The Clinical Psychology Program requires a minimum of 300 hours of non-course based practicum training for the MA degree, and a minimum of 1000 hours of practicum training for the PhD degree prior to the year-long internship. Practicum training is available at clinical sites in Windsor and Detroit, but can also be undertaken at sites throughout North America.
Practicum Requirements for the MA Degree
The 300 hours of non-course based practicum training required for the MA degree must include a reasonable number of complete comprehensive assessments (i.e., include the standard intellectual and personality tests and a comprehensive report on the person’s cognitive and personality functioning). MA level practicum training may be undertaken at the earliest in the summer of a student’s first MA year, and may be completed at one or more approved settings.
Practicum Requirements for the PhD Degree
The 1000 hours of practicum training required for the PhD degree include the practicum training completed at the MA level. Apart from obtaining the prior approval of practicum placements from the Practicum Coordinator, and as long as the practicum training is consistent with the student’s specialized track in the Clinical Program, the student has considerable latitude in selecting practicum sites most appropriate for the student’s individual training needs and career aspirations. Students at the doctoral level usually undertake practica in a variety of settings over the course of their first three post-MA years.
The following factors should be considered in determining the amount and nature of practicum training obtained during the doctoral years:
- There should be an appropriate balance overall between assessment, psychotherapy, and consultation.
- Students should obtain diverse practicum training. Students should look for diversity in client populations (problem type and severity, assessment questions), settings (inpatient and outpatient), and therapeutic modalities. The majority of a student’s practicum training should be in the student’s area of specialization: Adult Clinical, Child Clinical, or Clinical Neuropsychology.
- A major consideration in selecting practicum placements is to make oneself more competitive in the internship application process. In selecting interns, internship sites look at much more than the number of practicum hours a student has accumulated. They look for students with diverse and intensive practicum, as well as evidence of research productivity. The appropriate amount of practicum training will depend on each student’s professional aspirations.
Students are strongly discouraged from accruing excessive numbers of practicum hours.
While individual student's goals may lean towards more clinically-based careers, excessive practicum hours will detract from depth of training, progress on research requirements, and quality of life.