What is an average day like for a psychologist and how demanding will this job be in the future.
For most of my colleges, I chose to major in psychology. Although I have a broad understanding of the topic, I have considered perhaps becoming a psychologist one day as I enjoy working with people and helping others out. But I have a very basic idea of what a psychologist does because how television portrays it, but I think it's much more different in reality, so I am curious about the truth to it.
#future-careers #psychology #career
2 answers
Dr. Reeta’s Answer
Since I'm in private practice, I get to set my own schedule that works for me. I work Monday - Thursday, seeing 6-7 clients a day, and typically start at noon so that I have the entire morning to do my thing. I turned my practice digital 4 years ago so that I could travel and still work and was able to see 9 different countries! This version of life is pretty awesome :)
Linda Ann’s Answer
Hi Jonathon,
The discipline of psychology is multi-faceted. NOT all psychologists are therapists - let's just dispel this typical misunderstanding for starters. Only about 1/3 of psychologists engage in therapy. So, answering your question, as a retired Industrial-Organizational Psychologist will provide a very different view of what I did than if I had been a therapist with clients in distress.
So, what you need to do, is to explore the many facets of the discipline of psychology. How do you that, you're probably thinking? Go to the website of the American Psychological Association (www.apa.org). Then, go to the "divisions" tab and read about what psychologists who have specialized in that discipline are doing in their careers.
I've actually had three, related careers in psychology. The first one was as a travelling, school psychologist. The second one was as an I-O Psychologist, and the third career was as a faculty member teaching psychology at a small, private university. Descriptions of a typical day would be very different for each of these roles that I had in my career as a psychologist!
Good luck! I do recommend finding an internship while an undergraduate so that you can explore different aspects of our field.