Careers In Psychology

What Is an Army Mental Health Specialist? Members of the armed forces, like the Army, often have difficult times - to say the least - when it comes to staying mentally and emotionally stable. These brave men and women go through grueling training, and are separated from their families when they’re shipped overseas to live in an unfamiliar world amidst Continue Reading

Career counselors help prepare their clients for the start, change, or advancement of their career. They provide consulting, coaching, and counseling so that clients can explore their interests and options more in-depth. The counselors take things like personality, aptitude, interests, personality, and behavior into consideration as they help guide clients towards careers that will make them happy.

Child abuse counselors have the demanding and rewarding job of helping victims of serious child abuse try to rebuild their psyche, trust, and happiness. They use their training to identify, analyze, and treat specific symptoms of child abuse and they provide crucial therapy to help the child overcome their awful ordeal. Some of that therapy can involve playing, or encouraging children to speak their minds, or even working with the family to ensure the child is provided a safe and comfortable environment to continue their development.

Child counselors are specifically trained to provide outpatient counseling treatment services for children, adolescents, and their families. They perform assessments for specific issues such as ADHD and autism and they also offer counseling services for children with behavioral, social, or emotional issues. They use their training to help families identify and treat issues in children such as weight disorders, anger problems, or social anxiety disorders.

Community Mental Health Counselors are mental health professionals who provide therapy, consulting, and coaching to people who are having issues in a community setting. These counselors are well-versed in the makeup of their community and they try to help clients understand their relationship to that community and help identify and treat issues and problems that arise out of the community setting. They are often charged with helping people adjust to and understand their community better as to minimize issues and promote mental health for everyone.

Conflict resolution is the art and science of resolving disputes in healthy and mutually agreed-upon ways. When handled correctly, conflict can actually be a good thing that leads to teamwork and better communication. When handled incorrectly, it can permanently damage relationships, slow progress and create even larger issues. A conflict resolution mediator is essential in a variety of professional fields and can often same companies or people time and money that would have been otherwise wasted.

The role of a Couples Counselor is rather straightforward. Couples Counselors are absolutely trained psychologists who are specifically tasked with helping couples of all ages lead happy and healthy relationships. In some cases this can mean dealing with serious mental and emotional issues and in other cases in can mean helping couples understand themselves and how they affect each other. Marriage and Family Therapists are very similar to Couples Counselors and their roles are the same.

The word “crisis” pops up in the media everywhere today, from internet news to television broadcasts, on the headlines of newspapers to the home next door. While research reports that most people consider themselves happy, unfortunately, many people do not lead balanced lives. When crisis strikes – either mental, physical, or social – people are sometimes pushed past their threshold Continue Reading

Depression counselors are specifically trained to deal with the mental, emotional, and physical issues that can arise out of depression. Depression counselors don’t just prescribe medication, they try to drill down to the root cause of the depression and help clients identify steps they can take to overcome the depression. Helping clients understand why they are depressed and helping them through the steps to recovery can have a profound impact on the quality of life for the clients.

Domestic violence is one of the more prevalent issues that take place in the home setting and domestic violence counselors are the ones who help victims of domestic abuse deal with and overcome their traumatic experiences. Their training helps them identify certain adverse effects of domestic violence and they can then help the patient slowly work to treat and combat those effects. They provide an important therapy for clients in need of understanding of their trauma and someone to listen to their issues.

Geriatric counselors provide treatment, analysis, and counseling services to seniors and their families. The counselors are considered experts and have specialized training and knowledge of common mental health issues that are known to affect seniors in particular. They can assess, identify and treat problems so that seniors can understand the issues they face and work to overcome them and live comfortably. These services are usually provided to seniors who live in long-term care and residential facilities, and help these seniors live a fulfilling and comfortable life.

Grief counselors are usually licensed therapists who help people cope with the grief and sense of loss that usually follows the death of a loved one, a particularly emotional divorce, or another tragic life experience. Coping can happen in a number of different ways and grief counselors are adept at identifying what method of counseling or treatment works with each individual. They try to help clients not only deal with that grief, but also help those clients deal with the grief while they continue to be productive members of society.

