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What is CAPIC? | Our Mission | Joining CAPIC | CAPIC Myths & Facts | CAPIC’s Unique Place

What is CAPIC? 

The California Psychology Internship Council (CAPIC) is an association of clinical psychology doctoral programs and doctoral internship and postdoctoral training sites throughout the state of California. Created in 1991, CAPIC’s founders recognized that by working together they could increase the quality of professional psychology training throughout the entire  education trajectory, as well as better train psychologists to serve population needs. Among its many functions, CAPIC:

  • Facilitates doctoral internship and postdoctoral program quality assurance.
  • Provides standardized application, evaluation, and contract forms used by doctoral internship programs.
  • Implements policies, procedures, and timetables that improve the application / selection process for students, doctoral internship programs, and member schools promotes culturally relevant training.
  • Advocates for increased public awareness of the benefits of student services in the field of mental health.

While CAPIC internships and postdocs are recognized by the CA Board for licensure, CAPIC is not an accrediting body.  This may have ramifications for employment (e.g. the VA currently requires an APA-accredited internship for employment) and for license mobility across states. Still, CAPIC has a unique place in psychology training and service in California, and provides the right internship experience for the professional needs and personal aspirations of many students.  Please review our webpage on CAPIC’s Unique Place for additional details, and to help determine if CAPIC is the right fit for you or your students.

Our Mission

The mission of the California Psychology Internship Council is to promote excellence in professional psychology training and mental health services. We do this by:

  • Working collaboratively with all the stakeholders and professional psychology organizations in furthering the quality of professional psychology training.
  • Serving as a leader in centralizing doctoral internship training and running an annual online match process for students and its internships in California.
  • Promoting standards and innovation in professional psychology training to provide clinical services to the state’s diverse communities.
  • Collaborating and advocating for access to training stipends for psychology interns and training resources for agencies.
  • Developing ethical internship training environments that are sensitive to issues of diversity and culture.

Joining CAPIC

Only programs (i.e. Doctoral Academic Programs, Doctoral Internship Programs, and Postdoctoral Training Programs) can join CAPIC as CAPIC members. Students cannot join as members, but qualify for internships through their Doctoral Academic Program’s membership in CAPIC.

Information for prospective Program members (i.e. Doctoral Academic Programs, Doctoral Internship Programs, and Postdoctoral Training Programs) seeking to join CAPIC can be found on our Joining CAPIC page.

CAPIC Myths and Facts

Click here for a description of some common myths about CAPIC and facts debunking them.

CAPIC’s Unique Place 

Click here for more information about CAPIC’s unique place in psychology training in California.