fbpx

10 Best Psychology Internships Abroad

Are you a psychologist in training and looking for opportunities for psychology internship abroad? Are you looking to blend your experiential knowledge with an overseas adventure?
If you are a psychologist, we know that you already have a passion for helping people from all walks of life. Also, you already understand that people have problems and that you are passionate about helping them tackle their mental health issue.

What about a passion for travelling too? You could combine these two while you earn from them too. And not only will you earn, but interning abroad will also help you practice your skills and study human behaviour in an entirely different culture and setting. Also, it will put you in connection with some of the fascinating researchers in the field on a global level. We have created a list of some of the top paid psychology interning opportunities abroad to help you. But before we continue, we need to be sure you understand what interning abroad entails and why you should.

Table of contents

What Is An Internship Abroad?

An internship abroad is a work experience opportunity that takes place outside of the student or professional’s home country. It allows individuals to gain international work experience, learn about a different culture, and develop language skills. Internships abroad can be paid or unpaid and can be full-time or part-time. They can be in a variety of fields such as business, engineering, non-profit, and more. It is generally a great opportunity for students or fresh graduates to gain practical experience and international exposure, which can be beneficial for their future careers.

In a nutshell, interning abroad is supposed to train you. While you help the organisation you work for as an intern, you will be assisted in your career by training in some of the job skills. And also offering you specialised industry knowledge. Naturally, internships should prepare you for the real working world.

An internship abroad involves being bound in an office where you work a 9-5. It is expected to offer you an opportunity to experience incredible opportunities in an international setting.

How Interning Differs From Volunteering

Internships are entirely different from volunteering. While interning abroad is all about you, your career and then the company/organisation you work for, volunteering is not about you. Although it is good for you, it is mainly to help the local community you are volunteering in.

Also, you earn while you intern as well as being allowed the opportunity to enhance your career. You get compensated when you are volunteering and sometimes, you pay to volunteer in some programs, and this is the reason it’s not about you!

READ ALSO: 9 Platforms To Access Summer Internships for College Students

Why You Should Intern Abroad

Firstly, moving and schooling/working abroad is one of the best experiences in life. It opens up doors of opportunities for you both in your local country and in the country you have moved to. In fact, we just think the reasons to intern abroad is endless, and we have put most of them together to ten. Find them below.

1. A travel opportunity

It is one of the most exciting things interning abroad offers. If you have always wanted to see the world, interning abroad is a huge step forward. You get to behold unique cultures, beautiful sights, and you also get to meet new people too.

READ ALSO: 11 Summer Jobs Abroad in 2023

2. It offers you a professional experience

This should be the most important reason you should apply for a psychology internship abroad. This one experience will help you improve your competent skills as well as boost your resume.

3. Helps you understand your career and choose it

Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell if your chosen career is the one you will joy and peace doing until you have tried and understood what it is like to do the work every day. This is what an internship abroad helps you do. You get to decide what you like and not and if you need a career re-evaluation.

4. Teaches you to adapt

Living abroad will help you understand that nothing helps a person learn quicker than submerging themselves in a new country. You will find this when you move to a country whose language and culture you are not familiar with. Firstly, you will find that you would have begun to socialise and adapt to the weather, the people and their way of life. Everything else in no distant time because you have to adapt.

5. Prepares you for a life of independence

Interning abroad can be daunting, but not as much as it is exciting. Among all the things it gives you, a sense of independence is one of them. You learn to live alone and make the most challenging decisions yourself. It empowers you to trust in yourself and believe that you can do anything.

SEE ALSO: How to Get Paid Internships with Housing | Key Strategies To Employ

6. It boosts your confidence

Moving to a new city or country boosts your confidence in a way words might never be enough to explain. It is a challenge, scary, too, but once you have dealt with them, you will gain so much confidence in your abilities.

7. Allows you to create an international network 

Interning abroad is one of the most significant ways to boost your network. You can never have enough people in your network no matter how much people you have.
Moving ahead helps you meet new people who help build up your network and interning in a company abroad helps boost your connections. First, you get to know your host employer, then other interns and other top professionals within your industry.

8. You get to Improve language skills

This happens when you’re interning in a country that speaks a language from the one you are familiar with. This is more fun than it is scary. You get to learn the new language faster too, and this adds to your resume.