Licensed professional counselors provide a variety of different kinds of care to patients. LPCs are trained to provide mental, emotional and even physical care for patients suffering from everything from abuse, addiction and even depression. They can work with individuals, couples, or families and really can identify and treat a large swath of issues. Licensed professional counselors are some of the most common mental health professionals in the workplace. They can be employed everywhere from hospitals and community health organizations to elder care facilities and rehab clinics.

What Is Marriage and Family Counseling? Despite many people looking forward to "happily ever after", this doesn't always happen. Many relationships and families aren't perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, and some have so many problems that they seem irreparable. However, contrary to what some may believe, happy marriages and peaceful families are possible. They just take a little Continue Reading

What Is Mental Health Counseling? Life is full of frustration and difficult times. Most adults will usually have to deal with such things as balancing family and career life, and paying bills that they can’t afford. These stressful times can be very hard to get through and extremely overwhelming for some. Not coping with this type of stress in a Continue Reading

What Is Multi-Cultural Counseling? It’s no secret that the population in this country continues to rise. This increase can be attributed not only to longer lifespans and births, but also to an increasing amount of immigrants to this country. America has one of the most culturally diverse populations in the world, with individuals from every corner of the globe making Continue Reading

Pastoral counselors are psychologically trained ministers of faith who are responsible for tending to the physical and emotional needs of their followers or congregations. They work within the religious community and are a result of the belief that therapy can be combined with faith and science. They can help followers with a wide range of afflictions including family issues, depression, abuse and substance issues.

Rehabilitation counselors are responsible for treating patients with physical, mental, or emotional issues so that they can live as independently as possible. Trained at the graduate level, rehabilitation counselors deal with psychological and physical issues that affect patients including post-traumatic stress disorders and severe brain injuries. They combine the knowledge to help patients understand and overcome their disability.

School counselors are responsible for all aspects of their students’ educational life from academic achievement to social adjustment to even career selection and development. They work within the school infrastructure to support and foster academic success as well as personal and social development. They help ensure their students remain well-adjusted and prepared for whatever lies ahead.

Spiritual counselors deal with patients who have suffered spiritual trauma or dissatisfaction and they help these patients get in touch with their spirituality, understand what is afflicting them, and overcome or deal with that issue. These counselors combine their spiritual or religious knowledge with an in-depth understanding of the psychology behind the issues so that their patients can live happy and fulfilling lives.

Substance abuse is an unfortunate issue for thousands of people across the country and substance abuse counselors are ones trained to help people understand the motivations behind their substance abuse issue, and then help people overcome and defeat those issues. They have psychological and physiological training that helps them understand emotional and mental issues of substance abuse as well as the physical ones.

Suicide Intervention counselors have some of the most stressful and rewarding jobs as they are specifically training in the psychology behind suicidal feelings and depression and their job is to help patients with suicidal thoughts think more positively and continue to live a fulfilling and rewarding life. These counselors are trained to identify motivations behind suicidal thoughts and help the patients deal with those motivations so they can gain more self-confidence and self-worth.

Transformational counselors offer an alternative form of mental and physical healing that focuses on self-improvement, spiritual healing, and deeper life satisfaction. The counselors combine traditional psychological knowledge with alternative methods for inner-healing to help patients find a greater sense of purpose, excitement, joy, and self-satisfaction.

With more than five million veterans in the country, veterans’ counselors have their hands full assisting the nation’s heroes with a myriad of physical, emotional, mental, or social problems that can arise in people who have experienced combat. Veterans’ counselors help their patients identify the root of their issues and then help them adjust to a more traditional life by helping them treat and cope with the issues.

Severe and permanent disabilities can be crippling to a person's career and daily life. Vocational rehabilitation counselors are specifically trained to help people with such disabilities cope with these disabilities by helping them find jobs and live on their own. These disabilities can be wide-ranging and can include physical, mental and emotional disabilities. They can also include severe mental illnesses and substance abuse issues. They work with these patients to help them learn to live more active lives and, more importantly, secure gainful employment.

