What exactly is a psychologist again?

If you walk into a mental health clinic, hospital, or private practice there is a chance that you will meet many different types of professionals. Some common types that you will see in a mental health setting are (the official title of these professions may vary from state to state):  

• Psychologists
• Social Workers
• Mental Health Counselors
• Psychiatrists
• Nurse Practitioners
• Physician’s Assistants
• Nurses
• Medical Assistants
• Trainees , residents, interns, or post-docs

It can be confusing sometimes to distinguish between the people you meet and what they can do for you. I often meet people for the first time who ask some version of “what is a psychologist exactly?” In short, a psychologist in a clinical setting is a doctorally trained mental health professional who evaluates, performs testing, and treats psychological concerns. In all truth though, they can do many more things including:

 

• Individual, group, couples, and family therapy
• Helping students to overcome learning challenges in all levels of school
• Psychological testing to evaluate ADHD, intelligence, head injury, memory, dementia, personality disorders, and a variety of mental health concerns
• Psychological testing to determine if you are a good candidate for things like bariatric surgery and pain treatments
• Consulting with businesses to increase communication skills, reduce conflict, and improve work environments
• Working with athletes to aid in performance and to deal with injury
• Helping people to set goals and work with barriers to change
• Teach social skills
• Do outreach and educate the community on a variety of topics
• Evaluate treatments to determine if improvements are being made
• Evaluate programs and consult with other professionals to improve them
• Develop and utilize innovative and research based treatments and assessments

Those are just a few of the great things that psychologists can do. They go to school for a very long time and receive a lot of hands on training so that they can be exceptional mental health providers. To be a licensed psychologist, an individual needs to obtain a doctoral degree (PhD, PsyD, EdD) and at least two years of supervised experience working with patients. They receive more training in psychology and mental health than any other mental health professional. This can sometimes mean 6 to 7 years beyond an undergraduate (BA or BS) degree!

Hopefully, that gives you more of any idea of what a psychologist is. Each psychologist may differ in the things that they specialize in or typically do in their setting. In future blogs we may have some guest contributors who will share what they do as a psychologist or what they are learning as a psychology student.

Why is there a psychologist at my YMCA?

If you happen to be at your local YMCA you may bump into a psychologist. You may think to yourself, "what is a psychologist doing at a YMCA?" Since 2008 the American Psychological Association and YMCA of the USA have been partnering to provide resources for individuals and families in communities across the country. Some psychologists volunteer their time in local YMCAs offering workshops, staffing health fairs, or being involved in various programs offered by the YMCA.

Recently the public education committee of the Iowa Psychological Association, an affiliate of the American Psychological Association has been making an effort to strengthen the partnership between the YMCA of Iowa and psychologists in Iowa. In the fall of 2013 they began working to make contact with Y directors across the state and facilitate partnerships between the YMCA and local psychologists.

This is an important initiative because it gets psychologists out of their offices and into communities. It can help to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and mental health professionals. People out in the community also can learn more about what psychologists can offer and can take advantage of psychologists' expertise in a variety of areas. Psychologists can offer expertise on many topics important to the YMCA and their communities including:

Weight loss

Living healthy with illness

Goal setting

Making healthy choices for your family

Aging Issues

Children's Mental Health

Sport's psychology

Stress management

Work/Life balance

Since the new effort to partner with YMCA in Iowa the Iowa Psychological Association has provided multiple psychologists to speak at workshops and has become involved in one community's wellness initiative. The collaboration is continuing with future events being planned and hopefully more psychologists and communities getting involved. So next time you are at an event at your local Y don't be surprised if you bump into a psychologist!

Setting a Resolution to Keep Your Resolution

How many of you set New Year’s resolutions? How many of you have stuck with your New Year’s resolution? If so, great job! You made it through a week! The statistics are pretty high that many people will make it through the first week but beyond that the number of successful people start to dwindle. Don't fret though, there are some things you can do to increase the likelihood that you will be successful. One way is to see if your resolutions is a SMART resolution. Doran (1981) came up with the SMART acronym for setting good goals that applies really well to resolutions:

• S-specific
• M-measurable
• A- achievable/attainable 
• R- realistic
• T- time bound

Ask yourself if the resolution that you set meets these criteria. If not, it may need adjusted. For example, if your resolution was to be healthier it may need to be more specific and measurable. A possible alternative to "be healthier" might be "get 30 minutes of exercise before going to work each day."  In addition to making your resolutions SMART there are a few other things to keep in mind:

• It may be best to narrow down to one resolution rather than an entire list.
• It can be helpful to enlist support from friends, family, and other important people in your life.
• Reward yourself along the way.
• Make setting goals for yourself a year long practice instead of waiting until January to get started. 
• Check with your doctor if your resolutions involve any significant health or physical changes to make sure you are in good health and to get helpful tips.
• Give yourself positive affirmations to encourage you along the way. These can be written on sticky notes, put on your screen saver, or you can even use websites like http://textitlater.com/ to schedule a text to be sent to yourself later.
• You can always enlist the help of a psychologist to help you set good goals, change behaviors, and find ways to stick to them.

Doran, G. T. (1981). There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives. Management Review, Volume 70, Issue 11, pp. 35-36.