Staff Perspective: Benefits of a Military Psychology Internship
According to the 2023 match statistics from the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) there are 774 internship sites and a total of 3,620 accredited internship positions. The US military offers nine accredited internships sites and a total of 58 internship positions across the different branches, representing 1% of the overall training opportunities for those seeking to complete their doctoral psychology training requirements. With so many options available, why should someone focus on the 1% offered by the U.S. military?
That is a fair question. I would like to provide a response based on my experience as a former military psychology intern, as well as other experiences I have had from different professional roles. When applying to internships, I applied to the VA, college counseling centers, forensic settings, as well as military internship sites. During the course of my doctoral program, I worked in a range of clinical settings which resulted in applying to a variety of internship sites. I ended up going on over 10 interviews in different states to look at various training programs. As a result of this process, one of the things that stood out to me very clearly was the abundance of training opportunities that the military provided. In particular, the number of different clinical rotations and amount of evidence based treatments you could receive training in seemed to exceed what other training programs had to offer. Additionally, I liked the idea that the military internship program would not only help me to learn how to be an excellent psychologist, but I would also learn how to be an effective leader as an officer.
As I progressed in my career, I also had the fortunate opportunity to serve as an Associate Program Director for one of the military psychology internship sites. As part of my responsibilities, I would go over the program evaluation data completed by faculty members, current interns and those who graduated from our program. When examining the results, graduates from military internship programs would consistently note that compared to their peers they received more training (e.g., amount of supervision, training in diverse clinical topics). This feedback resonated with my own experience as a former military psychology intern, and even why I ranked military internships at the top of my list was because of the training opportunities that these internships provided.
In addition to being a former military intern, and serving as an Associate Program Director, I have also had the opportunity to visit different military internship sites as an APA Commission of Accreditation internship site visitor. As a site visitor, you have to review every aspect of a training program to examine the extent to which the program is adhering to relevant accreditation standards. It is a very in-depth process that culminates with an in-person visit to the site and interviews with everyone involved in the program (e.g., faculty members, program leadership, administrative support personnel, current interns, and graduates). Every site visit I have made to a military internship program has reinforced my understanding of the amazing opportunities afforded to students to develop their clinical skills as future psychologists and grow in leadership skills.
If you are interested in learning more about military psychology internships, the Center for Deployment Psychology holds trainings twice a year to talk about career pathways. You can find out more information on our website at: https://deploymentpsych.org/pathways-to-military-careers. We also have a section on our website dedicated to providing information about requirements to join the military, military health careers for psychologists and social workers, as well as general information (e.g., benefits associated with military service).
The opinions in CDP Staff Perspective blogs are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science or the Department of Defense.
Timothy Rogers, Ph.D., is an Assistant Director of Online Training, Technology and Telehealth for the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
According to the 2023 match statistics from the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) there are 774 internship sites and a total of 3,620 accredited internship positions. The US military offers nine accredited internships sites and a total of 58 internship positions across the different branches, representing 1% of the overall training opportunities for those seeking to complete their doctoral psychology training requirements. With so many options available, why should someone focus on the 1% offered by the U.S. military?
That is a fair question. I would like to provide a response based on my experience as a former military psychology intern, as well as other experiences I have had from different professional roles. When applying to internships, I applied to the VA, college counseling centers, forensic settings, as well as military internship sites. During the course of my doctoral program, I worked in a range of clinical settings which resulted in applying to a variety of internship sites. I ended up going on over 10 interviews in different states to look at various training programs. As a result of this process, one of the things that stood out to me very clearly was the abundance of training opportunities that the military provided. In particular, the number of different clinical rotations and amount of evidence based treatments you could receive training in seemed to exceed what other training programs had to offer. Additionally, I liked the idea that the military internship program would not only help me to learn how to be an excellent psychologist, but I would also learn how to be an effective leader as an officer.
As I progressed in my career, I also had the fortunate opportunity to serve as an Associate Program Director for one of the military psychology internship sites. As part of my responsibilities, I would go over the program evaluation data completed by faculty members, current interns and those who graduated from our program. When examining the results, graduates from military internship programs would consistently note that compared to their peers they received more training (e.g., amount of supervision, training in diverse clinical topics). This feedback resonated with my own experience as a former military psychology intern, and even why I ranked military internships at the top of my list was because of the training opportunities that these internships provided.
In addition to being a former military intern, and serving as an Associate Program Director, I have also had the opportunity to visit different military internship sites as an APA Commission of Accreditation internship site visitor. As a site visitor, you have to review every aspect of a training program to examine the extent to which the program is adhering to relevant accreditation standards. It is a very in-depth process that culminates with an in-person visit to the site and interviews with everyone involved in the program (e.g., faculty members, program leadership, administrative support personnel, current interns, and graduates). Every site visit I have made to a military internship program has reinforced my understanding of the amazing opportunities afforded to students to develop their clinical skills as future psychologists and grow in leadership skills.
If you are interested in learning more about military psychology internships, the Center for Deployment Psychology holds trainings twice a year to talk about career pathways. You can find out more information on our website at: https://deploymentpsych.org/pathways-to-military-careers. We also have a section on our website dedicated to providing information about requirements to join the military, military health careers for psychologists and social workers, as well as general information (e.g., benefits associated with military service).
The opinions in CDP Staff Perspective blogs are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science or the Department of Defense.
Timothy Rogers, Ph.D., is an Assistant Director of Online Training, Technology and Telehealth for the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.