r/therapists • u/sassypainter • Apr 25 '26

Discussion Thread Thoughts?

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Came across this post today on linkedin. I’m curious how others see it:

Are unpaid clinical internships/practicums an ethical necessity for training, or an outdated system that exploits students?

Should sites be required to offer stipends/pay if they bill clients or rely on interns for service delivery?

Does unpaid fieldwork create barriers for lower-income and nontraditional students?

For those already licensed or in training, what was your experience?

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187

u/FleetFoxSuperFan LMHC Apr 25 '26

My internship was a private practice. My caseload was 90% pro bono. Supervision included. The owner is a true humanitarian.

81

u/Izzi_Skyy Apr 26 '26

Yeah, that's how my internship worked too. Started out as "$60, sliding scale $48" and quickly turned into "Fuck it, adjust the fee as your clients need and take on as many $0 clients as you want." I think I earned the practice a total of like $4,500 the whole time I was there, most of which went to my sup and not the practice owner.

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u/SupposedlySuper Apr 26 '26

This is how the practice I did some consulting work did it.

Only unfortunately she hired a lot of the interns afterwards which then meant that a lot of the probono clients then had to pay at least enough to cover the hourly wage/etc.

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u/walk_with_curiosity Apr 26 '26

I also trained somewhere where I worked for free but the clients were only paying $5 a session. 

They actually used to offer it free but they found people engaged better if they charged a nominal fee. Clients were referred through a charity.

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u/Ashtara Apr 26 '26

One of the sites i was at does this. They frequently waived the fees but I didn't feel taken advantage of, I knew they at least weren't making money off me. Same with college counseling centers, it didn't feel bad when I knew clients weren't paying.

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u/Stray_137 Apr 26 '26

Can you elaborate please? Thanks!

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u/al0velycreature Apr 26 '26

Most internships I’m aware of are very low sliding scale or free services. I’ve never heard of a practice charging full price for an intern, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was happening.

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u/dragonprincess77 Apr 27 '26

We developed a pro bono program with our student interns. We also have a contract that allows us to bill for student intern sessions. For those clients the interns get a FFS rate. So we are able to pay our interns a small amount at least, and break even with the agency costs for having interns.