What is a Psychologist? Master’s versus Psy.D. versus Ph.D?
The word Psychologist can often come across as confusing, especially since someone can be a “doctor” without being a Psychologist and many individuals practice without being officially licensed. In order to become a Psychologist, you are required to complete the mandatory doctoral program, designated internship and post-doctoral hours, and then pass both a national and state exam. In order to become a “doctor,” you have to complete the schooling, but do not actually have to pass any licensing exams. Please always verify that your “doctor” is actually licensed in what they practice!
When people hear the term "therapy" or "psychologist," they often envision Freud with a puffy white beard or a scene from Girl Interrupted. While family dynamics do play a role in our development of patterns and current relationships. I'm not going to spend the entire time focused on your parents or "psychoanalyzing" you. Additionally, the atmosphere will feel relaxed and you can think of it as a conversation that will hopefully help you view life more clearly and manage life stressors more effectively!
Being a licensed Psychologist, means that after obtaining my undergraduate degree, I spent 5 years getting my doctorate and received specialized training and supervision to build therapy skills and learn evidenced-based techniques to treat various mental health concerns. It also allows me to conduct testing reserved for my level of degree. During my internship, I acquired experience conducting neuropsychological batteries, personality assessments, cognitive testing, and various forensic evaluations.
A Psy.D. is tailored to working with the clinical population, this means nearly all the classes and experiences are geared toward working one on one with clients. On the other hand, Ph.D.’s tend to be aimed at conducting research and statistical analysis. While everything I do is backed by research, after three years in a purely research based master's program, I discovered that I was not interested in running anymore statistics or conducting experiments.
I also knew for myself I wanted to have multiple years of quality training before fully entering the field. I’m dealing with the brain and often strongly impacting one’s life, so it felt important, which is I why I decided to do a Doctorate after obtaining my first Master’s.
Hopefully this answered most of your questions, but if not, I am happy to go into this in further detail during a Free 15-Minute Consultation!