Counting Practicum Hours

Practicum hours must be supervised and approved by your DCT/TD.

Only record hours for which you received formal academic training and credit or which were sanctioned by your graduate program and DCT/TD as relevant practicum training experiences (e.g., VA summer traineeship, clinical research positions, time spent in the same practicum setting after the official practicum has ended). Please consult with your academic training director to determine whether experiences are considered program-sanctioned.

Report actual clock hours in direct service to clients/patients accrued up to October 1.

A face-to-face practicum hour is defined as a clock hour, not a semester/quarter hour. A 45–50 minute client/patient hour may be counted as one practicum hour. Only include practicum experiences accrued up to October 1 of the year in which you are applying for internship.

Do not count hours in more than one category.

Some experiences can potentially fall under more than one category, but it is your responsibility to select the category that you feel best captures the experience. For example, a Stress Management group might be classified as a group or as a Medical/Health-Related Intervention, but not both. The categories are mutually exclusive; thus, each practicum hour should be counted only once.

Master's degrees earned as part of a doctoral degree program are not considered to be terminal master's degrees.

Hours accrued while earning a master’s degree as part of a doctoral program should be counted as doctoral practicum hours and not terminal master’s hours.

Telehealth, for the purposes of the AAPI, focuses on two-way, interactive videoconferencing as the modality by which telehealth services are provided.

In order to count the hours delivered using this technology, the focus of the clinical application should include diagnostic and therapeutic services. Clinical applications of telehealth encompass diagnostic, therapeutic, and forensic modalities across the lifespan. Common applications include pre-hospitalization assessment and post-hospital follow-up care, scheduled and urgent outpatient visits, psychotherapy, and consultation. This does not include phone sessions or clinical supervision. All services must be appropriately supervised by a licensed clinician. Note that not all states count these types of hours toward licensure and you should carefully review particular state regulations as needed.