Internship and Practicum
Students are enrolled in six (6) hours of practicum training generally beginning with their second year in the Masters in Clinical Psychology program. There are several prerequisites to enrollment in the Practicum Course(s). The prerequisites are having completed the following:
The prerequisites for the Internship include having successfully (a) completed the Practicum courses, and (b) passed the Comprehensive Examination. The Internship is a 480 clock hour internship. This means that at 40 hours per week, it would take approximately 12 weeks at full time to complete. Full time is considered a 40 hour week, such as 8:00am to 5:00pm with an hour off for lunch. Interns who teach for an independent school district and who expect to complete their internship in the summer will please note that this may not be possible without putting in extra hours per week, as teachers may not be granted 12 complete weeks of vacation.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Internship:
1. How may hours will be needed to complete the internship?
Answer: 480 clock hours
2. What duties will be need to fulfill as an intern? For example, will we be required to sit and observe, perform testing, write reports and/or conduct therapy?
Answer: Yes to all
3. Does our supervisor need to be a clinical psychologist or could he/she be a psychologist in a different field such as a school psychologist or counseling psychologist?
Answer: The supervising psychologist needs to be a licensed psychologist in the State of Texas; that is the only requirement.
4. As interns will we be needing liability insurance?
Answer: Yes, the Texas Psychological Association website has information on how students can obtain liability insurance coverage during their internship. The annual premium is about $23.00. Contact the American Professional Agency, Inc. (512) 691-6400 or (800) 421-6694. Also see the Texas Psychological Association website: www.texaspsyc.org.
5. Would it be possible to obtain a list of individuals or institutions that would be eligible to take us as interns?
Answer: Two such agencies are: Tropical Texas MHMR Center, Edinburg and The Rio Grande State Center in Harlingen. Private practice psychologists include Drs. Joseph McCoy, John Pinkerman, Gary Whitworth, Xavier "Jay" Martinez, Sherrill Kendrick, and others. Students need to make plans in conjunction with their faculty internship supervisor at UTPA for internship placement.
The Graduate Psychology Clinic
The Graduate Psychology Clinic is located on the third floor of the Social & Behavioral Sciences Building, next to the Department of Psychology & Anthropology offices. The clinic is composed of 5 offices, and a state of the art video monitoring and control system hardwired to a seminar room that also houses an intercom system for interoffice communication. Sessions can be video taped for review and feedback of training and practice sessions with consumers of clinic services. The seminar room also contains reference and assessment, information and materials used in clinical practice. Assessment materials include the Wechsler Scales of Intelligence (WAIS-III), Achievement Tests, the Wechsler Memory Test-III, the MMPI-2, the Thematic Apperception Test, The Rorschach Inkblot Test, various Neuropsychological Test Batteries, various personality assessment tests, screening tests and the like.
Students under the supervision of a licensed psychologist provide psychological assessment, evaluation, referral, and brief psychotherapy services to interested students, their family members, or their significant relations regarding problems of depression, anxiety, anger or stress, child management problems and the like. Students learn to make appropriate referrals as well. The training clinic is operated in a manner consistent with the Ethics Code of the American Psychological Association, and the State law regulating the practice of psychology in Texas.
Practicum training is accomplished in the Graduate Psychology Clinic, and requires the completion of two graduate courses (Supervised Practicum I & Supervised Practicum II), respectively, Psy 6364 & Psy 6366). The two Practicum Courses are offered in the evening format and are generally completed simultaneously.
In addition to the Supervised Practicum courses, a 480 hour Internship is required before completing the Masters in Clinical Psychology. The Internship (Psy 6368) takes place somewhere in the greater Rio Grande Valley community. The Internship could be in an inpatient or day hospital psychiatric facility (e.g. Rio Grande State Center in Harlingen), or chemical dependency unit, partial hospitalization mental health center (Tropical Texas MHMR Center), state human development center, autism program, developmental disability program, private psychiatric facility, community-based criminal justice correctional facility, inpatient adolescent hospital program or other program(s) including placement with private practice psychologist (s).
During the Internship, the student is placed in a clinic, service or program providing psychological services to the public. The Intern is supervised by a licensed Psychologist who instructs the Intern with respect to current standards of applied psychological practice in that specific setting, monitors and supervises the work performed by the Intern and meets face to face, on a one to one basis for no less than 1 hour per week, with the Intern throughout the 480 clock hours of the Internship. The Psychologist providing field supervision reports regularly to the academic instructor assigned to the Internship. Cases are discussed and reviewed by the Licensed Psychologist and the Intern with respect to standards of care, appropriateness of diagnosis, effectiveness of treatment, cultural competence, ethical, and transference issues, among others.