This article provides a brief overview of the North American graduate training system in professional psychology at both the master's and doctoral levels, and the roles of practicum and internships. It then discusses developing a training system for Certified Psychologists, including what types of practicum are desirable and what supporting systems need to be implemented. In North America, one becomes eligible for licensure as a psychologist after completing a doctoral degree in one of the areas of professional psychology, such as clinical psychology, counseling psychology, or school psychology, and a post-doctoral internship over one or two years. There are two types of doctoral programs: one is based on the scientist-practitioner model resulting in a PhD degree in which research training is emphasized, and the other is based on the practitioners-researcher model resulting in a PsyD degree, which is practitioner oriented. Graduate training includes a series of practicum courses and a one-year pre-doctoral internship at a mental health organization. Internship activities are managed through the APPIC (Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers). In addition, there are master's level counselor training programs, which outnumber doctoral programs. There are many specialties for counseling such as addiction, clinical mental health counseling, family and couple counseling, and counselor education and supervision. In the graduate training for clinical psychology in Japan, the main training component of practicum is clinical training at an in-house clinic within the university. However, the training system for chartered psychologists requires practicum at medical and health facilities outside the university. This major shift requires educators to reorganize a larger training environment and specify what training activities should be included in the practicum. In Japan, there is no organization that represents the voices of graduate students. As the training for chartered psychologists in Japan needs to be completed within a two-year period, it is important that a continuing education system for beginning psychologists and those undergoing training in clinical work settings is established in the near future.
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