Practicum Training

In the Clinical Psychology Program, the first 3 years of practicum training are taught in-house. The practica are sequential and graded in complexity.

The first year practicum focuses on humanistic and psychodynamic therapeutic techniques. The second year is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) practicum in which students build on their skills from the first year and integrate them with CBT. In the third year practicum, students choose between advanced CBT for adults or children. The first practicum is housed in the AU Counseling Center; the CBT and advanced CBT practica are  housed in the James J. Gray Psychotherapy Clinic in the Department of Psychology.

Theoretical and empirical literature is integrated into each practicum experience in the context of readings and discussion. Each year-long practicum meets as a 3 credit/semester course, where students meet as a class for 2 ½ hours per week and receive additional individual and/or dyadic supervision. Throughout the practica experiences, students are encouraged to attend to multicultural perspectives and the intersection of identities.

Externship Training

Students must complete an external externship (approximately 16 hours per week). Students typically do their externships in their third, fourth, and sometimes fifth years. Students are encouraged to choose sites that match their focused research and clinical interests and typically participate in externships that use the Washington Area Externship Consortium. Following is a list of selected sites where students have completed externships in recent years:

• American University Counseling Center
• Arlington County Mental Health Center
• Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington
• Catholic University of America Counseling Center
• Children's National Medical Center (Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic; Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders; Child and Adolescent Anxiety Clinic; Hyperactivity, Attention, and Learning Problems Clinic; Pediatric Neuropsychology, etc.)
• DC Superior Court Child Guidance Clinic
• Fort Belvoir Community Hospital
• George Mason University Counseling Center
• Georgetown University Counseling Center
• Johns Hopkins Hospital 
• National Cancer Institute at the NIH, Health Psychology and Neurobehavioral Research Group
• St. Elizabeth's Hospital
• US Naval Academy Midshipmen Development Center
• Wake Kendall Group
• Washington, DC, VA Medical Center (Substance Abuse Recovery Program; Primary Care Behavioral Health Clinic; etc.)

Internship Training

Clinical program students are required to serve a one-year internship prior to the completion of the PhD. The internship provides training in a range of psychological assessment and intervention activities conducted directly with recipients of psychological services. The internship must provide at least two hours per week in didactic activities such as case conferences, seminars, in service training, or grand rounds.

The internship experience must be completed in at least one year (full-time) or two years (half-time).

Students are strongly encouraged to serve internships accredited by the American Psychological Association or Canadian Psychological Association. Following is a list of selected sites where students have matched and completed internships in recent years:

• American University Counseling Center
• Baltimore VA Medical Center 
• Bellevue Hospital Center, New York University Langone Medical Center
• Brown University Medical Center
• Catholic University of America Counseling Center
• Duke University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry
• Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VA 
• Faulk Center for Counseling 
• Hudson River Psychology Internship Program at Rockland Psychiatric Center
• Kennedy Krieger/Hopkins Behavioral Psychology and Neuropsychology
• Nassau University Medical Center
• Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children
• New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center
• Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Hospital
• University of Chicago Medicine 
• University of Miami Counseling Center
• University of Wisconsin-Madison University Health Services
• VA Salt Lake City Health Care System
• Washington DC VA Medical Center
• Yale University Child Study Center