Internship

There are two types of internships within the Clinical Master’s programme: a clinical internship and a research internship. If you want to become a clinical therapist you will have to do a clinical internship.

Clinical internship

The clinical internship concentrates on mental healthcare for adults. The internship work needs to consist of psychodiagnostic work and treatment. In a clinical internship you will learn to connect the scientific literature to treatment, diagnostics or psychopathology with clinical practice. Examples of eligible internship organisations include mental healthcare institutions, University clinics, hospitals (e.g. medical psychology departments) and rehabilitation centers. During your placement you will be supervised by a local supervisor for about one hour per week, such as a mental healthcare psychologist, psychotherapist, clinical psychologist or an experienced psychologist with clinical expertise.

Research internship

The goal of a research internship is to become acquainted with as many phases of the research process as possible. You should have an active part in research currently conducted, partly on an independent basis. To that end, you actively participate in an ongoing research project within mental healthcare, at a research institute studying this area (e.g. Arq/ centrum 45, hospitals, rehabilitation centres), or at the university. You develop competencies connected to different phases of the empirical cycle, such as designing a study, collecting data, analysing data and communicating to the scientific community (e.g. a literature review) or patients (e.g. a patient folder for the acquisition of participants).

Requirements for a clinical internship

• The internship consists of 560 hours;
• The organisation of the placement should have a primary focus on improving the mental health of adult individuals or groups;
• The organisation offers evidence-based treatment and/or therapy according to validated psychotherapeutic approaches (e.g., CBT, CT, schema therapy) and/or standardized protocols based on the ICD-11/DSM-5;
• The placement organisations should be relatively large, enabling the student to learn from different qualified academic professionals – mainly psychologists, but other disciplines as well. One-man practices are therefore not allowed;
• Sufficient and expert supervision (one hour a week) should be available. The local supervisor should be an academically trained psychologist. Other backgrounds are possible but must be approved by the internship coordinator;
• The activities should be on Master’s level (f.e. observing/ conducting intake sessions/ psychodiagnostics assessment and being involved in (parts of) treatment) and should enable students to make a connection between (academic) knowledge and practice;
• The student has to perform clinical work as independently as possible. The student is not to simply tag along or just observe;
• At least 60% of the student's activities should be client-related, including direct contact with the organisation's target group. The remaining 40% of the student's time should be devoted to activities such as reporting and studying literature.

Requirements for a research internship

• The internship consists of 560 hours;
• The organisation of the placement should have a primary focus on improving or promoting the (mental) health of adult individuals or groups. It is also possible to do internships in organisations that conduct research related to biological, psychological or social factors affecting health;
• The placement organisations should be relatively large, enabling the student to learn from different qualified academic professionals – mainly psychologists, but other disciplines as well. The student has to get the opportunity to make a contribution to multiple research projects;
• The research group consist of at least 3 researchers.
• Sufficient and expert supervision (one hour a week) should be available. The local supervisor should be a professional with a PHD. Other backgrounds are possible but must be approved by the internship coordinator;
• The activities should be practical as well as intellectual and should enable students to make a connection between (academic) knowledge and research practice;
• Because research is the focus of the internship, the internship assignment should be substantial as well as diverse. Aim of this assignment is to connect theory and practice. Think of giving a presentation about a small literature review or writing a protocol for ethical approval.
• Students will perform clinical and/or project-based work as independently as possible. They are not to simply tag along or just observe;

Internship in the Netherlands

Preferably you start the internship at the beginning of the first semester (September) or the beginning of the second semester (February). However, we do not apply a deadline by which date you must have started your internship. This means that you are able to start your internship at any time. The exact start date depends on the internship organization and the position they offer.

If you have found an internship in the Netherlands, you can start at any given time throughout the year. You will have courses in block 1, 2 & 3, assuming you pick the courses of our programme (Loss and psychotrauma trauma, Anxiety and related disorders). This means that you will have to do your internship part time if you start between September - April. Preferably 3 days a week for 6 months. When you finish your courses, you will have more time and can decide to do your internship full time.

See also the schedule information.

Internship outside the Netherlands

You can start your internship as of block 4* because you will have to finish your courses before you can move to the country of the internship. For this reason, most international students start around April with a full time internship in order to graduate within the year.

Another option is to pick other elective courses (outside our program) in the first semester in order to finish the courses before the start of the second semester (beginning of February). With this option you can start around February/March with your internship.

*assuming you pick the courses of our programme: Loss and psychotrauma trauma, Anxiety and related disorders. Also see the schedule information.

Clinical Internships in Dutch professional institutions are only available for students who sufficiently master the Dutch language (C2 level), because the clinical work and reporting has to be performed with Dutch speaking patients. International students lacking this ability, but wanting to do a clinical internship have to seek possibilities in their home countries or English speaking countries.

Clinical Skills Lab

Clinical Skills Lab (CSL) is a clinical internship opportunity within the faculty for international students. In the CSL, under the supervision of faculty members, you practice clinical skills such as conducting intakes, psychodiagnostic assessment, and CBT techniques. The skills are mainly practiced on each other or on someone from your own social environment. Please note, there are a limited number of places available for the Clinical Skills Lab. Not every international student will be able to do their clinical internship at the CSL. If you want more information about the CSL, please send an email to the internship coordinator who will refer you to the coordinator of the CSL. 

Research internship

We have a limited number of opportunities for students who want to do a research internship at our faculty. They will join our research skills lab. Of course, it is also possible to find a research internship externally. To join our research skills lab, you don’t have to speak Dutch. English will be the language of communication.

To find out, you can ask yourself a few questions: 
 

• What do I want to do and learn during an internship? Do you want to gain clinical work experience or maybe gain more experience in research?  
• Which kind of challenges would I like to work on? Think of the courses in your study that you found very interesting and explore your options.
• In what kind of organisation within this workfield would I like to work later? What kind of target group would you like to work with? For example would you like to work in a (mental) hospital or in an addiction center?

There are various ways to find an internship placement. You can use your own network or look for interesting organisations online. When you are conditionally accepted to the master, you will get access to Blackboard. Here you will find the login details for our internship database. Unfortunately, almost all our vacancies for clinical internships on our database are for Dutch-speaking students. Please be aware that the internship positions on our internship database are not sufficient for the number of students looking for an internship. We therefore advise you to also try other ways to find an internship.

You can also take a look at the general page of the UU about internships for some extra tips. 

If you are student member you can also use the database of SPS-NIP.

Use online search sites such as 'Indeed'.

You can apply for an internship with your curriculum vitae (CV) and motivation letter. Remember that an internship institution will base its response on your letter and CV, so pay a lot of attention to that. If you want to use LinkedIn, make sure your personal page is up to date.  

Do you not have a CV yet, and have you never written an application/motivation letter? Take a look at the (online) workshops of Career Services.

Dream big. Send letters to different organisations. Email again if you don't get a response. Or call the organisation and try to organise a personal meeting. Finding an internship takes time and a bit of guts. But you can do this!

You can come for an interview, that’s good news! Prepare yourself well. Make sure you can tell why you are interested in this internship in this specific organisation and what your added value is. For extra tips, take a look at the (online) workshops of Career Services about this subject.

If you found an internship (great!), approval of the Internship Coordinator is required. Send an e-mail to internshipCP@uu.nl. If you have already access to blackboard, you can fill in the ‘checklist new internship’ you will find on blackboard.  

If you are rejected after the job interview, ask for feedback and incorporate this in your preparation for the next interview. You may be more successful next time!