Art therapy allows patients to visually communicate thoughts and feelings that are too painful to put into words. Through the use of art media, the creative process, and the resulting artwork art therapy helps clients of all ages express themselves in ways that conventional therapies may not.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy that takes a practical and tangible approach to solving issues. CBT is designed to help people change the way they think and the way they behave in order to help ease or even solve someone's issues. It is used in a wide variety of cases including things like depression or relationship issues, but its effectiveness stems from its ability to help people think about how their attitudes and beliefs are affecting their behavior. Once that is understood, it can be used to help affect change in that behavior.

For some people, the ability to think clearly and the ability to move freely are intertwined. Sitting for hours at a desk, with no sound to distract you and no reason to get up and move around is helpful for some learners, but absolutely sabotaging to the success of others. The fact that every person is wired slightly differently, and Continue Reading

Exercise therapy is not only about the physical well-being of the patient. These therapists are responsible for helping people with physical or psychological issues or illnesses improve their movement and manage and overcome their discomfort. They use their psychological and physiological knowledge to help patients overcome issues such as serious back injuries or even self-confidence concerns.

Existential therapists have the unique job of helping people deal with existential issues such as death, loneliness, suffering, and meaninglessness that patients often can’t handle on their own. They combine in-depth knowledge of the psychological factors at play with an education in existential principles to promote meaning and life-enhancements the patient can make mentally and emotionally.

Life coaches are the people who help their clients identify and achieve physical, emotional, and social personal goals. They help clients work through roadblocks to achieve success in careers, school, family settings, and others. They are adept at analyzing a person’s issues and designing treatment or coping mechanisms that people overcome those issues or accomplish their goals in spite of that issue.

Marriage and family therapists help troubled couples and families identify and understand the psychological issues behind their discontent so that they can improve their relationship and repair any damage done to the relationship. They use their knowledge of the psychology of relationships and the family dynamic to help families and couples take a step back and recognize why the issues occurred in the first place. They then help the families and couples work through these issues together.

Music therapists are responsible for assessing and treating emotional, physical, social, communication, and cognitive issues using musical responses and musical practice. The therapists uses their psychological expertise and knowledge of music to help identify the needs and state of well-being for each client, sometimes they even use music as a therapeutic or spiritual treatment for clients depending on the issue.

Occupational therapy is the practice of creating customized work plans and exercise plans to help people of all ages cure, prevent or deal with things like physical injury, permanent illness or permanent or temporary disability. This is an evidence-based practice that takes a holistic approach to the issues and really helps develop an individually unique plan that caters to the specific issue of the patient. The idea is to develop techniques for helping patients get through their everyday life.

Physical Therapists are a part of everyday life for many Americans who are dealing with chronic pain issues or recent trauma. The job of the physical therapist is to help people learn to manage pain, recover from injuries and regain movement from said injuries. They can work in private practice or for hospitals or niche clinics or in nursing homes and generally treat people of varying age for a wide range of illnesses and injuries ranging from broken limbs to traumatic brain injuries. One needs a doctoral degree to become a physical therapist, but the profession is rapidly growing as a more active population needs physical therapists now more than ever.

A special division within nursing, psychiatric nursing is specifically about assessing and treating mental health issues within patients or a group of patients. Most psychiatric nurses have master's or doctoral degrees in the field as this is an advanced profession within nursing and requires a more detailed and specialized training and understanding. These nurses usually deal with psychiatric disorders and treat these disorders with specific psychotherapy. They are commonly employed in hospitals and specialty clinics, but many are in private practice as well.

Psychotherapists are responsible for treating patient issues with psychological treatments and strategies rather than medical ones. There is a lot of overlap between psychotherapists and traditional psychologists, but generally speaking, psychotherapists are focused more on the mental and emotional well-being of a patient and helping solve some of those problems with psychological techniques. Still, there are hundreds if not thousands of different types of psychotherapy and so there is a lot of diversity within the profession. Often considered more of talking therapy than anything else, psychotherapists use basic psychological principles and build a more mental approach to them.

