If you’ve just provisionally registered, the 5+1 internship is the last stage between you and general registration as a psychologist in Australia. It’s a well-defined program, but the requirements are spread across several Ahpra documents, and it’s easy to lose track of what actually has to be logged, observed, and signed off.
This guide pulls the whole 5+1 pathway together in one place: what it is, the hours you need, how supervision works, what
goes in your logbook, and how long it realistically takes.
What is the 5+1 pathway?
The “5+1” describes the shape of the training pathway: five years of accredited study followed by one year of supervised practice.
- The 5 is your accredited sequence — typically a three or four year undergraduate degree, an accredited fourth year (honours or graduate diploma), and a fifth-year qualification such as a Master of Professional Psychology.
- The +1 is the internship: a one-year full-time (or equivalent part-time) program of supervised practice approved by the Psychology Board of Australia.
Once you finish your fifth year you can register as a provisional psychologist, which is what lets you begin the internship. The internship exists to consolidate everything you learned in study and demonstrate the eight threshold competencies required to practise independently.
The 5+1 is one of several routes to general registration (the 4+2 pathway is being phased out, and higher-degree
pathways exist too), but it is now the most common internship route.
The three core components you have to complete
The internship is built around three components. All three are recorded in your logbook and reviewed by your supervisor.
1. Psychological practice — 1,500 hours
You need 1,500 hours of psychological practice in total. Within that:
- A minimum of 500 hours must be direct client contact — actual assessment, intervention, diagnosis, risk work, and consultation with real clients (face-to-face or via telehealth). Up to 60 of these 500 hours can be simulated client contact, such as role plays or shadowing.
- The remaining hours are made up of client-related activities (report writing, scoring and administering assessments, case consultation, record keeping, and research to support your work), plus your supervision and education hours.
2. Supervision — 80 hours minimum
You need at least 80 hours of supervision across the internship:
- A minimum of 50 hours must be individual (one-on-one) supervision with your principal supervisor.
- Up to 30 hours can be group supervision or individual supervision with a secondary supervisor.
- As a guideline, Ahpra expects roughly one hour of supervision for every 18 hours of practice — the 1:18 ratio. This means your supervision requirement grows with your practice hours, so it’s worth tracking the ratio as you go rather than at the end.
Supervision should happen regularly (usually weekly) throughout the internship, and can be in person, by phone, or by videoconference.
3. Education and training — 60 hours minimum
You need a minimum of 60 hours of education and training — workshops, seminars, conferences, short courses,
peer-reviewed reading, and approved self-directed learning. This must include content on health equity and human rights
approaches when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and people from diverse groups.
Direct observation and progress reviews
Two requirements are easy to overlook because they aren’t measured in a running hours total:
- Direct observation: your supervisor must directly observe at least four sessions every six months — a minimum of two psychological assessments and two intervention sessions. This can be live or via audio/video recording.
- Progress reviews: you complete a formal progress review with your principal supervisor at least every six months, combining your self-reflection with your supervisor’s evaluation of your development.
Missing these isn’t just an administrative gap — a period of practice may not be recognised if the observation and
review requirements weren’t met.
The logbook: Sections A, B and C
Throughout the internship you keep a logbook — the LBPP-76 form — split into three sections that map onto the three components above:
| Section | Records | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|
| Section A | Practice | Direct client contact and client-related activities, with client type, hours, and contact type |
| Section B | Education & training | Every professional development activity, plus evidence (certificates) and reflection |
| Section C | Supervision | A summary of each session, supervisor feedback, and progress toward competencies |
Your logbook must be updated weekly (or fortnightly if part-time) and reviewed regularly by your supervisor. If Ahpra
requests it, you must be able to submit it within 14 days. An incomplete or inaccurate logbook can mean a period of your
internship isn’t counted — which is exactly the kind of delay that costs interns time and money.
The National Psychology Exam
Separate from your hours, you must pass the National Psychology Examination (NPE) before you can apply for general
registration. The NPE tests the eight threshold competencies, and you can sit it during your internship rather than
waiting until the end.
How long does the 5+1 internship take?
The minimum duration is 44 weeks full-time equivalent, and the program is designed to be completed in one year full-time. There’s no fixed maximum, but you do need to keep meeting recency-of-practice standards, and part-time interns take proportionally longer.
In practice, many interns take longer than 44 weeks — not because of the clinical work, but because of the administrative
overhead of tracking hours, calculating the supervision ratio, formatting reports, and chasing signatures. Every extra
week is both an out-of-pocket supervision cost and lost earnings as a fully registered psychologist. We covered the real
numbers in the hidden financial cost of your 5+1 internship.
A note on the December 2025 guideline update
Ahpra updated the 5+1 internship guidelines effective 1 December 2025, including changes to competencies and logbook
forms. If you started before then, it’s worth reading
what changed in the December 2025 update to make sure your logbook reflects the
current requirements.
Keeping it all compliant
The 5+1 pathway is clear on paper, but keeping 1,500 hours, a moving supervision ratio, direct-observation deadlines, and weekly logbook entries all straight is where the time goes.
PsychTrakka is a digital 5+1 logbook built specifically for this pathway. It records Sections A, B and C, tracks your hours and the 1:18 supervision ratio in real time, generates LBPP-76-compliant weekly reports, and lets your supervisor sign off with a secure link — no printing, scanning, or chasing. If you’d rather spend your internship on clinical work than admin, that’s what it’s for.