Mustapha
For a student in psychology, but doesn't want to deal with medicine, what does a professional in psychology recommend?
I am a student that declared as a psychology major, but do is not interested in medicine. i do not want to associate with anything that has to do with medicine.#psychology
2 answers
Linda Ann Robinson, Ph.D.
Linda Ann’s Answer
Your question, as written, needs a bit of clarification. I can interpret your query in at least two ways:
First, that you have no interest in studying medical-like topics OR going to medical school. Second, that you have no desire in a therapeutic environment to treat patients who are taking medication.
Perhaps you are mixing up the fields of psychiatry and psychology? Psychiatrists go to medical school and take residencies and fellowships in this medical specialty. They have an MD following their surname. In today’s world, very few psychiatrists are trained in “talk therapy.” Most psychiatrists write prescriptions for psychoactive medicine and monitor their patients’ progress through analysis of blood work and the patients’ description of symptoms.
Psychologists do not go to medical school; instead, they get a terminal degree (doctorate) in the discipline of psychology. They have either a Ph.D. or a Psy.D. following their surname). The doctorate will take 5-6 years beyond the bachelors degree- the same amount of time to complete a medical degree.
Not all psychologists are therapists - only about one-third provide talk-therapy to their clients. In some USA states, psychologists who have received additional training have “prescriptive authority” which means they can indeed write Rx’s for psychoactive medicines for their patients. Four-to-five states currently grant such authority to doctoral level psychologists.
Psychology as a discipline is much, much more than just therapy. Please explore what psychologists actually do at the website of The American Psychological Association: www.apa.org.
Even if you are interested is providing mental health services to people in distress, you will need to learn about how the body works in relationship to the brain. We are biological creatures. All of what happens at the level of the brain is biological!
There are other disciplines that provide mental health counseling such as licensed social workers and marriage and family counselors. I will recommend another website to you: www.aca.org; The American Counseling Association.
Many young people confuse these two disciplines! Hope this answer helps to both inform and point you in a direction to learn more. Have fun in your exploration and Good Luck.
Meghan Thrasher
Meghan’s Answer
The fields you can get into with psychology will not typically be medical, they may be medical adjacent, but not purely medical. As a psychologist you could do the counseling portion of therapy and when medication is needed you would refer them to a psychiatrist to prescribe. This is why the typical training for a psychologist includes a PhD rather than an MD.
With Psychiatry you have to go through all of the medical training a doctor would go through. Anyone who prescribes medication has to go through the basic medical training all doctors go through. They then choose to specialize in Psychiatry the way one would specialize in surgery or pediatrics.
If you aren't interested in using psychology in a way that is medically related then I suggest looking into counseling, marriage counseling, non-profit outreach, social work, and more. There is plenty to be done in the field of psychology that is not medically related.
You could also look into doing minors like sociology, gender and sexuality, human and family studies etc. There are ways to specialize in non medical areas of psychology as early as undergraduate university.
Hope this helps!