What clinical experience can I get as a first year PhD student?

[PsychologistLizzie]

Hi all! I was hoping I could get some advice.

I'm an incoming clinical-school psych student. I know that externships are not typically available for 1st-year students, so I was wondering what I can do now and which experiences will make me most competitive.

I am primarily interested in providing individual counseling to children/adolescents/young adults in settings such as clinics/hospitals/counseling centers. Even if I can only be labeled as a "volunteer," I would love to know what kind of places would allow me to provide counseling at this stage.

Any advice would be appreciated!

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[EmotRegulation]

What experiences will make you most competitive....for what? We (faculty) typically frown on students doing extra stuff in the first year because the first year is often very course heavy, and the idea is to get a firm foundation in the science and theory before doing any active clinical work. Not to mention that most programs (note: I am familiar with clinical, not clinical-school) start with assessment training. My advice would be to channel your enthusiasm and energy about doing actual clinical work into reading and try to be patient!!!

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Agree with the rec to be patient. My program actually started some clinical experiences in the first year, but in my case, it was very assessment heavy, and was primarily to help get us trained on administration, scoring, etc. I would not at all have been prepared to provide any sort of therapy at that stage.

 

[MCParent]

Hi all! I was hoping I could get some advice.

I'm an incoming clinical-school psych student. I know that externships are not typically available for 1st-year students, so I was wondering what I can do now and which experiences will make me most competitive.

I am primarily interested in providing individual counseling to children/adolescents/young adults in settings such as clinics/hospitals/counseling centers. Even if I can only be labeled as a "volunteer," I would love to know what kind of places would allow me to provide counseling at this stage.

Any advice would be appreciated!

It's not going to make you more competitive if you can't count it for internship, which you can't do unless it's sanctioned by your site. Your site will not want you doing any counseling without ethics and core skills classes.
Read about therapy and figure out some research ideas with the energy instead!

 

[psych.meout]

I'll echo the advisement to be patient and add that you should temper eagerness for clinical experience so that it isn't a distraction. Clinical work is fun, challenging, and provides immediate gratification, unlike research, which tends to take significant time and effort before it pays off. Thus, it's easy for students to overextend themselves and focus too heavily in their practica. This distracts them from completing other important milestones (e.g., proposing or defending their master's theses), impeding their timely progress through their programs. Getting quality clinical hours is obviously very important, but you shouldn't focus on this to the neglect of your other responsibilities.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Just wanted to add that it is great that you are excited to get started. When you do begin doing practicums it is good to aim for diverse settings and populations. I looked for inpatient work with more severe populations during my training and that foundation has served me well later even when working with higher functioning patients.

 

[AbnormalPsych]

Focus on what your program has planned out for you. First year can be the toughest for many because of all the personal adjustments in addition to heavy coursework, starting new research, etc..Get a solid grip on all that and positive feedback from your faculty before you consider doing outside projects.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I agree about focusing on research and possible assessment training options. Those are both more appropriate than any kind of therapy bc you really won’t have any foundation for therapeutic intervention during your first year. Most programs start w courses focused see on interviewing, diversity, basic assessment, etc.

I actually sought out assessment based research work involving clinical and school psych researchers in my first year and it really set me up for great practica experiences later and offered me exposure to peds, which looked great on my CV.

 

[PsychologistLizzie]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply! That advice is probably best (and what my psychologist dad has been telling me haha). Sometimes I get overly ambitious, but I definitely feel more comfortable not rushing into clinical experiences now.

The advice about looking for work in diverse and inpatient settings is also very helpful for when that time comes! I will also focus on research/assessment projects for now since I hadn’t considered that initially

 

[jdawg2017]

It's probably already been said, but this is a question for your program. Most programs will not allow you to begin clinical work until year 2, so the answer is probably that you will get no "clinical" experience in the first year except, perhaps, in a research setting in your lab (if applicable). You might be able to do 1-2 co-therapy cases depending on if your program even does co-therapy and whether or not that is available in year 1. I did a co-therapy case in my first year of the PhD program in the second semester, and definitely recommend it if it is possible. You should not, however, be expecting to treat your own patients in year 1 for the most part.

 

[Justanothergrad]

Hi all! I was hoping I could get some advice.

I'm an incoming clinical-school psych student. I know that externships are not typically available for 1st-year students, so I was wondering what I can do now and which experiences will make me most competitive.

I am primarily interested in providing individual counseling to children/adolescents/young adults in settings such as clinics/hospitals/counseling centers. Even if I can only be labeled as a "volunteer," I would love to know what kind of places would allow me to provide counseling at this stage.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Do research and get ahead on your thesis. Hours wont matter unless you can count them on APPIC and you'll need requisite coursework first (typically taken during the first year)