Graduate school: A different kind of challenge from undergraduate school
by Helena Horvat UA’23 TCSPP’29 and Jim Stellar
I have completed my first semester of graduate school (fall term 2024) at The Chicago School. As the next one approaches, I have to start applying to the practicum. For those who do not know, a practicum is what distinguishes graduate-level psychology programs from undergraduate ones. This is when you begin working with real clients under the guidance of a licensed psychologist. During my first practicum year, my experiential learning will focus on psychological assessment.
Phase one – course work: I have had experiences similar to therapy, but assessment is completely new to me. Because of this, I had trouble deciding what kind of sites I would apply to. I already knew my logical considerations: location, schedule, and whether the site would allow me to conduct the eight batteries (set of assessments) required to become a licensed psychologist. What I had trouble with was gaining a felt sense for what different locations and populations would feel like to work with. I felt similarly when deciding whether to get a master’s or doctorate. I knew the logistics of each but I needed help painting a picture of what going through either program felt like.
To help me with this thinking, I turned to JS to replicate that experience. In other words, I started to seek out mentor-like relationships in graduate school as well. Speaking to my intellectual assessment professor and a 2nd-year student has helped me feel more confident in making my practicum application list. They were able to speak about the day-to-day work done at a hospital, private practice or university counseling center which helped me understand what working there would feel like. This was important to me because I have some negative experiences from volunteering in a hospital which I feared would skew my decisions. This reminds me of a previous blog that spoke briefly to this issue on the Orbital Frontal Cortex. I still think about my own negative experience at a medical hospital to this day and when I do it brings me great anxiety and sadness. I believe this experience has left a somatic marker in me that makes me want to steer clear of hospital work. My professor explained that my emergency room hospital experience was quite different than it would be for a psychology extern working in a hospital. This gave me some hope that I could use this logic to override my emotional response and give a hospital practicum a chance.
As an aside, JS notes that what HH writes above is a perfect example of cognitive-emotional integration in planning – the subject of this entire blog series. It is very interesting to note how the process is similar (HH’s basic brain structure has not changed since college), but also different as now she is edging into what could be her career and her practice. It is more serious.
Considering that I have only completed my intellectual assessment course, the only psychological tests I felt familiar with tested for IQ. My professor in this course specialized in children’s neurodevelopment. When I imagined my work at my practicum site I envisioned lots of testing for cases involving ADHD, autism, and learning disabilities. Yet when I thought of the populations I wanted to work with they involved couples therapy, substance use, and mood and personality disorders. I was confused about how I would fulfill my career interests while practicing my assessment in graduate school training.
My professor explained that she had skewed my schema of assessment by telling stories of her own experience with it. She told me that there are tests that can be given to couples and ones that aid in diagnosing the disorders that interest me such as bipolar and depression. She also considered that my broad interests would pair well with a larger institution such as a hospital or university campus. At sites like these, the clients would most likely be psychologically and culturally diverse. Both of these points increased my excitement for assessment practicum as it gave me a better picture of what kinds of sites I should be researching.
Phase two – the practicum: Another key social-emotional component of practicum is your relationship with your supervisor. Therefore even if you like a supervisor’s biography on the site’s webpage, you should get a deeper sense of what it is like to communicate with them. For this part of my decision, I will be speaking to a 2nd-year student who was assigned as my peer mentor. Her and her classmates’ experiences with different sites will give me more insight into the personalities and teaching styles of different supervisors. I also attended a practicum fair in which I got to meet several of the sites’ supervisors. I took note of which ones made an effort to learn my name and personalize our conversations. I interpreted my discussions with the site leads as glimpses of what being taught by them may feel like. I want a supervisor who values my ideas despite the power imbalance and takes the time to train me thoughtfully and respectfully.
This big decision feels like a step towards shaping my career- the assessments I learn to use, the environment I work in, the colleagues I meet, and the population I work with will all shape my first experiences of what it is like to be a clinical psychologist and the site will earn a spot on my resume. Despite the importance of the decision, in order to be at peace with whatever outcome, I also remind myself that even if I do not get into my top site, the experience will help shape me as a professional by teaching me universal skills and further narrowing my interests. The unpredictability of graduate school requires flexibility and courage. This is the starting point for the next blog.
