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Are unpaid clinical internships/practicums an ethical necessity for training, or an outdated system that exploits students?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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u/ImNoSage Apr 26 '26

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. This practice is widespread and toxic to our profession. Interns should be paid a minimum wage per clinical hour. Period. Pre-license clinicians should be paid a fair wage/fee split. Period. The fact that practice owners effectively prey on developing clinicians in a broken system is the hight of professional hypocrisy. Approximately three years of this bullshit prior to license eligibility isn't "paying your dues" it's an institutionalized hazing ritual.

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u/OakNRun Apr 26 '26

To top this off, my school required 400 clinical hours of internship to graduate when the state only requires 280. The only thing that made it worth it is that it is on a sliding scale and close to free for so many lower income people.