RELATED POST: 10 Free Online Language Courses with Certificates in 2023

9. It opens you up to a new cultural awareness

Imagine the joy that comes with understanding a new culture and why a people behave the way they do. Why they have the beliefs, they have. This will help you relate better with anyone you meet. Also, it will helps strengthen your soft skills like communication and positive attitude.

10. You have so much fun

Moving and interning abroad is a life-changing experience. It is nerve-wracking and demanding, but in all of these, the fun is more. This experience will fill you with astonishing views, new skills, lasting friendships and connections and a lot more.

What Should I Expect During a Psychology Internship Abroad?

You have to understand that having a degree in psychology and interning in the field goes way beyond working and probably establishing a private practice and then going on to spend the rest of the years of your professional life disentangling the childhood damages of patients walking into your establishment.

As much helping people overcome obstacles, a psychologist also helps companies treat their employees better. This is one of the many other sides to this profession.

Now, aside from all the benefits and beautiful experiences, we have listed above, there are more to what you should expect while interning abroad.
First of all, moving and interning abroad helps to build your cultural intelligence, your global network as well as your employability and foreign language ability. It allows you to gain all of these while you enjoy the fantastic opportunity of exploring the world and earning at the same time.

How Does Interning Abroad Help My Career?

Interning abroad also expands and enhances your career and education possibilities. These come by helping and conducting mental health researches across a wide variety of cases. It also helps to improve your personal and professional development. That is, while you help to create and increase mental health awareness, you also get to learn about mental health in a different country.

You already understand the human mind and how it affects behaviour. And so while you are at your psychology internship, you will be expected to put your classroom theories to practice. And you will gain experience with the latest treatments and research in your field.

You may not know it yet, but a psychology degree allows you a variety of transferable skills. It goes from being either a caseworker to a rehab specialist, a career counsellor, researcher, social worker or an independent consultant. And these careers come with various options, and they are highly paid careers.

How Long Will a Psychology Internship Abroad Last?

Although there is no definite answer to this. This is because the duration for internship programs are all dependent on factors like,

  • The school’s requirement
  • The employer’s needs
  • The intern’s degree level.

A current research of psychology program directors established that the standard desired length of an internship is 1,094 hours. However, there is no agreed minimum length for internship programs yet in the psychology community. A psychology internship program abroad can run for six months to 2 years.

What Qualifications Are Required For A Psychology Internship Abroad?

Requirements for psychology internships abroad can vary depending on the specific program or organization. Some may require that applicants have completed certain coursework or have a certain GPA, while others may require that applicants have completed a certain number of supervised clinical hours. Additionally, many programs may require that applicants speak the language of the host country or have a certain level of proficiency in it.

Will I Get Paid for my Psychology Internship Abroad?

Generally, internship organisations do not pay students because the interns observe more than they work. However, these interns can use financial aid while interning with an internship organisation. Nevertheless, some psychology internships pay their interns for their work.

10 Best Psychology Internships Abroad

Here’s an outline of the 10 best psychology internships abroad; carefully read through and apply.

1. International Medical Aid

The International Medical Aid, with a rating of 9.82, is a non-profit organisation that donates about five per cent of their revenues back into the communities they work with. They help look out for once-in-a-lifetime openings for intern placements. Also, they offer tons of experiences to enable you to learn and understand what it is like to work as a psychologist first-hand.

International Medical Aid has various locations in East Africa, the Caribbean and South America. Their placement runs for a two weeks minimum duration; May – September.

APPLY HERE

2. SLV Global 

This organisation, with a 9.23 rating online, offers mainly psychology-focused practice experience placements abroad. They believe in the significance of a hands-on experience and particularly the importance of acquiring these skills in a different cultural setting.

The primary motive of the SLV is to enhance the overall mental health of everyone they work with – and this where they need your help.

This placement runs for a 2-8 weeks duration, year-round. And it jas locations in Sri Lanka, India and Bali.

APPLY HERE

3. Projects Abroad 

Projects Abroad have a rating of 9.41 online. It is famous for the volunteer and internship opportunities it has facilitated all over the world. This organisation offers psychologists opportunities to experience working in a mental health centre abroad.

Interning with Projects Abroad, you to receive a bonus of having to partake in research chores during your internship.

Projects Abroad internship placements run for four weeks minimum, year-round. It has its locations in Mongolia or Jamaica.

APPLY HERE

You may want to check out How to Get All-Expense paid Internships Abroad in 2023

4. The Intern Group 

The Intern Group is always ready to offer their interns more than just travel opportunities. Through their internship abroad, they help you build employable skills.

