Professional Field Training, LA PhD Program

The development of appropriate professional knowledge, skills and attitudes is a process that begins with the student's doctoral program and continues through the individual's professional career via practice, consultation with colleagues and formal continuing education. At the predoctoral stage, students' professional development occurs within the context of both formal coursework and clinical training experiences supervised by faculty and professionals in the field. Students develop and acquire clinical skills through professional training experiences in a variety of mental health service settings in the community. Such supervised professional training experiences are called "clerkship" and "practicum" at the premaster's level and "internship" at the predoctoral level.

Each student is assigned a professional field training advisor who meets regularly with the student to develop and implement an individualized training plan designed to assure (1) that the student receives a broad base of clinical experiences with a variety of clientele and professional role models and (2) that professional training experiences are well-matched to the student's level of skill and longer-term professional goals.

In the second year of the PhD program, students may take a clerkship. The emphasis is on assessment via interviewing and testing. Clerkships include experience at a field site. Clerkship is optional at this time.

PhD students in the third year are required to have a minimum 15-hour per week practicum experience at a mental health setting. Students begin to assume clinical responsibility for assessment and intervention while closely supervised at a level appropriate to the student's training and abilities. This clinical professional training experience will vary with respect to the nature of clients served and the mental health setting the student serves in, as well as upon individual students' skill levels, professional interests and training needs.

At both the practicum and half-time internship levels, the Los Angeles campus students are placed for professional training in agencies which are formally affiliated with the school. All professional training programs are carefully reviewed and continually monitored by the Los Angeles campus clinical faculty to assure consistent and high quality training. The Los Angeles campus clinical faculty members are also responsible for evaluating students' training performance.

Program Offers Two Internship Options

PhD students will complete a half-time internship in the fourth year and a full-time internship in the fifth year after coursework has been completed (Option A); or they will complete a half-time internship in the fourth and fifth years (option B). The total number of required internship hours is 2000.

Students should be aware that various postdoctoral training positions and some employers (e.g., the Veterans Administration) require that successful applicants have APA-accredited internships. Students have extensive opportunities to discuss with their assigned clinical field training advisors the various internship options available and the development of a training plan which assures students' needs and goals are met.

Predoctoral Internship

The predoctoral internship involves a systematic and intensive program which includes assessment, intervention, supervision and training in agencies that are under the auspices of clinical faculty and administrative staff of the Division of Professional Field Training and the Director of Field Training at the Los Angeles campus. During the internship, the student has responsibility for providing a variety of psychological services under the direct supervision of licensed clinical psychologists and in contexts that offer a variety of additional training opportunities, for example, case conferences, in-service training, quality assurance reviews and individual and group supervision.

Settings for Internships

The types of settings in which students might train include: university and college counseling centers; inpatient psychiatric hospitals; public and private community mental health agencies; medical hospitals or outpatient clinics; physical rehabilitation programs; day treatment programs; substance abuse programs; and residential treatment centers. With over 100 agencies in its training network, the Los Angeles campus offers students exceptional professional training opportunities reflecting the wide range of interests and training needs of the students in the general clinical option as well as the emphasis areas (e.g. Multicultural Community Clinical Psychology, Clinical Health Psychology, and Family and Couple).

The majority of affiliated professional training sites exist within a 40-mile radius of the campus. Students can generally anticipate driving some distance in at least one of their professional training years. Students who wish to pursue full-time internships are encouraged to make applications throughout the country. Currently, some students receive a stipend from their professional training agency. The majority of half-time internships and virtually all clerkships and practica do not offer stipends and students should not count on training stipends as a means of financing their education.