Residency & Practicums

Counselling Practicum Placements

Are you a master’s-level student in counselling or clinical psychology? Join our part-time, hands-on practicum and build your skills in a supportive, practical environment. Students from any institution are welcome to apply — not just SFU MEd/MA students!

Work alongside a supportive team of counselling, mental health, and medical professionals. You’ll sharpen your counselling skills, explore your professional interests, and grow your clinical confidence.

Gain valuable experience supporting clients with concerns like depression, anxiety, neurodiversity, stress, relationship issues, trauma, and more.

Our collaborative training environment means you won’t be alone — you’ll work closely with a qualified supervisor, a practicum coordinator, and a full team of on-site clinical staff who are here to support you every step of the way.

Summer and Fall 2026 cohorts are full. Applications are now being accepted for the next available term. Start your application now or contact us for future opportunities!

Pre-doctoral Psychology Practicum Placements

Please note that we are not accepting applications for 2026-2027.

SFU Health & Counselling offers flexible pre-doctoral psychology practicum placements for counselling psychology doctoral students, providing individualized supervision, diverse client populations, and a collaborative learning environment.

This placement is well-suited for students seeking additional supervised intervention hours before applying to residency programs.

Our advanced generalist program offers:

• Part-time placement: 8 or 12 months (customarily starts in September)
• Intensive summer placement: 5 months (begins in April)
• Some flexibility in placement length

A B.C. Registered Psychologist provides full supervision in accordance with the College of Psychologists of British Columbia requirements, offering one hour of supervision for every four hours of direct service, with at least half delivered as individual supervision.

The practicum trains students in the core functional competencies outlined in Schedule H of the College of Psychologists of British Columbia. Students gain broad, generalist clinical experience across diverse professional activities, strengthening their assessment, intervention, and counselling skills to prepare for residency training.

Preferred qualifications:
We are ideally seeking predoctoral students who are already master’s-level clinical counsellors with experience in risk assessment. At a minimum, applicants must have successfully completed foundational pre-doctoral coursework in intervention and assessment.

Completed applications for practicum placements should include:

• Letter of intent including: statement of professional objectives for the practicum placement, strengths that you would bring to the placement, specific reasons for selecting SFU Health and Counselling Services as a practicum site, potential starting date (Sept or April and year), your ideal length of placement and what days you might be available, and a description of your theory of change and theoretical orientation.
• Current curriculum vitae.
• Video recording showing you conducting an entire mock counselling session (30-50 mins).
• Official transcripts for all post-secondary graduate academic work to date.
• Complete Summary of Doctoral Training & Preparation form that has been signed by your home educational institution’s Director of Training and confirms your readiness for your practicum placement.
• Three letters of recommendation evaluating your competence in both academic and clinical settings should be emailed directly from your referee.

Pre-doctoral Residency Placements

Please note that we are not accepting applications for 2025-2026.

Health & Counselling Services offers two full-time pre-doctoral psychology residency placements to doctoral students in Counselling or Clinical Psychology. HCS is a well-established training site for counsellor- and psychologist-trainees and our entire team contributes generously to their professional growth and development. Every year we have a large cohort of about six master’s level counselling practicum students and two pre-doctoral level residents, who become a convivial and supportive professional community to each other. Our site is a primary care site, with an integrated health and counselling centre. This allows residents the opportunity to work collaboratively with psychiatrists, physicians, mental health nurses, and clinical social workers and learn primary care skills.

Our advanced generalist primary care training program is completed full-time over a 12-month time frame, and prepares residents to serve diverse clients across a broad range of settings. Pre-doctoral residents complete at least 1,600 hours of supervised training. HCS serves SFU students with the aim of helping them cope with life’s challenges so that they are able succeed at university. Our student population is comprised of students from every region of Canada and all over the world. They are diverse in terms of culture, socio-economic background, sexual orientation and gender identity, neurodivergence, age and ability. Students present with a broad range of presenting problems, including goal setting, stress, cultural adjustment, grief and loss, identity development and major mental health concerns. Mental health concerns include depression, anxiety, ADHD, substance use, BPD, bipolar disorder, mild to moderate eating disorders. Residents thus gain generalist experience that will prepare them for independent practice or to work in almost any practice setting.

Residents provide rapid access assessment and intervention, risk assessments, crisis intervention, individual and group therapy, supervision to master’s level trainees, and integrate cultural competency in all aspects of their work. We aim to have an anti-oppressive lens to all aspects of our work, and to thoughtfully consider and employ our ethical commitment to the CPA’s Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Report. We provide a stepped care approach and a brief therapy model, including a slightly longer brief therapy for more complex situations. HCS residents routinely work 40 hours per week with recognized holidays, vacation and sick leave. Please note that there is currently no financial compensation available for the residency. There is time allocated for research and to develop advocacy competencies. We also provide generous support for professional development to supplement that training that we provide on-site.

Our didactic training program is delivered by our psychologist team with a focus on professional practice competencies, ethics, diversity, case conceptualization, assessment, treatments, and supervision training. We strive to provide a trauma-informed, anti-oppressive and neurodivergent-affirming care. Throughout the year, residents are invited to consider the human rights and social justice implications for psychological practice and to develop systemic perspective and advocacy skills. Each Resident will complete an advocacy project of their choice that is relevant to their work. Our residency program provides training in the core functional skill areas in accordance with CPA accreditation guidelines and the Schedule H requirements of College of Psychologists of British Columbia.

Our training site is located “on the Hill” at the SFU Burnaby campus, giving residents access to all the amenities of Canada’s number one ranking Comprehensive University with its stunning mountain views and brand-new amenities. SFU’s focus on community engaged learning and research that generates “real-world change” makes it an intellectually stimulating environment in which to work.

Eligible applicants must have completed the following prior to the start of residency:

• All requisite coursework
• A minimum of 600 hours of practicum experience (direct and indirect)
• Doctoral thesis proposal approved
• Please note: it is recommended, but not required, that residents have completed their data collection prior to the beginning of the residency year

Please include the following in your application:

You will need to submit the following documentation:

1. Letter of intent including: statement of professional objectives for the residency, specific reasons for selecting SFU Health and Counselling Services as a residency site, concise description of your theory of change and theoretical orientation
2. Current curriculum vitae
3. Video recording showing you conducting an entire mock counselling session. Please include a link to the video recording in your email, and enable viewing by shona_hcs@sfu.ca, angela_post@sfu.ca and Jennifer_chalmers@sfu.ca.
4. Official transcripts for all post-secondary graduate academic work to date
5. Complete Summary of Doctoral Training & Preparation for Residency Form (at the end of this information package). This form must be signed by your home educational institution’s Director of Training and confirms your readiness for full-time residency.
6. Three letters of recommendation evaluating your competence in both academic and clinical settings should be emailed directly from your referee to shona_hcs@sfu.ca
7. APPIC statement answering this question: Have you applied or are you planning to apply to APPIC?