What Psychologists Do To Support One's Mental Health
Psychologists are mental health professionals with specialized training and experience. Generally focused on understanding human thought and behavior—often with a view toward helping to solve mental health issues—psychologists can specialize in several different areas of mental health treatment. In this article, you will find an overview of the psychology career, including different types of psychologists, areas of expertise, and tips for finding the right mental health professional for your needs.
Psychologists – an overview
Clinical psychology is typically concerned with diagnosing and treating mental health disorders. Clinical psychologists may work in healthcare, educational, or practice settings, and often specialize in specific areas such as child psychology, neuropsychology, or geriatric psychology.
Non-clinical psychologists, on the other hand, typically work in a field known as applied psychology, which generally focuses on solving broader health and social concerns. Clinical and non-clinical psychologists often differ in terms of the education, licensing, and experience requirements necessary to practice. Within these two categories, there are numerous career paths psychologists can choose.
Psychiatry vs. psychology: What's the difference?
Many people conflate the fields of psychology and psychiatry. While both may work in mental health clinics, their training, roles, and approaches to treatment differ significantly. psychiatrists are medical doctors who have a mental health specialty, which allows them to prescribe medication and diagnose mental health conditions. While clinical psychologists can perform these duties in certain states after undergoing specialized training, their scope of practice generally focuses more on psychological testing and psychotherapy.
Becoming a clinical psychologist: Education and training
When individuals are seeking psychological treatment, they often want to know the qualifications of the practitioner. The educational and training requirements of a clinical psychologist are as follows:
Bachelor’s degree
Psychologists often begin their education by completing a Bachelor's degree in a related field, such as psychology, sociology, or education. This foundational stage can provide a broad understanding of human behavior, research methods, and basic psychological theories, which are crucial for advanced studies in psychology.
Doctoral degree
While many types of mental health professions require a master’s degree to begin practicing, psychologists must hold a doctorate level degree, such as a PhD or PsyD. This typically requires completion of a program of study accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). PhD degrees are more common among psychologists than PsyDs, and typically take longer to complete.
Psychology clinical supervision
Psychology licensure
In order to begin practicing independently, clinical psychologists must become licensed by the state, province, or country in which they plan to work. In addition to proving they have completed their education and training, they must also pass a licensure examination such as the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP). Most psychologists will have biographical information or a curriculum vitae posted for potential clients on their website or the website of the practice or hospital with which they are affiliated.
Psychology practice areas
As discussed above, psychologists can have a range of specialties. While some focus on the intricacies of our moods and emotions, others examine the different ways we develop during childhood or the sources of certain neurological disorders. There is often a significant amount of overlap between these areas of focus, and many psychologists have multiple specialties. The following are some common practice areas for psychologists.
Cognitive psychology
A cognitive psychologist generally has an educational background, research, and practice experience in the cognitive aspects of psychology. This means they focus on the inner workings of the mind. They can help people learn how their cognition may affect their lives and provide solutions based on a cognitive therapy framework.
Behavioral psychology
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Taking elements from both cognitive and behavioral psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are related. Today, CBT is offered to help individuals not only control negative behaviors and learn more positive ones, but also gain an understanding of the psychological origins of these behaviors.
Abnormal psychology
Abnormal psychology is a broad field within psychology that focuses on understanding behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that are considered unusual. Psychologists with a background in abnormal psychology work in those areas of psychology where there is a significant disorder or dysfunction in the individual's life. These conditions are often pervasive, affecting not only the day-to-day living of the individual but also the people around them. Personality disorders are some of the most common conditions seen by practitioners with a specialization in abnormal psychology.
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychologists specialize in treating clients with neurological disorders that manifest in psychological symptoms. This includes bipolar disorders and other disorders related to neurochemistry disturbances or imbalances.
General psychology
The general psychologist is much like the general practice medical doctor. This practitioner is qualified to provide psychotherapy for most psychological disorders and mental health challenges but is ethically bound to provide a referral when a patient's challenges fall outside of their scope. Those who seek the help of a general psychologist may be experiencing depression, anxiety, or another condition that is interfering with their quality of life. If the general psychologist feels the situation or condition is outside their, then a referral may be made to a specialist.
Choosing a mental health professional
Takeaway
Psychologists in the field of clinical psychology will likely ask you questions about your mental and physical health and what brought you to psychotherapy.
However, there can be many types of psychologists, including the following:
- Industrial-organizational psychologists
- School psychologists
- Counseling psychologists
- Developmental psychologists
- Forensic psychologists
Psychologists generally help people with mental health concerns. They can diagnose and treat mental health conditions with various kinds of psychotherapy. However, psychologists in fields like counseling psychology, psychological research, clinical health psychology, and rehabilitation psychology may have differing responsibilities.
In many cases, when we discuss psychologists, we’re talking about the type of mental health professionals that offer talk psychotherapy, often in an in-person practice setting.
Psychologists can help people with a range of emotional, mental, and behavioral concerns, including severe mental health conditions. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Psychologists study cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior by observing, interpreting, and recording how individuals relate to one another and to their environments.”
Psychology can help people cope with stress and symptoms of mental health disorders, overcome addiction, and gain insight into the way they think, feel, and behave. Going to psychotherapy with a psychologist can also help people improve their relationships.
How useful are psychologists?
While individual experiences with psychologists can vary, these mental health professionals typically have a doctoral degree and notable experience in the field of psychology. As professionals, psychologists can be very useful in supporting individuals as they learn to manage, cope with, and overcome a variety of mental health issues.
How do psychologists safeguard themselves?
There may be many ways in which psychologists safeguard themselves. For example, they might engage in general self-care, schedule their sessions to allow for decompression time in between and set healthy boundaries with their clients.
How do psychologists affect society?
Psychology (and psychologists) can benefit society by helping people understand more about human behavior, enhancing productivity, supporting individuals as they achieve their goals, and promoting improved general knowledge about mental health-related topics.
How do psychologists deal with ethical issues?
Psychologists may manage ethical issues in the following ways:
- Choosing not to treat people they know personally
- Safeguarding clients’ information
- Documenting all relevant information
- Billing clients accurately
- Following the psychological principles learned in their education and training
While no one can necessarily control another person’s behavior, psychologists are often able to pick up on certain thoughts and emotional patterns that may lead to specific behaviors. Because of this, they can help their clients adjust their thoughts and emotions in order to modify their behavior.
In general, psychologists usually care about personality because it can offer a lot of information about a person and how they think, feel, and behave.
- Previous Article