Completion of Trainers’ Course Communication Skills
Mandatory courses as specified in the Course and Examination Regulations for MSc students in Psychology who are enrolled in one of the four master’s specialisations: Child and Adolescent Psychology, Clinical Neuropsychology, Health and Medical Psychology or School Psychology.
Students from all specialisations can take the Trainers’ Course Communication Skills (TCCS; 10 EC; only Dutch speaking students who completed the course Interpersonal Professional Skills / Interpersoonlijke BeroepsVaardigheden or equivalent can apply to enrol in this course).
After successful completion of the TCCS course students can apply for an internship in training second years Psychology students in Interpersonal Professional Skills / Interpersoonlijke BeroepsVaardigheden (IBV). This IBV IPI is equivalent to 10 EC, and involves participation in two 6-week periods of IBV, active participation in supervision and intervision and the preparation of a final report. The IBV IPI is offered once every year between February and June, for about 16 hours a week. The internship is conducted at the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University.
Students in the following master specialisations Child and Adolescent Psychology, Clinical Neuropsychology, Clinical Psychology, Health and Medical Psychology or School Psychology, are offered the option of an IPI. Students acquire hands-on professional skills in fields pertaining to the specialisation within the university setting.
Students of the specialisation Health and Medical Psychology and the specialisation Clinical Neuropsychology can partake in an internal trajectory that has been created to allow them to meet the criteria of a 10 EC internship in the field of psychological coaching. The internal practical internship is offered once every year, in the form of a trajectory between February and May, for about 2 days a week. The first part of this trajectory is an intensive training period, with practical exercises. In the second part, the student will perform individual and/or group coaching to p.e. international students from the Leiden University International student population. Finally an internship report is written. The internship is conducted within the Health, Medical and Neuropsychology Unit at Leiden University and LUBEC.
Students of the specialisation Child and Adolescent Psychology can partake in the Internal Practical Internship that has been created to meet the criteria of a 10 EC internship. It involves participation in two Plus-Version components and the preparation of a Final Report attached to regular mandatory courses of the specialisation. Each Plus Version component is equivalent to 4 EC (112 hours each), and the Final Report is equivalent to 2 EC (56 hours). Once students have completed two Plus-Version components they may prepare (or finish preparing) their Final Report. The internship is primarily conducted within the Developmental and Educational Psychology Unit at Leiden University, but some work takes place in a school setting.
Students of the specialisation Clinical Psychology can partake in an internal trajectory that has been created to allow them to meet the criteria of a 10 EC internship in the field of psychological coaching. The practical internal internship is offered once every year, in the form of a trajectory between March and June 2019, for about 2 days a week, two times 6 weeks. The first part of this is an intensive training period, with practical exercises. In the second part, the student will perform individual and/or group coaching to p.e. international students from the Leiden University population. Finally an internship report is written. The internship is primarily conducted within the Clinical Psychology Unit at Leiden University and LUBEC.
Students of the specialisation School Psychology can partake in an internal trajectory that has been created to allow them to meet the criteria of a 10 EC internship. It involves participation in the following project:
Giftedness and talent development in primary and secondary school: applying theory to practice
As part of this project, students will partake in a project called “gifted and talent development in primary and secondary education” which is conducted by dr. Bart Vogelaar and dr. Kiki Zanolie in cooperation with a secondary school in Leiden. The aim of the project is to design an educational module for gifted primary school students (grades 4-6) who need extra challenges as they have already finished the regular curriculum. In the project, students participating in this IPI will cooperate with teachers of secondary school, and secondary school gifted students. Together, they will design enrichment modules for the primary school students. As part of the IPI, on the basis of academic literature, students will help design the enrichment modules, will help in teaching and supervising the modules, and will partake in (psychoeducational) evaluation of the module.
The IPI is offered in Semester 1 and 2.
In general in the Internal Practical Internship, students learn how to:
apply their knowledge, understanding and problem solving abilities in a new and unfamiliar task environment within a broader (or multi-disciplinary) context related to their field of specialisation.
integrate knowledge and handle complexity by formulating judgments with incomplete or limited information. These judgements should reflect social and ethical responsibilities.
perform basic skills to provide evidence-based psychological treatment (or parts thereof) to clients
perform specialized skills in the area of interviewing, observing, and reporting;
communicate their judgements (and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these judgements) clearly and unambiguously to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
Please note: The Internal Practical Internship does not meet the requirements for entry into the postmaster training program to achieve registration in the Netherlands as a GZ (gezondheidszorg = healthcare) psychologist. International students should also check the regulations in their home country to determine whether the 10 EC internship fulfils national requirements for registration as a psychologist.
Registration for TCCS (max 24 students), as an entry requirement for an (IBV) IPI is done via MyStudymap at the Master’s course registration.
Registration for (IBV) IPI at the end of TCCS is possible until September.
Registration with the internship coordinator of the student’s specialisation.
The IPI is restricted to a maximum of participants. In case more students apply there is a selection procedure in which international students get priority. Maximum participants for all IPI versions is 12 students.
Mode of instruction
280 practical hours
The student writes an internship report. Assessment by a university staff member. The final assessment is by the examinator based on a set of evaluation criteria specific for the Master specialisation of the student.
The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences has instituted that instructors use a software programme for the systematic detection of plagiarism in students’ written work. In case of fraud disciplinary actions will be taken.
For both Dutch and international students the ethical code of the Dutch Association of Psychologists or the American Association of Psychologists is required reading for the internship:
Dutch Association of Psychologists (NIP) code
Code of Conduct of American Psychological Association
Internship coordinator of the Master specialisation (see 'More info) and for IBV IPI the TCCS coordinator