- Job Title: Clinical Externship
- Direct Supervisor: Associate Training Director
- Compensation: Competitive, commensurate with credentials and experience
- Location: All locations
Each year Lorenz Clinic offers a small number of clinical extern positions for doctoral students in Family Social Science and related programs who want to remain clinically active alongside their academic program. The workload is intentionally modest — scheduled around your coursework, not competing with it. This is a paid position.
This is not a typical practicum placement. It is an opportunity to do real clinical work inside an institution that thinks carefully about what clinical work is for.
- Job Title: Clinical Extern
- Direct Supervisor: Associate Training Director
- Compensation: Competitive, commensurate with credentials and experience
- Location: All locations
The Position
Externs provide direct therapy with couples and families, with a caseload defined by the clinic and the student’s availability. The position is scheduled around your class schedule, enabling you to focus on your academic program while maintaining meaningful clinical activity. Candidates with interest in working with young children and their families are especially encouraged to apply.
What Kind of Place You’d Be Entering
Lorenz Clinic is a private outpatient clinic serving children, families, and adults across six locations in the southwest Minneapolis metro. We are a training clinic in the fullest sense — not as a credential or a marketing line, but as an organizing commitment. The way we train is an expression of how we think about development, formation, and what it means to become a clinician rather than simply accumulate hours.
Our training architecture includes master’s-level practicum placements, a Post-Master’s Fellowship, and a postdoctoral psychology fellowship. These aren’t parallel programs running independently. They are rungs in a deliberately designed formation ladder — an environment in which clinicians at every level are shaped by the architecture, not just by the instruction they receive within it.
We think about what supervision is actually for. We think about how environments shape development — at the level of the family in the room, the clinical team, and the institution itself. If those questions interest you as a doctoral student, you will find people here who are asking them seriously.
We serve a predominantly suburban and rural population, many without insurance. Reduced-fee services are not a footnote to our mission. They are part of it.
Training Program
The externship sits within a training program that includes master’s-level practicum placements, a Post-Master’s Fellowship, and a postdoctoral psychology fellowship supervised by licensed psychologists and family therapists. Externs participate in individual and group supervision, monthly agency-wide case consultation, grand rounds, and periodic didactic trainings.
Recent invited speakers have included Drs. Froma Walsh, Mac Baird, Irvin Yalom, Bruce Perry, Pauline Boss, Sue Johnson, Mary Catherine Bateson, Harry Aponte, and Carol Falender.
Requirements
Candidates must hold a master’s or doctoral degree in psychology, clinical counseling, Marriage & Family Therapy, Social Work, or a similar field from a regionally accredited program — or be currently enrolled in a doctoral program in a bona fide field placement or internship leading to licensure as a mental health professional. Candidates must comply with all applicable requirements for licensure or board certification, including supervised practice in the delivery of mental health services.
Benefits
Externs are part of a training ecology with a rich schedule of learning activities. Most required licensure supervision hours can be obtained through the program. Full-time externs are eligible for employee benefits.
To Apply
To apply, submit your CV and a cover letter to Dr. Jessica Simpson, Associate Training Director, via the online job portal here. Cover letters are required and should broadly outline your professional goals, commitment to the common good, and a brief narrative of your experience providing psychotherapy. Applicants invited to interview may be asked to provide writing samples and a letter of recommendation from a past clinical supervisor.
Dr. Simpson is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Family Social Science and welcomes questions from current students about the program and the clinic.
Current Clinical Externs & Alumni
- Jessica Simpson, PhD – University of Minnesota (2025)
- Ari Schoenholtz, MA – The Wright Institute (2024-2025)
- Janette Driscoll, PhD – University of Minnesota (2022-present)
- Connor Callahan, PhD – University of Minnesota (2020-22)
- Erin Guyette, PhD – University of Minnesota (2020-22)
- Kimberly Stewart, PhD – University of Oklahoma (2019-20)
- Eugene Hall, PhD – University of Minnesota (2018-20)