Time2Track Blog
Real-Life Resources for Students & Early Career Professionals
Conquer Your Dissertation Defense in 7 Steps
There are a few steps toward your doctoral degree that you get no formal preparation for. The dissertation defense is one of those activities. Sure, you have presented in your classes on a variety of topics, including the results of the research you have conducted. You might also have presented at a local, regional, or national conference. All of those activities are great in terms of preparation for your dissertation defense. However, none of them have the same kind of evaluative conclusion.
If you do not pass your dissertation defense, you will not graduate. Being ABD (all but dissertation) is not a badge that you should be proud to wear. Ideally, you will pass your defense the first time. In this blog post, I offer several tips for nailing your dissertation defense.
Supervision: The Open Door Policy
Supervisors are central to training in graduate school, and every supervisor has their own style. Some supervisors prefer a hands-off approach and expect a trainee to take the lead in raising concerns. Other supervisors are much more hands-on and provide detailed feedback on a regular basis. Others may vary in terms of focus, with some supervisors most concerned about teaching particular approaches and some more interested in your own ideas about theory, or your growth from a developmental perspective. Some supervisors are formal and task-oriented, while others are less formal and open-ended.
Of course, supervisors are also different in regards to availability, and approaching a supervisor can be fairly anxiety provoking. After all, supervisors play a key role in your evaluations and overall success in graduate school. Here are a few things to consider in making the most out of your supervisory experience with any type of supervisor.
Planning Ahead for Your Postdoc Year
You did it! You finished all of your graduate school course work, defended your dissertation, completed your internship and now you are ready for the next step—a postdoctoral residency or fellowship (most commonly known as a “postdoc”).
After all your hard work, you only have one more obstacle to overcome and you’re on the road to licensure. Whether you have decided to complete a formal postdoctoral residency or to informally collect your postdoctoral hours for licensure, there are several factors to consider during your postdoc year. Not all paths to licensure are the same, and different approaches can ultimately get you to the same goal. However, there are some generally consistent guidelines regarding what the next steps look like.
5 Tips for Nailing the Intake Process
Meeting with a client for a first-time appointment or an intake assessment can be quite overwhelming – especially as a trainee! Only having 60 minutes to obtain all of the information you need is often challenging and sometimes even feels impossible.
However, I encourage you to think of the intake assessment as both a skill and an art; a skill and an art that can be honed through practice and by implementing the tips offered below. Rest assured that by the time you begin your career as a psychologist, intakes will flow fairly routinely and may not even take a full hour to complete.
“Please, Sir, May I Have Some More?” How to Get the Most Hours Out of Your Clinical Placement
Doctoral students have the enormous task of balancing clinical work, research, teaching and coursework; all while ensuring they have enough clinical hours to be competitive for the process of applying for internship. If your clinical placement is not getting you the hours you need, it can add unneeded stress. Here are some tips for each stage of the process to help you advocate for your training needs successfully.
Exposure Therapy Gone Wild: Everything You Need to Know
You’ve heard about exposure therapy. Maybe you’ve been interested in trying it out with patients, but you don’t know enough about the procedure, or you’re worried it could do more harm than good. This guide will give you an overview of why exposure therapy can be beneficial to your patients, how to get started, and where to learn more.
Hot off the Press: Your First Book!
A few years ago, my best friend (unintentionally) made me feel a bit anxious. We were talking about interpersonal psychology, social skills, and the key to a healthy friendship, when he turned to me and said, “You know too much about this to just keep it to yourself. You should write a book.”
Who, me? No way.
I’m a small potatoes farm boy, and I grew up in a town where it was a major feat to graduate high school, let alone college. Despite the fact that I was in a doctoral program, the idea of adding my name to the shelf felt too far from my core identity. Books were written by inspiring, knowledgeable, and wise people — not people like me.
And yet, my friend’s words stuck with me.
In the fall of 2018, I finally did it. I published my first book.
Not Just a Break: How I Took Maternity Leave During Internship & Graduated on Time
Planning for a baby during your internship year might seem like a daunting task. For me, however, this had been my plan throughout graduate school, as I wanted to take advantage of my health insurance coverage on internship, and then also spend some time as a stay-at-home parent while studying for the EPPP (and recovering from grad school burn out) before starting postdoc. My son was born on June 26, 2018—less than two months shy of my original internship end date and three months shy of my graduation requirements. This is how I planned for my paid maternity leave during internship, finished my dissertation (with mastitis!), and graduated on time.
5 Ways to Earn More Face-to-Face Hours
After putting many years of time and effort into academic coursework and clinical training, the final culmination of the doctoral degree ends in an internship year where students expand their knowledge and training and stretch themselves in infinite ways. Reaching...
Telesupervision: How Remote Supervision Can Help
Telehealth is making gains in popularity for providers and clients alike, but the majority of clinical supervision takes place face-to-face. Telesupervision, though, allows for supervisor and supervisee to meet without being in the same room. Here’s a bit more about...
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