A psychologist is a practitioner who has studied human nature, and deals with how people think and behave.
Psychologists work in a wide range of fields. Most psychologists work directly with people to help them find better ways of coping or managing parts of their lives. As a parent, you are most likely to be referred to psychologists who offer the following services:
- counselling: to help cope with life’s problems, such as grief or relationship issues
- educational and developmental: to help children with learning difficulties and also help you manage difficult behaviour. For example, a developmental psychologist might help your child work on developing social skills
- clinical: to deal with mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and stress
- neuropsychology: to look at the biological causes of depression and other conditions, and help with rehabilitation needed after brain injury, stroke or degenerative brain disease.
Registered psychologists have completed four years of undergraduate study, followed by either two years of supervised experience or further studies in clinical psychology.
Note: before 1 July 2010, a psychologist required registration in any given state in order to practise in that state. On 1 July 2010, a new national registration scheme was introduced, allowing a psychologist to be registered with only one new body, the Psychology Board of Australia, to practise nationwide.
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