Doctor of Psychology - Licensing

Licensing

A license to practice as a clinical psychologist is required in the United States. While specific requirements vary by jurisdiction, every state mandates: 1. Successful completion of either a 1-year full-time or 2-year half-time supervised clinical internship totaling 1,750-2,000 hours; and 2. Passing the national and state licensing exam. Most states require an additional postdoctoral year of supervised training after earning the doctorate, in order to become eligible to take the national and state licensing exams.

Maryland and Washington have removed the one year postdoctoral experience in place of requiring two years of supervised experience, both of which can be completed prior to graduation. In February 2006 the American Psychological Association Council of Representatives adopted a statement recommending that this change also be made to the licensing requirements of other states since the nature of training has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Previously, doctoral-level students accrued most of their clinical hours during internship and postdoctoral fellowships. Now, students accrue most of their clinical hours in the course of their training and internship. Thus, they are ready to begin practice upon graduation. Next, there are considerably fewer positions available for recent graduates and providing the training before graduation facilitates early career psychologists.