Year Two of Successful Internship Placements for Regent’s Psy.D. Students

After four years of intensive study, Regent University’s School of Psychology & Counseling (SPC) Clinical Psychology students still have one more feat to achieve: the internship.

This yearlong work launches the Psy.D. students into an arena outside of the classroom, putting all of their skills and knowledge to the ultimate test in the field. Students must begin the grueling process of applying for these internships at the beginning of their fourth year for the National Matching Service (NMS), an organization that pairs students with their internship programs.

This year, Regent’s SPC students received a 95-percent match-rate during Phase I of the NMS placements. Students were admitted into prestigious American Psychology Association internship programs in areas such as Rutgers Biomed & Health Sciences in Newark, NJ; Eastern Virginia Medical School; and the University of Virginia.

It’s a competitive and time-consuming process. Students spend countless hours and dollars traveling and interviewing for the internships – the crux of their entire learning experience.

And while these internships set students up for successful careers in their chosen field of clinical psychology, fourth-year student Elena McSwain ’16 (SPC) has a vision beyond placing well in her fifth-year internship at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans HCS in New Orleans:

“I want to help my brothers and sisters in the military who are transitioning into civilian life,” said McSwain.

As a combat veteran in the United States Army, McSwain is all-too familiar with the pressing need for guiding soldiers out of military life.

“There’s a language that you speak and a way that you carry yourself in the military that doesn’t always translate into civilian life,” said McSwain.

As her final year at Regent comes to a close, McSwain is confident that the training she received in the SPC program was excellent and that she’ll carry that spirit with her into her internship program.

“I’m just grateful that God has led me to Regent and that I had the training and the peers that I did,” said McSwain. “Overall it’s been a big blessing for me.”

Learn more about Regent University’s School of Psychology & Counseling.