Quote Originally Posted by tyckspoon View Post
Many of them do, yeah - a lot of licensed professions require practice hours to qualify, so cheap/free service from people doing their practical study portion can be found if you know where. One of the main downsides (aside from the bit about getting your medical care from somebody who, by definition, doesn't have a lot of experience) is you don't often get continuity of care. When your student-practitioner finishes their semester or two of practice hours they move on, and if you still need care at that point you get to start again with a new student.
Where I am, you just can't call yourself a therapist or something without serious training and you cannot get into serious training without prior job experience.

When I had a serious case of depression, I opted for one of the training centers for therapists and the woman that had to work with me had a serious background in social work and drug treatment, while I knew that there was a supervisor in place to handle her performance.

Now I was confident with the setup, as Cordula, a former friend of mine, progressed along the same route and I knew what I was getting into.