PMHNP practicum sites for psychotherapy are notoriously difficult for psychiatric nurse practitioner students to get, and there are a few big reasons why—they’re time-consuming for therapists, offer very few benefits for a therapy practice, and create challenges for therapists with their new and existing clients.
However, if you put yourself in a therapist’s position and see things from their perspective, you can make your application stand out in a positive light to a therapy practice.
Most PMHNP practicum applications show minimal effort
As one of the largest therapy practices in Colorado, we receive a lot of applicants for therapy internships and PHMNP psychotherapy practicum site requests.
While 90% of therapy internship applications we receive are generic, nearly 100% of PHMNP psychotherapy practicum site requests tell us nothing about the student—they only mention what they need from us, without explaining who they are or how they’d add value to our team of therapists.
They often approach us with a message demanding a set number of hours by a particular date. They never recognize the additional work and administrative overhead that this would add to a therapist’s plate, which can inadvertently come off as entitled.
In fact, over 50% of PHMNP students end up attaching a copy of their syllabus or course requirements and order us to examine their criteria instead of them explaining what they need to complete their coursework. Right from the start, this communicates that they think it’s ok to create work for a therapist without doing the work themselves.
Think about how you can help the therapy practice grow
Most therapists understand that PMHNP students need observation hours as part of their graduate studies, but very few therapy practices have in-house psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners for medication management.
As a result, there’s very little financial incentive for therapists to have PMHNP students as interns because there’s often not an opportunity to hire them after graduation.
While PMHNP students are observing therapy sessions, it can create a less comfortable environment for established clients, which can lead to higher client turnover. Very few clients want someone else in the room other than their therapist, and it adds pressure to a therapist to ask their clients if they’re willing to be observed. It can also create an obstacle for first sessions with new clients.
That’s a lot of challenges to secure a practicum site, but there are ways to break through these barriers.
In almost 7 years and nearly 100 applications, we’ve never had a PMHNP student apply and explain how they can or want to help our practice grow. There’s a lot of take, zero give, and they’re not a therapy intern who can see clients or handle intake calls or emails.
This is how you can make yourself stand out: Think about the work you’re willing to do to grow the therapy practice and give back to your practicum site. Maybe you’re willing to help with social media posts, administrative tasks, blog posts, outreach to local community groups, or develop a database of referral partners.
Instead of asking for a one-way relationship, be creative about how you can create a mutually beneficial relationship for both sides in ways that would help you stand out. You might still be taking more than you’re giving, but even if you offer to help with something other than what’s required for your coursework, you’d be one of the only PHMNP students offering to give back to the practice.
Do your research and personalize what you can
Whenever possible, do your research about where you’re applying and pay attention to how you can personalize your message. Therapists include a lot of information on their websites, and the more you can show that you’re particularly interested in them and their clients, the better your chance of catching their attention.
We get that applying is exhausting, but we’ve had the same students apply multiple times who just applied just a couple months before. We’ve had many students who include another therapy practice’s name in their application or mentioned something about our practice that was clearly wrong or about another place.
When a practice takes on a therapy or PHMNP intern, they want someone who cares, is client-focused, and pays attention to details. The more that you can communicate that in your first contact, the better your chances of getting a response.
