Social/Personality PhD, recertification for Clinical?

[autumn7]

Does anyone have experience doing a social/personality psychology PhD program, and then getting recertification and licensure to practice? Any input on this process?

I understand that this is a more circuitous route to clinical licensure, just curious about feasibility and things to consider, from any of your personal experiences. I have reviewed the websites detailing logistics of recertification. Thank you!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Justanothergrad]

Re-specialization programs are generally not highly reputable (most, all I think but I'm being generous, internship sites I know toss them quickly during review whenever they have happened to come in) because why would you consider one year of training as preparing you to perform adequately the tasks others spend years learning and refining?

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

There are decent programs out there and they require well more than 1yr + internship, etc. However, there are quite a few "re-specialization" programs out there that are very poor quality. There have been some threads on this in the past, so a search could be helpful.

 

[autumn7]

Interesting to hear this perspective. I suppose it is understandable to view re-specialization as a different path, but thinking lesser of these applicants seems limiting. In fact it could promote diversity of thinking within the internship program to have a person who is re-specializing from a Social/Personality Psychology PhD, or Industrial Organizational, etc.

I would hope there would be some interest in the potential of the applicant as a thoughtful and competent clinician, particularly if the experience and research background is strongly relevant to their clinical interests. However, it makes sense to preference Clinical Psych applicants in the internship process.

Either way, thanks for the input about the way some view the reputation of re-specialization programs.

 

[WisNeuro]

Interesting to hear this perspective. I suppose it is understandable to view re-specialization as a different path, but thinking lesser of these applicants seems limiting. In fact it could promote diversity of thinking within the internship program to have a person who is re-specializing from a Social/Personality Psychology PhD, or Industrial Organizational, etc.

I would hope there would be some interest in the potential of the applicant as a thoughtful and competent clinician, particularly if the experience and research background is strongly relevant to their clinical interests. However, it makes sense to preference Clinical Psych applicants in the internship process.

Either way, thanks for the input about the way some view the reputation of re-specialization programs.

It's a matter of perspective. On one hand you have students from clinical psych programs that have 3-4 years of clinical experience across a range of practica experiences, and on the other, a somewhat shady re-specialization program student with less than half of that in many cases. It's a pretty easy choice to make as a selection committee. We want to train advanced skills on internship and postdoc, not teach students what they should have learned years ago.