Washington Psychology Education Overview
Psychology Licensure in Washington
Located in the stunning Pacific Northwest, Washington is a state that offers tremendous opportunities in the human field for licensed Psychologists. You will find that you have a wide variety of potential career arcs once you have attained licensure, such as: working at hospital in Seattle, or opening your own private practice in Walla Walla. With a population of just over 6.8 million people, Washington is about average for a US state. With that size of population many organizations will find they have need for licensed Psychologists. In the state of Washington, a Psychologist can anticipate a mean yearly wage of $74,590 according to the BLS website1. If you have a degree concentration in Child Psychology, then you may wish to investigate the possibility of finding work in one of Washington’s 270+ School districts2. For those who like fast paced, stimulating medical environments, finding a job at one of Washington’s 115+ major hospitals3 is worth considering. After you have your license to practice Psychology in Washington finding the ideal work environment is just a matter of preference. We have produced a step-by-step guide to becoming licensed as a Psychologist in Washington, you will find it below.
Required Educational Background
Getting your Psychology license in Washington is a fantastic career goal that will provide you with substantial rewards once it is attained. In order to apply for your license in psychology, you will need to have already gained your Doctorate in Psychology. This means that you will need to have already earned both your Bachelor and Master of Psychology.
Regardless of whether you decide to continue your schooling to attain licensure in Psychology, or that you find that to be an unappealing prospect; you will find that a Bachelor of Psychology is one that gives you many career options and is a sought after Bachelor’s degree in the human services field. It is also of course, a necessary step to take on your journey towards getting your psychology license.
While Washington does not allow licensing for those who have only their Master’s degree, having a Master of Psychology is still a wonderful item to have on your resume. With a Master of Psychology, you will find that a wide variety of career opportunities in human services are now available to you.
Once you have been awarded your Ph.D. in psychology from a board approved program you will need to begin accumulating your required hours of field experience.
Field Experience
To verify your field experience component, you will need to take the following actions:
- You will need to complete 3,300 hours of supervised professional experience under the direction of a Psychologist who is licensed in the state of Washington.
- 300 hours of this must be in the form of a practicum of which 100 must be supervised.
- 1,500 hours must come from a board approved internship.
- You must then earn an additional 1,500 hours in post-doctoral supervised experience
- You will need to apply for licensure, get approval and take your examination as explained below.
You will want to familiarize yourself with the Washington specific rules and regulations for licensure. These laws change so it isgood to make sure you have current information, you can find that information here:
Examination
Once you have completed your field experience you can apply to take the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP).
- Pass the EPPP with a score meeting the Washington minimum.
- Pass the Washington state jurisprudence exam.
You can find some helpful information about your EPPP here:
1 http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes193031.htm
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_districts_in_Washington_(state)
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hospitals_in_Washington