Practicum placement
& clinical supervision.
Brain & Heart Healing hosts a small number of graduate MFT and LPC-track practicum students in Abilene, Texas. You will carry a real caseload, learn trauma-informed and systemic work with individuals, couples, and families, and observe how ethical clinical care operates alongside the court system.
Supervision Status — Please Read First
Stacy Reynolds is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist-Associate (Texas #205804) who is completing the training requirements toward the AAMFT Approved Supervisor designation. She provides MFT supervision under ongoing supervision mentoring with Lisa Powell, Ph.D., LMFT-S, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, who also serves as Stacy’s own clinical supervisor. She is in training and has not yet been awarded the AAMFT Approved Supervisor designation.
Written verification of active supervision mentoring is available to students, universities, and agencies on request. Whether supervision received here counts toward a degree program, a licensure requirement, or AAMFT membership is determined by your university and your licensing board — not by this practice. Please confirm your program’s site-supervisor requirements before applying. The practice is regulated by the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council.
The Placement
Real clinical hours,
closely supervised.
This is a working practice, not an observation rotation. Students build a caseload at a pace their program and readiness support, with structured supervision, documentation review, and direct feedback throughout.
Direct Client Contact
Individual, couple, and family sessions with clients ages 6–99, scheduled around your academic calendar and program hour requirements. Individual-only hour needs are welcome.
Trauma-Informed Practice
Applied training in attachment, family systems, and neuro-informed intervention, including sexual trauma, family violence, and complex trauma.
Court-Involved Work — Observation
Court-ordered and CPS-involved cases cannot be assigned to students per the referring judges’ orders. Students may observe these sessions with client consent — a rare learning window few placements offer.
Documentation & Ethics
Note writing, treatment planning, release and consent handling, mandated reporting, and court-facing documentation reviewed before it is finalized.
Affirming Care Training
Anti-oppressive, multicultural, and LGBTQ+ affirming practice across identities, backgrounds, and relationship structures.
Practice Operations
An honest look at how a private practice actually runs — scheduling, telehealth, referral relationships, and clinical risk management.
How Supervision Works
Two layers of oversight.
Every student is supervised, and the supervision itself is mentored. That structure is intentional, and it is disclosed to students and clients alike.
Your Site Supervision
Weekly scheduled supervision with Stacy Reynolds, plus case consultation as clinical need arises. Sessions cover case conceptualization, systemic formulation, intervention choice, documentation, ethics, and safety planning.
Live or recorded session review is used where your program and client consent allow, so feedback is grounded in your actual clinical work rather than only your summary of it.
AAMFT Supervision Mentoring
The supervision you receive is itself supervised. Stacy meets regularly with Lisa Powell, Ph.D., LMFT-S, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, as part of her training toward the AAMFT Approved Supervisor designation, which she has not yet been awarded. Dr. Powell is also Stacy’s clinical supervisor, so the same senior clinician oversees both the therapy and the supervision of it.
Students and clients are informed of this structure in writing, including the limits of confidentiality that supervision and mentoring create, and both agree to it before clinical work begins.
Fit & Requirements
Who this placement is built for.
Graduate marriage and family therapy students and graduate counseling students on the LPC track are both welcome. Whether you need individual hours, relational hours, or both, the caseload is built around your program’s requirements.
A Good Fit
- Graduate MFT students Master’s or doctoral
- Graduate LPC-track counseling students Master’s or doctoral
- Students needing individual client hours Clients ages 6–99
- Students needing couple and family hours Relational caseload
- Interest in trauma-informed practice Core to this practice
- Comfortable in a small private practice Autonomy with structure
- Available for in-person sessions in Abilene Some telehealth
Required Before Placement
- Active enrollment in a graduate clinical program Verified
- University practicum or affiliation agreement School-issued
- Program confirmation of site-supervisor requirements In writing
- Professional liability insurance Per program policy
- Background check and confidentiality agreement Practice policy
- Signed training and trainee-disclosure agreements Practice policy
Caseload Limits You Should Know
Students cannot be assigned court-ordered cases or CPS-involved cases. That limit comes from the referring judges’ orders, not from this practice, and it is not negotiable. Students may sit in on those sessions to observe when the client consents, which is often the most instructive part of the placement.
Your assigned caseload is drawn from voluntary individual, couple, and family clients. If your program requires a set number of relational or individual hours, bring that number to the first conversation so the caseload can be planned around it.
What You Receive
Unpaid, but not unrewarded.
This is a training placement, not employment, and there is no placement fee, site fee, or supervision fee — you will never be charged to train here. What you get instead is the kind of preparation that is difficult to buy: more supervision than your program requires, a caseload built so you actually finish, clinical exposure most placements cannot offer, and someone invested in the first five years of your career rather than only the current semester.
Supervision Beyond the Minimum
Your program requires one supervision hour a week. You will get that weekly individual hour plus additional case consultation, live observation, co-therapy in the room when a case calls for it, and recorded session review with specific written feedback rather than general impressions.
A Caseload Built to Finish
Hour anxiety derails more practicum students than clinical difficulty does. Your caseload is planned against your program’s required direct-contact hours from day one, with a stated weekly commitment, a mid-placement hour audit, and adjustments if the numbers drift — individual, couple, and family mix set by what your program requires.
