Speaker 1: Welcome to Almost Dr. Armas. If you're new to this channel, thank you for checking it out, and if you're already a subscriber, thanks for being back again. In this channel, I talk about my life as a PhD student in clinical psychology and bring you information about the mental health field. In today's video, I want to talk about how clinical psychologists are trained. So I'm happy to say that it's 2020 now and people are talking a lot more about mental health and going to psychotherapy, taking medications, and getting the help that they need. And little by little, the stigma with mental health is being removed. With that movement, I think it's important to know that if you're seeking professional help, that you understand how psychologists are trained. So as I've mentioned, I'm a PhD student in clinical psychology. That means that at the end of my training, I can take an exam to get licensed as a clinical psychologist. Once I earn my PhD and become licensed, I would be referred to as Dr. Armas, hence the name Almost Dr. Armas. Licensed clinical psychologists can do clinical work as in psychotherapy. They can also do clinical research or teach at an academic institution. Clinical psychologists can also serve as expert witnesses for court cases. And I should probably do another video about the kinds of jobs and what a career in clinical psychology might look like. So the reason I decided to go for a PhD in clinical psychology and not a different degree like a master's or a PsyD is because I knew that I wanted to have all the possible career paths that I wanted to have. So I decided to go for a PhD in clinical psychology and not a different degree like a master's or a PsyD. I was interested in doing clinical work with clients as well as doing psychological research. And in my career, I plan to kind of move through all three of those. But in general, when people are thinking about going to therapy or someone recommends therapy, there's sometimes the stigma of that person doesn't know me or like, why would I talk to a stranger? What makes them a professional about my experience? And so I'm going to do a PhD in clinical psychology and not a different degree like a master's or a PsyD. And there are a lot of different degrees that someone can obtain in the mental health field from a license in social work, a master's in counseling or clinical psychology. So I can only speak for a PhD in clinical psychology. The way that we are trained is the PhD program is usually five to seven years. And we learn both research skills and clinical skills. Students in my program are expected to work with a faculty member on research projects of their choice. And so I'm going to do a PhD in clinical psychology and not a different degree. We also are encouraged to take teaching assistant positions so that we can get experience with teaching if that's what we want to do in the future. And we also get a lot of clinical training. And that'll be the focal point of this video. I won't go into much detail about our research or teaching training because I know what you really care about is how do we learn how to do psychotherapy. So the way that it works in my program and most other programs is we spend each year of our PhD working at a different clinical center. And that's what we do. So I'm going to do a PhD in clinical psychology. So in most cases, as I've said in previous videos, PhD programs or universities that have PhD programs in psychology have their own clinic within the university or have an affiliation with an external site where people come and get therapy. So for one of the programs that I interviewed for in the past, PhD students in clinical psychology would be able to train and see patients in the university clinic where students and people in the community come to get treatment. The important part is regardless of where a PhD student is placed to do clinical practicum, we are always, always, always under the supervision of a licensed clinical psychologist. So the way that clinical training works is students will get a couple of patients. They usually have a small caseload and they'll meet both on a weekly basis with an individual supervisor, so a licensed clinical psychologist, and then they'll have group supervision with other student therapists and a licensed clinical psychologist. So it's important to understand that PhD students are doing psychotherapy with the general public and providing treatment usually for little to no cost because they're training and client's care is always under the supervision of an actual licensed therapist. The program that I'm in, for the first year, we're mostly learning about clinical skills and practicing. We're not seeing any clients for the first year. Then we start at the university affiliated clinic. Then we're supervised by a licensed clinical psychologist there. And then for the subsequent years we're placed at external practicum sites in the area, either a hospital, community mental health clinic, or other type of institution where therapy is provided. And again, we're supervised under a licensed clinical psychologist. And if you're a client who is ever being seen by a student therapist, you'll be informed probably multiple times that you're seeing someone who is training and that they're being supervised by someone who has a lot of experience. As we all know, the best way to get a PhD student is to get a PhD student. So if you're looking to take a PhD, you really need to have a great degree. So a lot of times I've been taught that it's not that easy to start with a PhD. It's really hard. It's really hard. But you'll be able to try so many different things. So I wanna just make sure we're all in this together. Best way to learn, and the best way to learn is by doing. So this is the way that psychologists are trained by actually seeing patients. We learn how to do different types of treatment modalities. We practice and do role plays in class. We practice with our supervisors, some clinics, video tape sessions that student therapists do with clients. And then they can re-watch those videos later on with their supervisor and talk about places where they did something well or need to improve on something. So it really is a learning experience for us to see clients throughout our graduate training. I'm sure there are some programs where students stay at the university-affiliated clinic for the whole time. For me, we get to go to different places each year, but in general, after we've done that, by the fifth or sixth year, we go off on internship, which is a national match to basically any site in the country where clinical training and clinical services are administered. So it's very similar to when medical students are matched to like a residency program. And