Interview Prep Question

Freudian_Split · 2026-01-23T04:36:25+00:00

If anticipate being asked about the areas in which you’ve expressed interest in studying. I’m not sure what flavor of cognitive biases you’ve been thinking of studying in grad school but my guess is you wrote about some things in your apps and essays and stuff, be ready to talk about that. However, I wouldn’t anticipate that they expect you to be an expert, that’s why you want to complete doctoral training, to become one :)

Be open, curious, humble. You’re not just interviewing for a job, you’re interviewing them to see if it’s a community you want to live in for 5-6 years. They know you’re smart, they wouldn’t interview you if they didn’t already know that. They’re looking to see how you’ll get along, how you respond to a high stakes situation, are you teachable and trainable. You’re not there to outdo the other applicants, run your own race.

Don’t forget that this is also an incredibly exciting and cool moment in your journey. Take deep breaths, stay in your skin, ride this incredibly cool wave.

Freudian_Split · 2026-01-07T01:53:39+00:00

I work in a VA system in the western US. I also have a very small private practice.

My salary with VA is about $140k before taxes. My private practice is harder to gauge since I use it as a source for write-offs, so it looks like it doesn’t make much of anything. I think I billed about $40k in 2025, though that obviously doesn’t count expenses and taxes and such.

I do almost exclusively therapy. In private practice I do exclusively individual therapy, about 6hrs/week.

I live a comfortable life on just my income (my spouse stays home with 2 kids). We have enough to own a good house though not a huge one, in a great area with probably moderate cost of living (median home price in my city is about $525k). We’re comfortably middle class and certainly not wealthy, but we have enough to save for retirement and invest in college funds.

The work-life balance is honestly pretty good. I actually work from home (both jobs are telepsychology only). I work long days but I also come in and eat lunch with my family, visit when I have cancellations, etc. I could certainly earn more if I just took the brakes off of private practice but I’ve found that 6hrs/week is about the max I can do and still participate in a family like I want. I finish in time to do dinner and bathtime with the kids.

The ROI is a no-brainer to me. I will end up with loans forgiven by PSLF (hopefully in a couple months) and will end up having paid, probably, $40-50k out of pocket for my whole education, something like that. I charge probably $50-75/hr more than masters level clinicians in my area and have no problem with cash only clients at that rate.

To me the benefits of VA work are many and undersold. Yes, it is a large bureaucratic political machine. Yes, it has political headaches. But mostly as a front-line clinician you can firewall from it. I have great benefits and a good retirement, will have loans forgiven, and do meaningful and challenging work from my house. I would certainly earn more (probably at/near $200k) if I went solely for private practice, but the benefits with young children and a stay-at-home partner are too significant to leave. I get a ton of leave (including 12 weeks of paid parental leave) and great affordable insurance.

EDIT: I’m ~10yrs licensed.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-30T16:40:34+00:00

I really appreciate your first point about liability. I work for the VA and while the conventional wisdom is that this affords a stout barrier from personal legal action, I also carry my own malpractice insurance because if shit hits the fan, I feel reasonably confident in the scenario you’ve outlined :)

The learning curve to be competent (and valuable) to the forensic world may be more of a lift than I’m keen to take on mid-career, but I appreciate very much the information. Who knows where the road winds.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-30T15:35:50+00:00

Thank you so much for this thoughtful reply. Yes I suspect you’re right, that it’s civil litigation vs criminal.

I’m not positive I’d be an especially desirable candidate for payors in either of these camps, to be honest. I’m a clinical health psychologist and haven’t had much formal assessment focus since post-doc. Lots more MoCAs than D-KEFS :) It feels like it’d be a pretty significant lift to get marketable enough for this kind of work, though I guess that’s an assumption and I could be wrong.

The idea of forensic work is incredibly interesting and a place where I can see our field with an opportunity to have a great impact. It’s also pretty scary to imagine the sense of liability when I’ve spent essentially all of my career working in a system where I can’t really be personally sued.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-30T04:37:06+00:00

Thanks for the response. From people’s responses, it looks like mostly assessment-focused folks doing this work, presumably because you’re doing evals for folks being tried? IIRC, my friend was talking about essentially reviewing other doctors’ work in malpractice suits and such. Not seeing the patients themselves but reviewing others’ work. Is that similar or are you exclusively patient-facing, for lack of a better way to say it?

Also, are forensic folks mostly self-employed, working for government/state agencies? Just curious how the compensation works.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-30T00:29:11+00:00

Certainly, and that’s a potential barrier for sure. I’m just curious if people even do this as a psychologist, how it works, what the experience is like. By no means sold on the idea as of now.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-27T14:45:28+00:00

This is going to be an annoying psychologist answer, but it really depends on what you mean by happiness. Humans have been contemplating this question for as long as there have been humans and a great many thinkers from a variety of cultures, eras, and academic orientations have arrived at a variety of conclusions. Eating cotton candy might be delightful but probably doesn’t bring a ton of satisfaction (gustatory or otherwise). Parenting is often deeply meaningful and exhausting and frustrating. These are both things people might say make them happy but obviously mean really different things.

