Advanced Practicum

Application Procedure for Advanced Practicum

Students typically complete their first practicum at University Counseling and Consulting Services (UCCS), under course numbers Psy 8514 and 8515. The UCCS practicum satisfies the minimum practice requirement of the American Psychological Association (510 hours, practicum; 150 hours, direct service; 75 hours, scheduled supervision). Subsequent practica (called "Advanced Practica") may be completed at a variety of approved sites or may be arranged, with Faculty approval, with other sites in the Twin Cities area. A list of the approved sites and site descriptions are available in the Practicum Site Directory and Handbook, which is updated annually by the Practice Coordinator, Dr. Patricia Frazier.

Most students begin their planning for Advanced Practica during Fall Semester of their second year. The process for application varies by site, but these are some steps to consider:

At the end of Fall semester of your second year (and any other years in which you apply for advanced practicum), consult the current Practicum Site Directory and Handbook to identify advanced practicum sites of interest.
Schedule a meeting at the end of Fall semester or the beginning of Spring semester with the Practice Coordinator to discuss your goals for advanced practicum. In choosing a site, students should consider:
- the availability of various types of supervision and didactic training at the site (e.g., individual and group supervision, availability of videotaped supervision, qualifications of supervisor, availability of training clinics or other didactic experiences),
- their developmental level (e.g., students beginning advanced practicum may want more didactic training experiences)
- training goals, such as desires for experience with particular client populations (e.g., children, adolescents, adults, older adults), therapeutic modalities (e.g., individual, group, or family), theoretical orientations or discrete therapies (e.g., psychodynamic, CBT, motivational interviewing), and work tasks (e.g., assessment, short-term therapy, long-term therapy, consultation, supervision)
- and internship goals (e.g., students who plan to intern in a college counseling center in the Midwest will need different preparatory experiences than those who would like to intern in a community mental health center on the East coast).
Consult the Practicum Site Directory and Handbook, the practice coordinator, and directly with the site to determine the application procedure and deadlines. Competition for placements can be very tight, and students should plan to apply to several sites. Many placements have early winter deadlines, generally in February or March, although some sites may have deadlines later in the spring.
Where required, ask for letters of recommendation. Some practicum sites require letters of recommendation or a list of references. Particularly valuable are recommendations from individuals who know your clinical work.
Complete interviews for Advanced Practicum with sites, and select a site. Students must complete an Advanced Practicum Agreement form prior to beginning the placement and have it signed by the site supervisor, the student’s advisor, and the Practice Coordinator.
Register for Advanced Practicum (Psy 8560, 61, and 62, required to participate in practicum). Plan to attend the required Advanced Practicum Seminar, which meets approximately monthly and requires readings, discussion, and typically a case presentation or other project.
Be aware of ongoing requirements as you complete your practicum:
- Site supervisors are required to complete evaluations of student work once a semester. The evaluation forms are sent to supervisors at the end of each semester. Your supervisor should complete the form, discuss it with you, and mail it to the Practice Coordinator.
- All Advanced Practicum students must also record all practicum activities (direct service, supervision, support hours, etc.) using the Doctoral Practicum Documentation form, which was developed using the APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI), in order to be useful for students in compiling their internship applications. We also recommend using the excel spreadsheet Practicum Hours Data Record as a supplementary means for recording cumulative hours. Updated versions of these forms will also be sent electronically to all practicum/advanced practicum students by the Practice Coordinator during the first weeks of the semester.

Professional Liability During Advanced Practicum

Although the University will probably cover the professional liability obligations of students resulting from their participation in official University activities, because of concerns about students' coverage during breaks, etc., the Program now requires students enrolled in Advanced Practicum or completing Advanced Practica without course enrollment to purchase their own student professional liability insurance. Student liability insurance is available at a nominal fee (currently $35/year to APAGS members) from the APA Trust.

Practicum Supervision by Non-Licensed-Psychologists:

Most advanced practica are supervised by licensed psychologists (LPs). Some advanced practica may be supervised by psychology interns and/or postdoctoral fellows who are preparing for licensure, in which case an LP serves as the supervisor of record, insuring the quality of both the supervision and the work of the practicum student.

Rarely, a high quality advanced practicum will have someone other than an LP as the site supervisor (e.g., a Licensed Clinical Social Worker). Students may complete up to 1 year of advanced practicum at such a site, if the site has been previously approved by the Advanced Practicum Coordinator, if the site serves a particular student training need (e.g., exposure to diverse populations), and if the student has or will obtain adequate assessment experience in other practica (non-LPs cannot supervise assessment practica). Only pre-approved sites listed in the Practicum Site Directory and Handbook may be used as an non-LP supervised practicum.

Definition of a Successful Training Experience:

Students are considered to have successfully completed an advanced practicum training experience for a given semester when they have

completed all requirements for the Advanced Practicum course, as described above in items 6 and 7, including:
- required paperwork (logs, supervisor evaluations, Advanced Practicum agreement forms),
- case presentation and course projects,
- and participation in course readings and discussions.
received acceptable performance ratings on their supervisor evaluations.
- An acceptable performance rating is defined differently depending on the semester of the training year.
  1. At the Fall Semester evaluation, students must receive a rating of 3 or better on at least 6 of the 9 evaluation content areas
  2. By the end of Spring Semester, students must receive a 3 or better on all evaluation content areas.