Licensure Mobility as a Psychologist: Bank Your Credentials

by Meghan S. Mattos, PsyD | Feb 2, 2016 | Professional Resources

Imagine these scenarios:

1. You are a practicing licensed psychologist, presented with the opportunity of a lifetime across the country.
2. You live on the border between two states and want to expand your practice into another state.
3. You have to move to a different state for your partner’s new job – or you’re just looking for a change of scenery.
Each of these scenarios requires you to obtain a license in a new jurisdiction.

If you read my previous article about becoming licensed, you know that the process is detailed. I was initially licensed in Virginia, two months before learning that I would soon move to South Carolina. Luckily, I was prepared for this; I knew that this would only be the first of many moves.

Wanting to ensure that my license was mobile, I took steps to meet potential training requirements a state may have (like completing a postdoc) and gathering certain information and “banking” it in one place.

6 Helpful Hints for Networking as a Behavioral Health Professional

by Michelle Kahan | Jun 30, 2015 | Professional Resources

The time has finally come – you are out of class and working full-time. While this an exciting venture in your career, there are new challenges that you may face. One of these challenges is networking.

As you interact less with your former classmates, it can be difficult to maintain professional relationships and build new ones. But rest assured – here are six helpful hints for staying active in the community and continuing to network as a professional.

Preparing to be a Great Job Candidate in the World of Psychology

by Elizabeth M. Morgan, PhD | Oct 22, 2012 | Professional Resources

Constructing your curriculum vita (CV), asking for letters of recommendation and writing a cover letter may seem like the first steps involved in obtaining an internship or professional position after graduate school, but in reality, your preparation for going on the job market begins much earlier.

The relationships you have built and experiences you have had during your graduate training are the actual preparation.

The CV, cover letter, and recommendation letters are simply the mechanisms through which you inform your potential future employer about these relationships and experiences.

The purpose of this blog post is to offer some tips for those of you who are in the early or middle parts of your graduate career to help you seek out the relationships and experiences that will make you a better candidate once you seek professional employment as well as to help those of you who are nearing the end of your graduate career identify what you have already done right and where you could focus your attention in the last year or two you have left.

Please Come Back: The Common Pitfalls of a New Therapist

by Carmen Román, PhD | Oct 10, 2012 | Professional Resources

Building long-lasting relationships with clients is a skill to aim for if you ever plan to have a private practice. Treatment attrition is something I frequently experienced at the beginning of my career, and it took me several years to figure out how to provide better services.

The number of assertive therapeutic interventions per session increases only with time and practice. There are, however, some pitfalls that a beginner therapist can avoid.

My Experiences

At the beginning, I often took a lot of notes on the first session and designed elaborate treatment plans. Doing all of this at once was as complicated as learning to fly an airplane.

The problem is that I often failed in creating a safe emotional container for the client.

Although finding appropriate techniques and designing remarkable treatment plans were some terrific strategies I learned in school, I wish somebody had pointed out the basic and avoidable mistakes I was making. I did not understand why some clients canceled sessions or stopped coming altogether.

Developing as a Therapist

by Wendy M. O'Connor, PsyD, LMFT | Sep 24, 2012 | Professional Resources

Throughout your career as a therapist, you will continue to learn, gain in experience, and develop your own set of priorities and values within the work you do.

A sense of progress and growth is essential in order to keep your interest and enthusiasm for your work alive.

Professional Growth

Studies into the reasons why therapists choose their work and stay in the profession have shown that there is a widespread desire amongst the therapist community to continue learning.

Professional growth is one of the main areas that therapists attribute to preventing burn out and keeping their focus.

There are always new ideas and developments emerging in our field, and as part of what we do, we are always encouraging people to learn more in order to grow and develop as a person. So inevitably that is something we also should be doing ourselves.

Setting Goals

Most jobs or study courses have a set of goals as part of an on-going assessment scheme. However, for personal and professional development, many therapists choose to set goals in addition to the ones required by their supervisor or job.

From Hola to Hello: The Informed Use of Interpreters in Counseling

by Carmen Román, PhD | Sep 11, 2012 | Professional Resources

Can you imagine being in a therapy session where whatever you are saying is just incomprehensible buzz to your client? What a difficult situation to encounter after all your hard training! Now imagine a client struggling with an emotional crisis, and think of the extra effort required to explain the situation in an unfamiliar language. What a serious situation to be in!.

Del Hello al Hola: Uso Informado de Intérpretes en la Sala de Terapia

by Carmen Román, PhD | Sep 11, 2012 | Professional Resources

Imagina que estás en una sesión de terapia donde lo que dices es incomprensible para tu cliente. Que situación tan difícil después de tu duro entrenamiento! Ahora imagina a tu cliente quién en medio de una situación emocional se esfuerza para explicarse en un idioma que no le es familiar. Que situación tan seria! Si tu crees que esta entrada no es para ti, tengo unas cuantas preguntas antes de que abandones esta página: ¿Alguna vez evitaste alguna sesión porque tu cliente no habla español? ¿En caso necesario, sabes como escoger un intérprete y trabajar con él o ella? ¿Estás al tanto de los aspectos legales de usar un intérprete en terapia? Con el crecimiento rápido de inmigrantes a este país, ésta pronto puede ser una situación inevitable en tu carrera.