Important Facts about Clinical Psychology

Clinical psychology is the particular field of psychological studies that is primarily concerned with providing therapy and other forms of treatment to individuals or groups. The ones who perform these treatments are usually called clinical psychologists, who possess either a PhD or Psy.D. This is what marks them out from others who are also trained to conduct therapy sessions such as marriage and family therapists, licensed clinical social workers, and licensed professional counsellors.
The aim of clinical psychology is to reduce an individual's mental distress as well as promote his psychological well-being. It deals with a wide variety of psychological issues, and these include anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, serious mental illness, relationship problems, and child and family problems.
Clinical psychologists can choose either to treat every type of patient or focus on certain cases or groups. Some of them predominantly work on children and adolescents, while others focus on couples and families. Still, there are those who work mostly with individuals. There are also clinical psychologists who treat a specific group of people, like those suffering from learning disorder or from a specific mental disorder.
But there's more to clinical psychology than just psychotherapy. It may also consist of testing and psychological assessment. Psychological research has been key to the development of psychological tests that can measure the ability of a person, or gauge his emotional or learning disorders. Most clinical psychologists have very good research skills, which highly qualify them to work as scientist-practitioner and help improve practices in various health care settings.

Clinical psychologists can be employed in different work environments. Some psychologists work in school where their main clients are students, a good number of psychologists practice privately or work in institutes for the mentally disabled. Or they may be a part of a team of health professionals to provide various aspects of care to individuals.