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Doctoral Clinical Extern — Lorenz Clinic 

University of Minnesota School of Family Social Science and partner doctoral programs

What this position is

Each year Lorenz Clinic offers a small number of clinical extern positions for doctoral students who want to remain clinically active alongside their academic program. The workload is intentionally modest — scheduled around your coursework, not competing with it — and the position is paid.

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.

What kind of place you'd be entering

Lorenz Clinic is a private outpatient clinic serving children, families, and adults across four 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 work with what we call the three-environment model: holding, compression, and failure. We think about how systems develop and why they collapse. We think about what supervision is actually for. If those questions interest you as a doctoral student, you will find people here who are asking them seriously — at the clinical, supervisory, and organizational level simultaneously.

We serve a predominantly suburban and rural population, many without insurance, and we take that seriously. Reduced-fee services are not a footnote to our mission. They are part of it.

The clinical work

Externs provide direct therapy with couples and families. Candidates with interest in working with young children and their families are especially encouraged to apply. You will carry a modest caseload, receive individual and group supervision from licensed psychologists and family therapists, and participate in case consultation and didactic training.

Recent invited speakers have included Froma Walsh, Mac Baird, Irvin Yalom, Bruce Perry, Pauline Boss, Sue Johnson, Mary Catherine Bateson, and Harry Aponte. That list reflects the range of thinking we take seriously.

Who this is for

You are a doctoral student in Family Social Science or a related program. You want to stay clinically alive during your academic years — not just maintain hours, but continue developing as a clinician inside a setting that will actually challenge your thinking. You are drawn to systemic and relational work. You find the question of how environments shape development interesting, not just as a research question but as a clinical one.

If you read the description above and felt recognition rather than just interest — this position may be for you.

Locations: Victoria, Chaska, Prior Lake, and Rosemount, MN — approximately 30 miles southwest of Minneapolis.

To apply or learn more: 

Contact Dr. Jessica Simpson, Associate Training Director, Lorenz Clinic. Dr. Simpson is herself a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Family Social Science and welcomes questions from current students about the program and the clinic.

• A master’s or doctoral degree in psychology, clinical counseling, Marriage & Family Therapy, Social Work, or similar field from a regionally-accredited academic program.
• Must comply with requirements for licensure or board certification as a mental health professional including supervised practice in the delivery of mental health services for the treatment of mental illness
• Be a student in a bona fide field placement or internship under a doctoral program leading to completion of the requirements for licensure as a mental health professional