Contrary to popular belief, sex therapists do not practice therapy that looks all that different from other forms of therapy. Sex therapists are responsible for helping people with sexual issues and relationship issues. They may ask about sexual history and use that to create methods for solving the issues at hand. But these therapists aren't just focusing on the physical side of sex, they are also examining and exploring the psychological side of sex and how psychological issues can affect sexual performance, intimacy and anxiety. They are trained in therapy the same way that everyone else is and they just use that training to focus on a specific aspect of life.

Also commonly referred to as speech therapists, speech pathologists specialize in diagnosing and treating communication and voice issues. But this treatment is not just for patients with stuttering or pronunciation issues. Speech pathologists do help with those types of issues but they also aide patients with issues that range from communicating ideas socially to sentence structure issues and physical voice issues as well. They can even help treat with brain function and cognitive problems, specifically if they affect a patient's voice, communication, or swallowing.

Transpersonal therapists help their patients develop the psychological, physiological, and spiritual aspects of their life by dealing with the relationship between a patient’s physical, mental, and emotional state of mind. The therapists take a deeply holistic approach to helping their clients find self-satisfaction, personal happiness, and emotional and mental contentment in hopes that these will help the client overcome any issues they may have.

Substance abuse social workers are usually the day-to-day case managers for people with substance abuse issues. They are responsible for using their knowledge and background to not only continually assess these patients, but also help them live a fulfilling day-to-day life by preventing and treating problems

Child social workers are the day-to-day case managers for children and families dealing with mental, emotional, or social issues. They are responsible for helping the child or family achieve normalcy in their day-to-day life and generally improve the quality of life by working to prevent problems and provide therapy or counseling if problems eventually arise. They help children find success socially and academically by identifying and addressing psychological issues.

What Is Clinical Social Work? Everyone will need to cope with difficult issues during their lifetimes. Thankfully, the majority of problems that most people face are relatively short lived and easy to fix. However, there may come a time in a person’s life when they need a helping hand resolving some of their tougher issues in life. Some of these Continue Reading

Community social work is an subcategory of social work that is focused on larger social groups and even communities as a whole. For example, community social workers are responsible for such things like policy creation and analysis, social planning, community organizing, lobbying, event-planning and much more. The importance of thinking about the community and its health as a whole is an important but relatively new idea. Community social workers primarily are tasked with creating different programs and strategies for promoting community health, raising awareness about its importance, and implementing ideas to improve that health.

What Is a Correctional Treatment Specialist? As one would imagine, being incarcerated is one of the most stressful and emotionally disturbing events that can happen to a person. In addition to dealing with the emotional stress of being incarcerated, inmates must also prepare for their release back into society, which can be equally – if not more – stressful. In Continue Reading

Disability policy workers are the people responsible for working with elected officials to pass laws that help those people who are disabled; they are basically lobbyists for the disabled population. These workers are well-versed in the psychological and physical issues that cause disability and they use that knowledge to advance the civil rights of disabled citizens looking for additional help from legislative representatives.

Family social workers help foster the development of a family dynamic and they also help families deal with emotional, psychological, or social issues that they face as a group through counseling, therapy, and a deeper understanding of where the problems came from. They help address issues such as domestic abuse, teen pregnancy, foster care, and repeated misbehavior so that families can live together in a supportive and comfortable environment.

Geriatric social workers are people who are usually responsible for the day-to-day case management of seniors with recurring mental, physical, or emotional issues. They usually either help treat and prevent problems from arising with their patients thanks to their specific skill-set and knowledge of psychological and physiological issues that common affect the elderly. They help seniors deal with and overcome any issues so that they can live a fulfilling and normal life.

End of life is a stage that everyone eventually experiences. While death may come suddenly for some, most people live to an older age and decline slowly. In many cases, this means an eventual confinement to the home or to hospice care, where the individual stays until he or she dies. Sadly, however, this condition is not unique to the Continue Reading

Medical social workers are usually hospital or nursing facility employees who work with patients and their families to help them deal with psychological issues they are going through. They usually pay close attention to the social, mental, and emotional development and well-being of each patient in the facility so they can treat and prevent any issues from becoming recurring problems. They provide psychotherapy, counseling, and emotional rehabilitation to patients in need.

Mental health social workers are in charge of things like assessing, treating, diagnosing, and caring for patients with serious emotional or mental issues. They provide day-to-day case management and help their patients work through their mental disabilities so that they can still live a healthy, happy, and productive life. They use their knowledge of psychology to help treat and prevent issues in each individual patient.

In many cases, members of the different branches of the United States Military are especially susceptible to mental and physical issues. From PTSD and depression to learning to live an everyday life with debilitating physical ailments, military members can deal with a number of different problems. Military Social Workers are specifically trained to diagnose and treat those problems. These social workers do not need to be members of the military themselves, although many are, but they are charged with helping military members re-enter society and live healthy and productive lives.

A parole officer’s job is to assist and monitor parolees as they adjust to their new-found freedom. They help former inmates with everything from finding employment to dealing with old problems, like substance abuse. A parole officer may also be the one to decide whether a parolee goes back to prison.

A probation officer is a professional that monitors offenders and makes sure that they abide by the rules and follow the conditions of the probation. Although they have some similar duties, parole officers and probation officers are actually very different. For instance, parole officers monitor offenders that have warranted an early release from a correctional facility; these are typically violent or repeat offenders. Probation officers, on the other hand, typically monitor nonviolent or first-time offenders, or offenders that have committed minor crimes.

Psychiatric Social Work is a narrowly tailored branch of social work that deals with the study of mental issues and disorders. These social workers are responsible for helping diagnose, treat, and in some cases, cure mental disabilities and disorders among their patients. This can include behavioral issues that stem from mental issues. Many people can call themselves psychiatric social workers but there is also specific study that needs to happen in order for psychiatric social workers to be effective at their jobs.

Public health social workers identify social problems affecting the well-being and social development of the public and then seek to not only treat them, but also understand them better so they can prevent them in the future. They work to promote positive mental and emotional development in individuals, groups, the community and the public at-large by using their psychological background to help assess broader social development issues.

School Social Workers are usually hired by school districts to help students not only with academic success but behavioral, social, and mental health support as well. They use their training in psychology and counseling to help students and their families with any issues ranging from academic progress concerns to social development issues. They are the people responsible for helping children adapt and assimilate successfully to their school so they can be prepared for what lies beyond.

Social work administrators are responsible for looking at the industry from a macro perspective and while actual social workers are responsible for dealing with individual patients, administrators are often responsible for building the business behind that care and treatment. The administrators are responsible for everything from budget planning to fundraising and even creating the processes for offering care and support to patients. The administrators play a more behind-the-scenes role, but without them, it would be difficult to find competent and high-quality elder care facilities, medical clinics and much more.

Social workers are the people responsible for either helping people live their daily lives by helping them cope with their mental, social, emotional, and physical problems, or they can be clinical workers who can diagnose and treat mental and emotional issues. Both types of social workers are charged with helping people overcome emotional issues by using their psychological background and knowledge base.

What Is Substance Abuse Social Work? Substance abuse is defined as the habitual repeated use of a harmful substance for the sole purpose of mood alteration. Nearly all substance abusers start abusing substances for the immediate mood altering effects. Depending on the substance, the effects may vary, ranging from calming effects to elation. There are a number of different types Continue Reading

What Is Victim Advocacy? Surviving a crime is one thing. Surviving the months and years after a crime is a whole different feat, however. Being the victim of a crime is often very devastating for most people. Victims will often have to cope with feelings such as terror, grief, anger, confusion, depression, and even guilt. Navigating the legal system after Continue Reading