SCUPS MFT in CA (Internship and Employment Limitations)

Hi, I am currently almost a half way through my MA in Psychology through SCUPS. I am planning to work only in CA, where SCUPS is a BBS approved school, therefore, I have a potential to get a licensed there. My question is that, does anyone know or have any experience with possible limitations I am to run into as a SCUPS graduate in terms of finding an internship and/or employment in CA, since SCUPS is not accredited but state licensed and BBS approved. Thanks!

 

For those who are interested, I posted the same question on the CAMFT digest board, and here is the answer of Mary Riemersma an Executive Director of CAMFT: “Public educational institutions in California will not hire you when you have not graduated from an accredited school and you will not be able to provide CHAMPUS services. Other than that, you should not have too many other limitations. However, if Federal legislation is passed providing Medicare reimbursement to MFTs, there is a possibility that it will be limited to MFTs who have graduated from accredited schools. Finally, as you are aware, you may have difficulty taking your degree outside of California.” So ultimately, nothing I can not deal with. Therefore, why would I pay twice as much to NCU once a semester (something hard for me to do as my earnings are not high), when I can pay half of that, monthly at SCUPS?..

 

Hi Amy,

The only other limitations I can think of:

- your degree almost certainly will not position you to teach at accredited undergraduate and graduate programs (many of the MFT programs in CA -particularly private universities- hire masters level clinicians as adjuncts to teach).

- in the long run, if we end up with a federally-designed single payer insruance system that -might- also be a problem, but impossible to predict of course.

Regards,
GME

 

It would be interesting to know what kind of track record SCUPS has at actually producing licensed MFTs.

According to the CA Psychology Board, only six SCUPS grads became professional psychologists between 2001-2004. So maybe one or two per year on average.

The CA Board of Behavioral Sciences does not have similar data. However, the results for the Fall 2005 exam cycle seem to indicate that no SCUPS grads took the MFT Written or Oral exams.

 

As far as I am aware the CA Board of Behavioral Sciences just began to accept SCUPS' Psychology (MA) degree as meeting the educational requirements for licensure as an MFT last year (or in 2004), therefore it is too early to know, none of the MFT students that would take such exams graduated yet. Their Doctorate degree though has been meeting similar requirements by CA Board of Psychology for quite a while now. I actually think I am in the cohort of the first MFT students in SCUPS that are potentially eligible for licensure. I just figure that if Ph.D/Psy.D students do find internship placements and acquire enough hours to get licensed, why wouldn’t the MFT students be able to do the same? I also do not aim high. Any place of internship that would meet BBC supervised experience/internship hours requirements will do, even if it is a completely unpaid position to begin with. I came here from Russia, not speaking a word of English, some tenacity and luck and 8 years later I am able to not only work but I actually am proficient enough in English to be able to continue my education, even if the school I am enrolled in is not accredited. I see it that way, as long as SCUPS is approved by BBS, I can do it.

 

As far as teaching, it was never my objective eaither way (just don't feel that I'd be the right person for it), so it seems that a lack of accreditation by SCUPS will not be all that much of a problem. At least I hope. However, I do wish they would get DETC. They did send us (students) an email stating that Mr. Rocha, the new president, has a plan to get SCUPS accredited. However, I have not heard anything about that since September 2005. I wonder why that is?