The Student Perspective of Psychology Practica Training

Providing practicum training to graduate students is a valued activity of many mental health settings. Practica are also crucial to the training and socialization of future mental health practitioners. This research surveyed 321 doctoral psychology students about expectations of their practicum training sites versus what they actually received in fundamental domains including supervision, client contact, assessment, and research. While the majority of students reported receiving what they expected, a large minority did not; students also indicated that they were quite hesitant to provide feedback about shortfalls in training. Implications and recommendations for administrators of mental heath settings are presented.