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students “the opportunity to train in an inter-professional setting.”

What’s also striking about the clinic is the diversity of its clientele and their needs. A typical client, in fact, often has more than one reason for seeking treatment. “We can get patients who may be seeing a physician for a medical condition, but also have some mental health concerns that may be exacerbating or impacting the medical condition,” Horner explains.

“We’re really fortunate to see such a diversity of patients,” says Stephanie Cassin, who serves as director of clinical training, and, like Horner, also teaches in the psychology department. Even within the one-year duration of the practicum, students “see a broad range of diversity that many people might not see in their entire life, especially if they work in a more remote community,” Cassin says. “[We see] diversity in terms of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, sexual orientation… Sometimes several of these at once.”

All of this can be a little overwhelming at first, Horner and Cassin admit – but soon, they say, the students come to realize what a unique learning opportunity they have. “As they get toward the tail end [of the practicum], I think that they feel extremely well prepared for the subsequent training that they do in the program,” Cassin says.

Every year, nine students do their practicum at the clinic, spending one day a week with patients at 80 Bond St., doing assessments and delivering treatments. Skye Fitzpatrick, a PhD student who specializes in borderline personality disorders, did her first practicum at the clinic in 2012-13, while working on her master’s.

As we chat in a busy campus café on Gould Street, Fitzpatrick recounts her first experience sitting down with a patient face to face, so early in her psychological

WINTER 2017 • Ryerson University Magazine 17