A psychologist is a mental professional who studies emotions, behaviors, and assists individuals build skills to effectively cope with various difficulties. Most individuals automatically associate psychologists with talk therapy. However, psychologists may play various roles in the area of mental health. For instance, the American Psychological Association (APA) has identified 56 separate divisions that represent a field within psychology. According to the APA, there are approximately 105,000 psychologists in the United States. While some psychologists primarily do research, others work in a variety of settings, including hospitals, outpatient centers, schools, substance abuse treatment facilities, and court systems.
Psychologists who provide psychotherapy services assist people experiencing various emotional or interpersonal difficulties that may impact their daily functioning. Through psychotherapy services, individuals gain insight into their difficulties while the psychologist helps them develop more positive and effective coping mechanisms. Additionally, industrial-organizational psychologists focus on studying behaviors in the workplace and implement specific interventions to solve problems within the organizations. For example, an organization may contract an industrial-organizational psychologist in order to increase motivation in the workplace, increase quality of the work day, or develop specific training programs.
Psychologist Credentials
In order to become a psychologist, one must complete a 4-7 year doctoral program, an extensive amount of supervised pre-doctoral clinical training, and a supervised 1-2 year post-doctoral residency. Most graduate school programs require students to complete research projects and a dissertation. Once training is complete, the individual is required to sit for a licensure exam and complete other state requirements in order to become a licensed psychologist. Once licensed in their state, psychologists are required to complete a certain amount of continuing education credits yearly in order to stay up to date with current evidence based practices and ethical issues. Contact the Miami Psychology Group if you are interested in meeting with one of our licensed psychologists. We serve Miami and Miami Beach areas.