They set their psychology internships to help you maximise your professional growth while abroad. And these placements differ from NGOs and nonprofits concentrated on mental health to business and marketing analysis.

This placement has various locations worldwide, and their duration varies by location as well. It has a 9.46 rating online.

APPLY HERE

5. VACorps 

This organisation runs its internships programs in Cape Town. They give the best experiences of the city as their psychology internship will open you up to the complexness of the mental health care system in South Africa. Also, this placement will allow you tons of opportunities to help as many people who needs your help.

It is rated 9.55 online and has its location in South Africa. The placement duration varies depending on preference.

APPLY HERE

6. Global Experiences

Global experiences have an online rating of 9.44. It is an organisation that offers adaptable professional internships. Their primary objective is to put interns in the best internship programs for their field of works.

So, some of their internals are positioned in labs and non-profit organisations. Also, they let some of their interns gain experiences shadowing an experienced mentor in counselling sessions. This prepares the interns for what their day-to-day jobs look like.

Global Experiences has its locations worldwide, and the placement duration runs for an average period of 8 weeks, year-round.

APPLY HERE

7. Intern Abroad HQ

Intern Abroad HQ primarily offers affordable internships. Their fees comprise all you will require for a smooth trip like constant assistance, pick up from the airport, accommodation, orientation and food. However, they leave you with only the worries of how to make the most of your trip.

For the internship programs, most positions work directly with the community. It is all dependent on locations as a different field of work within the psychology field are unavailable.

Intern Abroad HQ has an 8.68 rating online with locations in South Africa, Tanzania and Zanzibar. Their placements run for a minimum of 2 weeks, year-round.

APPLY HERE

READ ALSO: 11 Summer Jobs Abroad in 2023

8. World Internships 

World Internships has a rating of 8.64 inline. It customises its placement to meet the expectations of the personal and professional developments of the interns.

For World Internships, an internship is more of an investment, and so they put out their best to ensure the interns make the most of their internships with the organisation.

World Internship placements positions interns in places where they have the opportunities to help others while they learn themselves. This placement runs for a duration of 8-16 weeks, January – September. And it has its locations in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

APPLY HERE

9. Adelante Abroad

Adelante Abroad offers a vast range of psychology internships. Interns can end up shadowing skilled psychologists in their private practice. Also, they can work with a women’s right group or in a hospital. One thing is sure – you will regularly get the help people in need regardless of where you work.

This organisation is an 8.73 rating online. The placement runs for a duration of 1-6 months, year-round. And it has its locations in Ecuador, Scotland, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Spain.

APPLY HERE

10. IES Internships 

IES has a 9.41 rating online. This organisation guarantees unpaid internship placements in the intern’s field and what this simply means is that it will cater to the specific interests and needs of the interns.

The organisation also allows interns to earn university credits while they intern. This internship has to do with assisting underserved adults with mental health disorders, as well as observing and providing more assistance.

IES has various locations all around the world, and the placement durations depend on location, year-round.

APPLY HERE

Conclusion

In conclusion, interning abroad allows you great opportunities in all corners of the world. First of all, view internship abroad as an opportunity to bring your knowledge and skill to another part of the world to help others and things will begin to fall into place.

While you do this, we hope our list of psychology internship opportunities abroad will be of great help to you. We wish you the best!

FAQs

What qualifications are required for a psychology internship abroad?

Requirements for psychology internships abroad can vary depending on the specific program or organization. Some may require that applicants have completed certain coursework or have a certain GPA, while others may require that applicants have completed a certain number of supervised clinical hours. Additionally, many programs may require that applicants speak the language of the host country or have a certain level of proficiency in it.

Will I Get Paid for my Psychology Internship Abroad?

Generally, internship organisations do not pay students because the interns observe more than they work. However, these interns can use financial aid while interning with an internship organisation. Nevertheless, some psychology internships pay their interns for their work.

How long do psychology internships abroad typically last?

The duration of psychology internships abroad can vary depending on the specific program or organization. Some may last a few weeks or months, while others may last a full academic semester or even a full year.

What is an internship abroad?

An internship abroad is a work experience opportunity that takes place outside of the student or professional’s home country.

Recommendations

Does this article meet your immediate needs?

If yes, leave us with a 5-star rating in the Review Box below. However, if no, leave a comment on the comment box to express your concern or ask the question and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

AbroadGuy
AbroadGuy
Articles: 152

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *