Clinical Psychology Explained

Clinical psychology involves the study and application of psychology in order to understand, prevent, and relieve psychologically-based distress or dysfunction as well as to promote subjective well-being and personal development. Crucial to the field of clinical psychology are approaches such as psychological assessment and psychotherapy but some clinical psychologists have also engaged in teaching, research, forensic testimony, consultation, program development, and administration. In some countries, the practice of clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession.
It is believed that clinical psychology may have trace its roots from 1896 with the establishment of the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania by Lightner Witmer. During the first fifty years of the 20th century, the focus of clinical psychology was on psychological assessment with little focus on treatment. After the 1940s, World War II required the need for a huge increase in the amount of trained clinicians. During that time, two main educational models emerged- the Ph.D, science practitioner model and Psy.D. practitioner-scholar model. The former is focusing on research while the latter is on clinical practice.
Today, the aim of clinical psychologists is on providing psychotherapy and are skilled in four main theoretical orientations such as psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive behavioral, and systems or family therapy. Clinical psychology is often confused with psychiatry, which generally has similar objectives. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the latter requires a medical degree. The focus of the latter is medication-based solutions, although some psychiatrists offer psychotherapeutic services as well. Clinical psychologists often cooperate with multidisciplinary teams such as psychiatrists, occupational therapists, and social workers resulting to a multimodal approach to complex problems of patients.
While the establishment of the first psychological laboratory in 1879 was considered as the start of modern scientific psychology, attempts to develop assessment and treatments methods for mental distress had been developed way before. The earlies form of approach involved a combination of religious, magical, and medical perspectives. In the early years of the 19th century, it was possible to undergo a head examination using phrenology. It was possible to determine one’s personality by studying the shape of the skull. Other popular methods was physiognomy, which involved studying of the shape of the face, and mesmerism, or the use of magnets.
Eventually, scientists rejected all of these methods and academic psychologists were likewise not concerned with serious mental illnesses. It was already the concern of fields such as psychiatry and neurology. It was only until the time when Sigmund Freud introduced “talking cure” in Vienna that the first scientifically clinical application of psychology started.
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Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_psychology

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