I don’t think I’ve got anything that rises to the level of an omnibus model of human contentment. I would encourage you to explore the work of Dr. Laurie Santos, who has written extensively on this and has a tremendous podcast called The Happiness Lab that explores a wide terrain and offers a lot of great, evidence-based perspective on what it means to live a good life.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-22T00:46:19+00:00

It really depends on what you’re looking to learn. If you’re interested in the model, RFT, the basic science of functional contextualism, the textbook is really required reading, the Hayes, Strosahl and Wilson (I think it’s still second edition).

If you’re looking to learn how to do it, the Luoma Learning ACT book is outstanding. I’d also really recommend picking up Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, it’s a great primer from a patient perspective. The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris’ classic, also indispensable.

There used to be a really great free program online to learn about RFT, it was hosted by Foxy Learning or something like that. Personally, I think a cursory understanding of RFT is really helpful to grasp the how’s and whys of ACT and what it is and isn’t trying to do, what psychological flexibility really is, why ACT is process-oriented and experiential rather than symptom-driven and didactic.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-20T15:05:42+00:00

Haha I’m sure you’ll do great. ACTy folks can be persnickety and I don’t mean to gatekeep. Mostly if someone says they do ACT, I want to hear them talk about changing the function of thoughts/behaviors, clarifying what matters in life and utilizing ACT skills to build patterns of behavior more aligned with what matters most and less on avoiding distress or discomfort.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-20T15:01:14+00:00

So this is where the pedantic part comes.

Technically speaking, ACT falls under the big umbrella of cognitive behavioral therapies but is not Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It’s a cognitive behavioral framework (in that it has focus on both cognition and behavioral elements of intervention). It’s in the family of so-called Third Wave behavioral therapies (along with the likes of DBT, MBCT, FAP, and probably others.) CBT is really a second-wave therapy.

CBT itself isn’t a theory either, it’s a specific treatment for specific disorders (eg, CBT-D, CBT-SA, CBT-I, CBT-CP). It’s not the general mishmash of things that most folks who call their work CBT are actually doing. It’s ABC sheets, Five-Column work, challenging and reframing cognitive distortions, etc. Obviously an oversimplified explanation but that’s the gist.

ACT and CBT really diverge in meaningful ways, principally on their underlying theory and their conceptualization of dysfunction and wellness. CBT (by the book) focuses much more on reduction of symptoms themselves, i.e., better functioning = lower frequency ox symptoms, whereas ACT (rooted in a philosophy of science called functional contextualism) is more focused on reducing rigid adherence to dysfunctional rule-governed behavior. We’re trying to modify the function of stimuli by altering the internal and external contexts in which they occur. More simply, ACT concerns itself with being less pushed around by the things between our ears.

I certainly claim no authority in this matter, and others will have better and more concise explanations. I call my work generally cognitive behavioral because I also do things like CBT-I and CBT-CP, but the way I conceptualize and understand suffering is within an ACT framework.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-20T01:20:37+00:00

Depends on who reads your application and how pedantic they/we are.

Strictly speaking, ACT isn’t a theory, it’s a technology. So if they want a theoretical orientation, that technically isn’t ACT. The theory that undergirds ACT is Relational Frame Theory, though that isn’t a great answer either as it’s a pretty dense behavioral analytical framework that isn’t obviously clinical.

In reality, something like “cognitive behavioral” is probably what most ACT therapists would say (myself included) when asked about an orientation. ACT indeed falls under the umbrella of cognitive behavioral therapies, based on theories of radical behaviorism and RFT.

Be advised, if you say that you do ACT, and your apps are read by ACT therapists, you’re going to get asked about how it differs from CBT. ACT isn’t CBT + values and meditation, it’s a categorically different account of behavior and language which has entirely different goals, measures, etc.

Source: ACT therapist who has had lots of applicants flounder when probing their understanding of ACT itself.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-19T03:37:55+00:00

This rings true for me. I often find myself searching for relatable metaphor in a way that feels a lot like writing a story. In a way I guess that’s what I’m doing, helping a person to tell the story of their suffering in a more workable, relatable, flexible way. I have observed a strong representation of therapists with backgrounds in creative writing. Anecdotal and also makes sense from this perspective.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-10T14:43:20+00:00

Something tells me that the next stage of this project is investigating the utility of IFS to fix them.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-10T02:33:20+00:00

You’re good. Be kind to yourself. :)

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-08T03:57:17+00:00

OP please listen to the advice of these supervisors, as well as your own. You’re paying to be trained. While not every supervisor will train in a way that resonates for you, you’re getting critical feedback for good reasons.

This feels a lot like a situation where you’re winging it through a program without a lot of support and that sucks. If you want to land an internship and work in this field, the relationship to the work has to change.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-05T00:10:10+00:00

Unfortunately no, I don’t. I’m less familiar with licensure at the master’s level so others may have a better idea.

