While there are rewarding opportunities in the field of mental health, it requires long years of study and practice. One has to be resilient, observant, communicative, non-judgmental, compassionate, and emotionally stable to work in this area, specially as there is much stigma attached to consulting a professional. There are various kinds of mental health professional and terms like psychologist and psychiatrist are used without knowing what they mean.
Not the same
Often, people people assume that Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology are the same. But this is not the case. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who treats mental illness, primarily examines biological, neurological and biochemical abnormalities and prescribes medicine to treat them. He/she deals with emotional disturbance and abnormal behaviour, and may refer patients to a psychologist after diagnosis and medication for ongoing psychotherapy. Psychiatrists treat people who need help in complex medical and psychological conditions such as severe depression, psychotic behaviour, severe anxiety, schizophrenia bipolar disorder, among others.
Psychologists, on the other hand, are more likely to see people with conditions such as behavioural problems, learning difficulties, adjustment issues in family, office, mild depression and anxiety, which can be treated/managed effectively with counselling. A Clinical Psychologist, however, focuses on how humans think, behave and feel. He/she is an expert in human behaviour, but is not a physician. Hence, he/she cannot prescribe medicines. A Clinical Psychologist works with patients in a therapeutic role, acting as a counsellor to identify and work through personal issues and develop healthy coping mechanisms for emotional problems through methods like psychotherapy. Though all Psychologists can administer basic tests to find out IQ, differential aptitude, personality traits and so on, only clinical psychologists are trained to carry out sophisticated tests TAT, Rorschach, and so on. In most settings, both work in tandem complementing each other.
Basic qualifications
To be a psychiatrist, one needs to do the MBBS degree after which, a two-year PG Diploma in Psychological Medicine (DPM) or three-year MD (Psychiatry) is required. For a Clinical Psychologist, a degree in Psychology followed by a Master’s and then two-year M.Phil (Clinical Psychology) or four-year PsyD, followed by registration with RCI. Entry requirement for both is Masters in Psychology. M,Phil in Clinical Psychology can have lateral entry to PsyD in the third year. Only two institutes in India run PsyD courses: Sweekar Academy of Rehabilitation Sciences, Secunderabad and Amity University, Noida. A few institutions offer a one-year Professional Diploma in Clinical Psychology PD (Cli Psy), which can be done after postgraduation. After this, one can register with the RCI to practice as an Associate Clinical Psychologist under the supervision of a registered clinical psychologist.
Those who are interested in practice of Clinical Psychology can opt for M.Phil or PsyD, whereas those who wish to pursue a career in teaching opt for Ph.D. However a Ph.D. in India is not licensed to practice as a clinical psychologist.
The writer is Senior Resource Person, CIGI (Centre for Information and Guidance India), a career guidance NGO. nizarperuvad@gmail.com
