist before you pursue advanced training in a speciality area. Much of what you see day to day in neuro is niche, but many of the skills you need to be an effective neuropsychologist will be learned during generalist training. If you don't have good skills as a generalist, you will generally suck as a neuropsychologist. You don't need to love therapy, but learning how to build rapport, gather information (often sensitive in nature), and formulate a treatment plan (or at least a good modality to rec) are all core skills that you will use every day if you do neuropsych. Having an understanding of some EBTs will be helpful, particularly MI and DBT.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

As T4C said, you'll want psychotherapy training at some point. Whether it's next year or the year after may not matter too much.

 

[WisNeuro]

Yup, get some solid therapy training. More potential employers than not have inquired about my therapy training in addition to my neuro training when I've applied for jobs.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

While I don't provide therapy, in my recommendations section I often specify which therapy approach would be best based on the research. I also include topics or pertinent things that might be worth covering (e.g. Pt still has nightmares about their car crash and is exhibiting increased generalized anxiety to many things in the outside world). Ultimately it is up to the treating provider what they do, but most providers appreciate a heads-up.

I also prime some of my patients so they are more likely to consider giving psychotherapy chance. I might talk to them about prolonged exposure therapy to assist w their PTSD or explain that there are many different types of therapy/approaches.

Other things like education about how stress can impact our thoughts and behaviors or my fav which is education about how their neurologic injury can impact their mood and then touch on coping strategies they can use while they wait for an appointment.

I never liked traditional therapy, but learning about many different modalities and associated interventions has been invaluable. Therapy is the heavy lifting in out field and it has a lot to teach us as clinicians...even if we don't utilize it in our day to day work.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Those folks all definitely know what they're talking about.