Thinking about Licensure is the Thing to do;
The Earlier you Start, the Sooner You'll be Through

George M. Slavich, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco

The Clinical Psychologist

The life of an early-career clinical psychologist is marked by a number of important professional requirements. First are the coursework, preliminary examination, and dissertation requirements; then, the clinical hours and supervision requirements. With all of these demands in mind, it is easy to focus on the present and delay thinking about the future. For many budding psychologists, though, what looms ahead is the licensure application process, and understanding the process now can save you a lot of time and money later. Here’s what you need to know:

The Initial Decision
Think licensure is not relevant to your professional development? Think again. States originally drafted licensing laws in part to identify well-trained practitioners of psychology. However, federal grants that fund research involving clinical populations generally require a licensed clinical psychologist to be available to respond to psychiatric emergencies. Many of the roles that academicians in clinical psychology fulfill, such as providing licensed clinical supervision, also require a license. For this reason, getting licensed is also helpful if you aspire to one day become a Director of Clinical Training in a graduate, internship, or post-doc program. Becoming licensed as a psychologist is thus required of individuals planning for a career in direct clinical service, but may also be necessary for those considering jobs that involve clinical supervision or research.

Knowing Your State’s Requirements
States differ greatly with respect to their licensure requirements. It is therefore helpful to begin to collect information on each state in which you eventually might seek to establish yourself. This information can be obtained by contacting the respective licensing boards directly (for an online directory, see http://www.asppb.net/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3395). The major requirements for each state are also listed in the Handbook of Licensing and Certification Requirements database, which is maintained by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (http://www.asppb.org).

Clinical Hours
All states require applicants to complete supervised clinical hours. However, the precise number of hours, exactly when in one’s professional career these hours need to be completed, and the required ratio of clinical hours to supervision hours differs greatly across states. In Iowa, for example, applicants must complete a minimum of 1,500 supervised hours, but there is no time limit or specification for when these hours need to be accrued. In California, in contrast, two years (3,000 hours) of supervised clinical experience are required, at least one year of which (1,500 hours) must be accrued following completion of all doctoral requirements or conferral of the doctoral degree, whichever is first. Furthermore, each year must be completed within a 30 consecutive-month period, and if both years are completed post-doctorally, they must be done within a 60 consecutive-month period. As you can see, the regulations can either be relatively general or very specific.

As mentioned previously, the required ratio of clinical hours to supervision hours also differs by state. The ratio in Massachusetts, for example, is 16:1; in California, it is 10:1. To make sure that all of your clinical hours can eventually be counted toward licensure, review the regulations of the relevant licensing boards as soon as possible.

Training and Coursework
In addition to completing a certain number of supervised clinical hours, many states require applicants to document that they have received training in topic areas that are relevant to the practice of psychology. Some common topics include: Ethics, History of Psychology, Research Methods, Statistics, Biological Bases of Behavior, Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior, Social Bases of Behavior, Individual Differences, Human Sexuality, Child Abuse Assessment and Reporting, Detection and Treatment of Alcohol and Other Chemical Substance Dependencies, Spousal/Partner Abuse Assessment and Intervention, and Aging and Long-Term Care. The earlier you know which topics you will need to cover, the better, because it is easier and less expensive to fulfill these training requirements while you are affiliated with an academic program (i.e., while in graduate school, on internship, or in a post-doc position). In most cases, such requirements can be met by attending relevant courses or seminars at your institution. In order to count toward licensure, however, you must possess formal documentation of having attended the courses. A listing on an official transcript will typically suffice. If the title of the course is not informative, though, or if the course is not listed on a transcript, then another description of the training experience will be needed (e.g., a syllabus or catalogue description), accompanied by a signed letter that confirms your attendance and documents the total number of hours being certified.

Banking Your Credentials
Given this description thus far, two challenges of getting licensed may be apparent. First, as time passes, it sometimes becomes increasingly difficult to contact past supervisors and to obtain documents that will be necessary for the licensure application process. Second, because of differences in licensing laws across states, moving from one state to another can be complicated once you are licensed.

To help with these two issues, you should begin to bank your credentials as soon as possible. This may be done with the help of one of two services: the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Board’s Credentials Bank (ASPPB; http://www.asppb.org) or the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology’s National Psychologist Trainee Register (http://www.nationalregister.org). A third option is to become credentialed by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP; http://www.abpp.org), which grants board certification in 13 specialty areas. The ABPP currently has a $25 Early Entry Option for students, and getting credentialed makes future certifications and mobility much easier.

The Exams
The final step toward getting licensed involves taking the necessary exams. These, again, differ by state. Thirteen states require an oral exam. Others, however, have dropped this element and require only the Examination for the Practice of Professional Psychology (EPPP), a standardized 200-question computer-administered test, in addition to a jurisprudence exam, which differs slightly by state. Generally speaking, it is a good idea to take these exams as soon as possible to make sure the material is fresh in your mind. The earliest point at which you can sit for these exams, however, also differs across states. To determine when you can begin this final step of the licensure application process, contact the relevant licensing boards directly or search ASPPB’s Handbook of Licensing and Certification Requirements database (http://www.asppb.org), which maintains a listing of answers to this exact question by state.

George M. Slavich, Ph.D. :: Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology
UCLA Medical Center Plaza 300, Rm 3156 :: Los Angeles, CA 90095-7076
+1 310-825-2576 :: gslavich at mednet.ucla.edu