Clinical psychologists are trained to carry out detailed and in-depth assessments. They test personal history, current and past relationships, and present circumstances to diagnose the disorder.
What is Clinical Psychology?
Psychology is the science and theory of our normal cognitive (mental) processes. It concerns understanding how and why we think, feel, and behave as we do.
Clinical psychology is the application of this science to clinical issues. It is how we use our everyday cognitive processes to cope with abnormal or less-than-ideal events and circumstances. Unfortunately, when faced with extreme events, our mental processes affect or become distorted, leading to emotional distress and psychological problems.
Psychological problems can occur at any stage in our lives for many reasons. The consequences of such problems vary in intensity but can be quite incapacitating and disrupt how we function in daily life.
This information leads you and your psychologist to understand how and why the problem develops and continues fully. This is a psychological formulation. It is drawn up in the form of a diagram, or it may be a written or verbal description of how different factors combine to cause the problem. Each person’s formulation is individual and unique to them.
The psychological formulation will then help to define the most appropriate form of talking therapy to address the problem and enable you to find an effective solution.
What do Clinical Psychologists do?
The study of clinical psychology prepares one to work individually and in group settings. Usually, clinical psychologists are most likely to be involved in providing counseling and therapy services to various clients. Clinical psychologists work in the advanced sector of mental health.
In this field, psychology practitioners can work with a variety of clients, from children to adults, mentally healthy to mentally ill, and so on, and clinical psychologist’s salaries can vary greatly.
Clinical psychology is often intermingled with counseling psychology, allowing clinical psychology professionals to directly impact their target population, helping them examine their behaviors and life situations to improve life quality or solve specific issues.
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Where do Clinical Psychologists Work?
Professionals with a degree in psychology or clinical psychology who desire to work in clinical psychology have various options available. Clinical psychologists are sought after in hospitals, physician’s offices, and other mental health centers.
They are often employed in substance abuse programs, correctional facilities, law enforcement, government agencies, academic institutions, and other private and public organizations.
Over a third of counseling, psychologists are self-employed in private counseling practice. Many adjunct faculty or full-time instructors, while others conduct research, resulting in books and articles.
How to Become a Clinical Psychologist?
Degrees in psychology are offered at the bachelor’s degree level, but a specialty in clinical psychology is rarely available at this level. While a bachelor’s degree in general psychology can be sufficient for some low-level research and counseling assistant positions, a Master’s or doctoral degree is necessary to establish oneself in the field truly.
Those with a Master’s degree or higher can engage in self-employed professional or joint practice or serve at various mental health organizations or other businesses. PhDs are the most sought-after and most highly compensated.
Clinical Psychologists Salary: How Much Do Clinical Psychologists Make?
An established clinical psychologist can expect to earn a mean income in the mid $60,000 range. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, half of all practicing clinical psychologists earn between $48,000 and $82,000 annually. The most profitable 10% can make upwards of $108,000 a year. Clinical psychologists currently enjoy the highest average income of all psychology specialties.
Those who engage heavily in research can have a widely variable income, depending upon the number and types of research grants they can procure and how much they pay for publishing.
Book authors can earn royalties from $5,000 to $50,000 a year, even more; textbook authors can find a lucrative, captive audience, though breaking into textbook publication is challenging. Counseling jobs in the public or private sector can start as low as $25,000 for social work positions but go up to $98,000, even more, for tenured faculty positions or jobs with prominent companies.
Clinical psychology salary can vary. Many self-employed counselors earn over $100,000 a year; however, this is not necessarily common.
Those who do earn the highest salaries tend to have various accreditations in addition to the Ph.D. or PsyD, including state licensure and certifications or license from other psychological institutions and organizations.
Adding additional certifications and degrees, such as a specialty in forensic psychology or child psychology, can make a professional more sought after and thus able to earn more money. But, of course, experience is also essential.
The more years of experience one has in the field and the more publication and research credits they have, the more jobs are available and at higher pay.