Every Cost Covered
No fees of any kind. The practice covers your electronic health record access, telehealth platform, clinical and psychoeducational materials, assessment tools, workbooks, printing, and office space. You bring yourself and your student liability coverage; nothing else comes out of your pocket.
Court and CPS Observation
A learning window almost no private-practice placement can offer. You cannot be assigned these cases, but you can observe court-ordered and CPS-involved sessions with client consent, and you will see the documentation, court reporting, and compliance side of that work up close.
Specialized Clinical Training
Applied instruction in trauma-informed and attachment-based practice, family violence and anger management programming, substance use through an LCDC lens, and Gottman-informed couples work — areas graduate coursework usually only names in passing.
How a Practice Actually Runs
The business education no program provides: intake and referral flow, consent and documentation design, insurance and billing fundamentals, fee and sliding-scale structure, records requests, and how ethical clinical marketing works. Ask about any of it and you will get a real answer.
Documentation Handled Properly
Hour logs kept current, evaluations completed on time, and verification letters produced on request. University paperwork is returned to your coordinator promptly — you will not be chasing your site supervisor at a semester deadline.
Career Launch Support
A detailed letter of recommendation, resume and professional-profile review, a walkthrough of your licensure application and supervision requirements, exam preparation guidance, introductions inside the Abilene provider community, and first consideration for a paid associate position once you are licensed.
Our Commitment to You
You will be treated as an emerging colleague, not free labor. That means honest feedback delivered privately and early, credit for your clinical thinking, room to disagree with your supervisor, and protection of your time when the practice gets busy. If your program’s requirements shift mid-placement, say so and the placement adjusts around them.
The Process
From inquiry to first session.
Submit an inquiry
Complete the practicum inquiry form below with your program details, timeline, and hour requirements. No client information should ever be included.
Review and conversation
Inquiries are reviewed as cohort openings become available. If there is a fit, we schedule a conversation about your goals, your program requirements, and what this site can and cannot offer you.
University paperwork
Your school’s affiliation or practicum agreement is completed with your faculty liaison, along with written verification of active AAMFT supervision mentoring for your file.
Onboarding
Training agreement, confidentiality and privacy training, documentation systems, telehealth platform, scheduling, and the client-facing trainee disclosure used with every client you see.
Caseload and supervision begin
Your caseload builds gradually with weekly supervision from the first week forward, and hour tracking your program can verify.
Practicum Inquiry
Tell us about your program.
Submitting this form does not create a placement, employment, or therapy relationship. Please do not include any client-identifying or protected health information.
Questions before you apply? Email info@brainandhearthealing.com with your program name and expected start term.
Questions
Practicum FAQ
Are you an AAMFT Approved Supervisor?
Not yet. Stacy Reynolds is completing the training requirements toward the AAMFT Approved Supervisor designation and provides MFT supervision under ongoing supervision mentoring with Lisa Powell, Ph.D., LMFT-S, AAMFT Approved Supervisor. No completion or award date is promised, and written verification of active mentoring is available on request.
Will my hours count toward graduation or licensure?
That determination belongs to your university and your licensing board. Bring your program’s site-supervisor requirements to the conversation early so everyone is working from the same rules. Documentation and verification of hours completed at this site are provided for your file.
Can I carry court-ordered or CPS cases?
No. Per the referring judges’ orders, court-ordered and CPS-involved cases cannot be assigned to a student. You may observe those sessions when the client consents, and you will see the documentation and court-reporting side of that work, but the case itself stays with Stacy. Your own caseload comes from voluntary individual, couple, and family clients.
Do you take LPC students, or only MFT students?
Both. Graduate marriage and family therapy students and graduate counseling students on the LPC track are accepted, at the master’s or doctoral level. Your university sets the site and supervisor requirements for your specific track, so confirm those before applying.
Is the placement paid? Is there a fee to train here?
Practicum placements here are unpaid training placements, consistent with graduate practicum standards and university affiliation agreements. There is also no placement fee, site fee, or supervision fee — you will never be charged to train at Brain & Heart Healing, and the practice covers your records system, clinical materials, and office space. In place of pay you receive supervision beyond your program’s minimum, a caseload planned around your required hours, specialized trauma and court-involved training, career launch support, and first consideration for a paid associate position once you are licensed. The What You Receive section above lists all of it.
How many students do you take?
A small number per term. Cohorts are kept intentionally small so supervision stays substantive rather than administrative.
Can the placement be telehealth only?
Some telehealth is part of the practice, but most training value here comes from in-person work in the Abilene office, including court-involved and family sessions. Note your preference in the inquiry form and it can be discussed.
Do clients know a student is providing services?
Always. Clients receive written disclosure that services are delivered by a supervised trainee, that supervision is provided under AAMFT supervision mentoring, and what that means for the limits of confidentiality. Clients consent in writing before any session.
Brain & Heart Healing, PLLC · Abilene, Texas
Train where the work is real.
Trauma-informed care, systemic family work, and court-involved clinical programs — with supervision that is structured, documented, and honest about its own training status.