APAGS Statement on the 2011 APPIC Internship Match

For students in clinical, counseling, school, and combined-integrated psychology doctoral programs, the internship match is an important benchmark, and the process of applying can be stressful.

APAGS remains deeply concerned about the internship crisis. APAGS considers the discrepancy between the number of applicants for internship and the number of internship positions (particularly APA-accredited positions) to be a crisis for doctoral education in professional psychology. APAGS continues to advocate for long term solutions to the internship crisis in an ongoing basis.

For those who successfully matched to an internship, APAGS would like to congratulate you. This is a significant accomplishment, and APAGS wishes you the best on your journey to your doctorate.

For those who did not match, APAGS extends its support during this difficult time. Students may want to look at this article written by a former APAGS Committee member for suggestions about next steps. Please consider these suggestions as you make plans.

APAGS finds the internship crisis to be unacceptable, and is working diligently to advocate for strategies to mitigate this crisis. In the past year, APAGS has done the following to address the internship crisis:

• APAGS continues to raise awareness of the internship crisis within APA governance and the psychology community, not just within the professional psychology training councils;

• APAGS sent 11 delegates, its largest contingent ever, to the Education Leadership Conference, where students met with at least 22 congressional offices to develop support for the Graduate Psychology Education program, which funds doctoral training, internship and postdoctoral training opportunities;

• APAGS has begun ongoing dialogues with the Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) at its business meetings, to communicate directly with the various training councils responsible for professional psychology education, in addition to continuing a close liaison relationship with CCTC;

• APAGS has begun a collaboration with Division 42 (Psychologists in Independent Practice) to help the division connect its interested members with internship sites (for possible supervision or other resources psychologists can offer to internships);

• APAGS has moved its annual Internship Workshop to regular convention programming (rather than a pre-convention workshop), allowing APA Convention registrants to attend at no cost (compared to a $25-$35 cost before).

Simply put, APAGS would like to see every student from an APA-accredited doctoral program to be matched to an APA-accredited internship position. And APAGS will continue to advocate on this issue until that vision is a reality.