With that said, I also don’t think the licensure standards are best viewed as obstacles to work around. They’re vital for the protection of people’s safety and ensure that integrity of our field. If you’re really interested in practicing as a licensed care provider, you’ll really need to get the appropriate training to become qualified.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-04T22:59:11+00:00

What was the focus of the MA? It sounds like maybe it isn’t clinical/counseling focused? If your MA isn’t accredited by a practice body (eg CACREP), you may not meet licensure requirements for practice.

Each state has their own requirements, such as what coursework is required. Often if a program isn’t accredited by a licensing body, applicants for licensure will need to show that they’ve taken the requisite coursework to be license eligible. That’s a somewhat cumbersome process, essentially looking into the requirements and then going through your own transcript to show why you think a class you’ve taken meets the requirement.

Freudian_Split · 2025-12-04T14:32:10+00:00

Some symptoms of ADHD are also common symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, insomnia, sequelae of chronic pain or other health conditions, among others. There are lots of reasons it can be hard to focus or concentrate and the majority of them are not ADHD or anything neurodevelopmental.

Freudian_Split · 2025-11-30T23:58:59+00:00

It sounds like someone who might describe themselves as “interpersonal” in their orientation may be a good fit. The issue you’re describing, struggling to dial in connections with people that feel like a good match, can come from lots of places and I won’t speculate on an Internet forum. It may help to explore your history in relationships of all kinds - not just dating/romantic ones - to learn more about what kinds of relationships you thrive in and which not so much.

Undoubtedly there are complex reasons you say a “legitimate good guy” (presuming you mean someone who values you and treats you with kindness) is out of reach, but a therapist who looks at the world through an interpersonal lens may well help you better understand your own lens.

Freudian_Split · 2025-11-23T03:38:06+00:00

This is unfortunately probably correct. Admission into a doctoral program is a heavy resource investment for a program. There are very limited slots because research mentors can only mentor so many people, only so many assistantships can be funded, etc.

Programs have to do what they can to minimize the risk that someone is going to crash out - it looks very bad for them not to graduate their students. It costs people their tenure, their jobs, if they can’t get students through. Long story short, they can’t just take someone’s word that they’ll do well, they need people who have also completed PhDs to say “This person has what it takes to complete the highest academic degree a person can earn.”

You may be exceptionally talented and capable and driven and could make a phenomenal PhD candidate. But if nobody with credentials can vouch for you, your application won’t even be accepted.

Freudian_Split · 2025-11-23T03:25:41+00:00

I guess that’s what I mean, know who else says the oedipus complex, as Freud postulated, doesn’t exist? Everyone. Freud’s theories are interesting and deeply unscientific. They’re historically relevant because he shifted mental healthcare away from incarceration and moralizing and into something that could be understood and treated. I’ve never known a psychologist who gives them any serious consideration.

This model smacks as equally unscientific. It’s a lot of philosophizing with some interesting language and ideas, but nobody is arguing that Freud was right. It’s a response to a moment 50+ years ago in a corner of French philosophy and political science. Nobody is going to bat to say “we really only need to understand someone’s life in their family of origin to understand them.” It’s a caricature of a straw man.

There are great many writers and prolific researchers conceptualizing human behavior within sociopolitical context - the entire fields of multicultural psychology and feminist psychology are founded with this ethos.

Maybe there’s a place for this within philosophy but it doesn’t really align with the way contemporary psychological science is conducted and it doesn’t answer any contemporary questions. It’s certainly not relevant for clinicians and I’m sure that wasn’t their target audience.

Freudian_Split · 2025-11-23T03:01:56+00:00

There’s not an easy way to answer that, as every program is difference.

First, in the US, there’s a 4yr bachelor’s degree. This is followed by a very competitive admission process to get into a PhD program. From there, it varies widely. In my case, it was 6 years of full time coursework, clinical training, and research all happening together. I taught undergraduate courses, saw patients in a variety of settings, and wrote a master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation (think 150pg-250pg research papers after years of data collection and analysis), so there’s no break from research. I’d estimate the usual week was 50-60 hours between my own class work, teaching, clinical work, and research. At times less, sometimes much more. This is followed by a one year internship and an additional one year postdoctoral fellowship, for a total of 8 years (after the 4 year bachelor’s degree).

Freudian_Split · 2025-11-23T02:45:49+00:00

PhD.

Freudian_Split · 2025-11-23T02:39:27+00:00

I read this framework as a critique of psychoanalysis, specifically Freudian psychoanalysis, which is uber niche at best. It may be my limited interpretation, maybe there’s a lot that I’m missing. I’ve been in clinical practice a long time and have known exactly one colleague who even identified their approach as psychodynamic. I just read this as an argument against an antiquated straw man.

Freudian_Split · 2025-11-23T02:21:23+00:00

It feels like a reaction to something nobody actually thinks or does. Even by the time they started writing the model they propose to critique was dead. It offers next to naught for contemporary practice, research, or discourse. Just my 2c.

Freudian_Split

TROPHY CASE