Therapist Training in Boston

November 9, 2009 11:13 AM

Boston area mental health professionals, can you help me out?

I realize this comes on the heels of this post, so I hope the Hivemind can forgive this different but related question as I'm truly stuck.

I started my Masters in Mental Health Counseling in Fall 2006 and am finally in a position to complete it next year. Hooray! However, I have one last requirement on my way to getting this long awaited for Masters, and that is the practicum.

I have to complete a 450 hour clinical practicum over the course of the academic year from September - May, during which I need to see 8 - 10 clients on an individual basis each week and can use the other time for other clinical assistance (leading groups, etc.). I also need to be allowed to tape record 10 sessions/year to be reviewed by my program director (and only only only the program director). This appears to be stumbling block one.

Stumbling block two is that many places would happily, most definitely, assuredly! take me if I were say --- an MSW or clinical psychology student, but because my credentials would be that of an Licensed Mental Health Clinician (were I to eventually seek licensure), I do not qualify.

I've tried college counseling centers (have a few to send an application to), community health centers, private centers, etc., and don't seem to be able to find enough places to apply to based on the above!

Clinical areas of interest include but are not limited to: young adult, GLBTQ, multicultural counseling, substance abuse, and eating disorders.

I'm willing to try anywhere that's accessible by the T and/or the commuter rail going north (we may be moving to the North Shore). I'm happy to receive MeMail suggestions and just as happy to provide any more information that might be relevant. This would be my first clinical experience.

So, if you happen to be mental health professional in the Greater Boston area, could you recommend an organization? Would your own take a Masters student? Did you do your clinical practicum or internship somewhere that might still have a training program? Conversely, if you sought counseling in the Boston area and happened to see a counseling student, would you mind letting me know where?

I really desperately oh-so-very-much want to finish this degree! Help me do it!

posted by zizzle to education (4 comments total)

My cousin is finishing a similar program in Boston. Her college gave her a list of places for internships. You should see if yours has such a list.
posted by mareli at 12:17 PM on November 9

Yeah....my particular program has had massive problems with said list and the person responsible for updating it. For the past three years, it's been unreliable and full of programs that stopped taking students five years ago.....sorry to moderate my thread. It is another resource to use. It's just not one that can be counted on as being accurate.
posted by zizzle at 12:25 PM on November 9

All of the orgs in this list are funded by SAMHSA, and will be much more likely to want to take trainees/students/interns. I'm in another state and in another licensure/specialization but I feel your pain, and I found that most of my classmates had the same difficulty finding a site but that we had the most collective success finding opportunities at organizations like these.

The way I found my practicum site was through another student in my cohort, so be sure to be communicating with the others in your program, because most sites will be accepting more than one student. Definitely check in with professors for some ideas, too, especially if they do clinical work in addition to their academic positions, and ESPECIALLY especially if any of them work with your own school's counseling center/outreach services (if that's not been eliminated as a possibility yet).
posted by so_gracefully at 1:10 PM on November 9

I forgot to add that your county's Department of Mental Health is also a good resource for finding a site (not sure from your wording if you've tried that already though).
posted by so_gracefully at 1:14 PM on November 9