Question for those who work in Forensic Settings

[bigdreamer3]

Hi all,

I'm interested in learning more about the various experiences of those of you who work in forensics. Specifically, I'm hoping to get a rough idea of daily responsibilities, pay, work/life balance, etc. for the three broad areas of: private practice, corrections, and state hospitals.

My career interests at this point lean toward assessment and evaluation and less toward therapy, so if anyone can speak specifically to that it would be amazing! I'm a first generation college student and I'm having a tough time understanding how to know where I want to work because I largely have no idea what to expect from the daily life of a professional. So, what do your lives look like?

I'm aware this will vary hugely. I'm mostly interested in hearing stories and seeing what possibilities are out there to create for myself. Any professional and/or life advice is welcome and appreciated. =)

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[psydstudent2020]

I'm interested to hear people' responses as well, including for those who work with courts.

 

[PsyDr]

Brief periods of unscheduled periods without work followed by intense periods of time where 9 attorneys all want you in 18 different places in 7 days. Long hours, a lot of time on the road with hotel and airline status in the least desirable parts of the country, followed by unscheduled day's sitting at home reading hundreds and hundreds of pages of documents. Periods of incredible income followed by stretches of zero income. Lots of being yelled at by attorneys in depo or the court. Constant threats, of both an interpersonal and professional nature. Needing to take significant steps to guard your personal safety. Having to take public perception and the potential career ending effects of your personal life in all things including social media and talking to friends and family. Etc etc etc.

 

[StellaB]

Working at a state hospital: Excellent life-work balance (no overtime unless you specifically request a second position), flexible schedule options (e.g. 5/8, 4/10), and amount of assessment versus intervention depends on the specific position held within the hospital. Forensic psychologists (assessments for the court) do not do any therapy/competency restoration, because that would represent a dual relationship with patients. There are psychologists who specialize in various things (e.g. neuro, behavioral interventions, trauma), psychologists who work strictly on treatment units, and psychologists who work on admissions units (doing evals and treatment). A lot of people work a 4/10 schedule and have a private practice on the side doing either forensic or general clinical work. As a prac student I worked in a private forensic psych practice for a while and it was more like what PSYDR describes above. I thought I wanted to do private practice at the start of grad school, but with the excellent pay, benefits, and life balance at a state job, I don't think I will leave anytime soon.

 

[BuckeyeLove]

1. Work at a state hospital 40 hours per week. Administration keeps me on a civil unit because of my private practice work. Overall, a fun and laid back gig that keeps me level-headed. 2. 20 hours per week doing private practice evaluations, both criminal and civil, a bit more intense. Criminal has always been, for the most part, fun. The civil is where it gets nasty, and I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with it, but I'm getting a push from up top to get further training in custody because of the newly open market in my area. Pay is solid. Been doing a lot of second opinion evals lately because of the poor quality of some of the work coming out of elsewhere. Pay could be real real real good if you own your own business and procure contracts left and right. Best advice...get good training.

 

[psych.meout]

1. Work at a state hospital 40 hours per week. Administration keeps me on a civil unit because of my private practice work. Overall, a fun and laid back gig that keeps me level-headed. 2. 20 hours per week doing private practice evaluations, both criminal and civil, a bit more intense. Criminal has always been, for the most part, fun. The civil is where it gets nasty, and I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with it, but I'm getting a push from up top to get further training in custody because of the newly open market in my area. Pay is solid. Been doing a lot of second opinion evals lately because of the poor quality of some of the work coming out of elsewhere. Pay could be real real real good if you own your own business and procure contracts left and right. Best advice...get good training.

What kinds of training would you recommend?

 

[bigdreamer3]

Thank you for your responses! When you say "get good training" are you referring to prac sites or internship/post-doc sites? @PSYDR @BuckeyeLove @StellaB

My prac experience will include one year community mental health, one year private practice forensic assessment, and one year state hospital in a sex offender treatment program. I'm feeling pretty well-rounded, but I'll just barely go over 500 hours (intervention and assessment), and the match process is a bit of a gamble by nature. If I like the idea of working at a state hospital or possibly doing private practice (or both), how should I look for "fit" in an internship site? What sort of internship/post-doc experience did you all get?

Thanks!

 

[psydstudent2020]

I have completed a practicum at a VA, private practice forensic assessment, and a state hospital (no forensic experience at the hospital). There's an issue going on with prisons at the state I'm living in.... would I still be competitive for internship at a prison?

 

[Cantab109]

Working for the courts: 8:30-4:30 job. Hour long lunch break. All holidays off. Days before holidays court often closes early. No therapy. All assessments and evaluations. An evaluation, however, may take 6-8 weeks, and will results in maybe 40 page long reports. So you must enjoy writing and reviewing records. No major work outside of the office, unless you're getting behind of reports. Life is always exciting but not crazy stressful. Especially after you build a relationship with the ADAs and Judges. Depending on the city/court, you can have really good benefits (especially if you're a state employee). Some ability to do testing. Salary for doctoral level around 80K-ish, but its variable.

 

[bigdreamer3]

Anyone else?

 

[BuckeyeLove]

What kinds of training would you recommend?

Sorry for my late response. Within the last 20ish years there has been a big push for people to be fellowship trained, as I was. Consequently, I'm going to be somewhat biased, but in working licensed for the first year, it became so apparent to me how incredibly vital and beneficial that fellowship training was, and also incredibly helpful in terms of streamlining the board certification process. Without completing a fellowship, clinicians need 5 years of documented experience, and a slew of AAFP CEU's in order to sit for the exam. With me, I literally just submitted an application saying where I was trained, and I was scheduled for the written exam. (There is a written and then oral). This is not to say that going the fellowship route is the only way; both of the people that own the practice I work for are board certified (one is also an attorney), and neither did a formal fellowship (however, they definelty had to do more work on their own I would say, as opposed to having things nicely laid out for them, as I did with a fellowship).

At the end of the day you are going to want to procure training from someone who knows what they are doing. A great resource is the PSYLAW-listserv, as well as joining APLS, as this will get you exposure to names and other people actively practicing in the field, that also might be able to give you tips for procuring said training. As noted above, I think working at a forensic state facility is great, in that you will often get opportunities for completing pretty common psycholegal evaluations, and also have the chance to see for real what serious mental illness looks like, as I've found over the last few years that so many people seem not to know it when they see it, or vice versa, they think just because people report things...that they are (i.e., reported pscyhosis, mania).