the internship year is typically set up in a way, from what I understand, that we work a full-time job, but again, we're supervised under licensed clinical psychologists because we're still technically doctoral students. So essentially from years one to five or one to six, depending on how long someone's graduate training takes, you're seeing clients throughout and being supervised, but the internship year is kind of a more independent training approach, where you're seeing clients throughout and being supervised, but the internship year is kind of you're probably meeting weekly with a supervisor, you're working full-time and probably have a full caseload. You may also be doing research as part of your internship, depending on what you're focusing on in your career. Some people defend their dissertation before going off on internship. Some people are still writing their dissertation while they're on internship. And for those of you who don't know, the dissertation is basically a unique research project that each doctoral student does, and it is a very, very, very long report written about the work that was done. Obviously, you work on this project with one or more faculty advisors, and it's years worth of work that you defend orally at the end of your degree and successfully defending your dissertation makes you Doctor insert name. Something that a lot of people don't know though is that even though you may graduate from a doctoral program doesn't mean that you're licensed and able to see clients wherever. So in every state, the requirements are different. In most places, you have to do post-doctoral training before you can be eligible to take take the licensing exam. In the state of New York, for example, most doctoral students do one to two years of postdoctoral training, which is sort of like an extension of internship where you have a full-time position at whatever institution, either a hospital or some other place where they provide mental health services, and you're supervised. You meet regularly with a supervisor to kind of advance your clinical training, and at the end of that, you would have had enough clinical hours to take the licensing exam. And if you pass, then you're a licensed clinical psychologist, and you can work without being supervised by someone else. But in most cases, we are encouraged, at least in class now, we're learning that even if you are a licensed clinical psychologist, you should always kind of maintain relationships with other psychologists so that if there's ever a case that is challenging, you can see consultation because no one is perfect. No one is going to be able to be a specialist in every type of problem or disorder. And so we're encouraged to reach out for the length of our career to other people in the field who may have more experience with things than us, or maybe early in their career like us and can relate to the experiences that we have. So to summarize, clinical psychologists are trained in many different ways, but our therapeutic training comes from actually seeing clients. Usually three to six is common in each program, and that'll depend. On your specific program and how much they want you to take on. But in most programs, you're encouraged to go to different sites and different affiliates of the university to get a diverse experience in clinical training. You may spend one year working with a certain type of population, people with severe mental illness, for example. You may spend another year working with children. You may spend another year working with veterans. Or if you know that you want to specialize in a specific population, you might work with veterans in one area and work with older adult veterans in another site, or work with spouses of people in the military at another site. But basically, we're getting clinical training throughout by literally doing therapy, and we're always, always getting supervised. And even after we get our PhDs and have the title of doctor, we still aren't necessarily licensed clinical psychologists, and that does depend on where we are practicing and our ability to pass a licensing exam, which shouldn't be too bad after being in school for five to seven years and seeing clients. On a regular basis. But I just really wanted to unpack for you guys how psychologists are trained because we see psychologists, I think, in society as like experts, and we don't really know anything about how, like, how long the schooling is. When I tell people that I'm getting a PhD, they're like, oh, you're going to be done in two years, right? And I'm like, no, that's a master's. It's five to seven years. It's a lot. And I still won't be licensed at the very end of that. There's still more training after that. The amount of training can range from five to seven years. And I think like eight or nine years if you include postdoc. And that's a really good thing if you think about it, because people are putting their conditions in our hands and we have to be well equipped to help them. And I don't necessarily feel that psychologists always get the respect that they deserve because people just don't know how long and rigorous the training is. But if you think about the length of time that we spend in school, it is comparable to med school. As we move in our society in a direction where mental health is being taught, I think it's important for people to know just how well equipped psychologists are. And that we're also always learning and always evolving. Part of the training that we get is to always stay learning and expanding our clinical skills, reading new research about different types of disorders. And it's kind of an ever evolving field, just like medicine. Things are always changing. If you're a student who is thinking about getting a PhD in clinical psychology, it's helpful to know what you're getting into. And you hear five to seven years when you're looking at programs and you're like, oh, I'm going to get a PhD in clinical psychology. What am I doing for that long? Well, you're learning to do clinical work in addition to classwork, in addition to research. So it needs to be that long so that you can really get the expertise that you need to go out there and help people. So I hope this video was informative for you guys. And if there are more questions about how psychologists are trained, feel free to reach out to me. I'm sharing what I know as of now. And I know that as I move on in the program, I'll learn more about the specifics of licensure and the licensing process. So I hope you enjoyed this video. I just want to remind you to subscribe. Again, I'm almost Dr. Armas. My goal is to inform you, to inspire you, to spark an interest in you, and hopefully also entertain you. And I hope you'll check back in next time.