Psychology Home

Quick links:  Adult Psychology | Child Psychology | Neuropsychology | Learning Disability Psychology | Forensic Psychology

What is a Psychologist

A psychologist is a professional who through long and comprehensive training has developed an expertise in understanding social, emotional, behavioural, and physical aspects of people. A psychologist may work with individuals or groups of individuals, families, couples, schools or organisations. There are many different sorts of psychologists including:

• Clinical Psychologists
• Educational Psychologists
• Counselling Psychologists
• Organisational Psychologists
• Occupational Psychologists
• Forensic Psychologists
• Neuropsychologists
• Research Psychologists

At Psychology Associates the majority of psychologists are Clinical Psychologists. They are trained to a high level, including holding Doctoral Certificates and Masters Degrees in Clinical Psychology from recognised academic institutions. All practicing psychologists must be registered with the Health Professions Council (HPC) in order that they can use the protected title that represents their specialism or area of expertise.

Specialisms in Psychology

Within each area of psychology, a psychologist will further specialise and develop their expertise. So at Psychology Associates, the Clinical Psychologists specialise in Child and Parenting, Neuropsychology, Learning Difficulties, Adult Mental Health and Forensic Psychology. Aspects of human behaviour that would benefit from having a psychological understanding would include:

• Child development
• Mental health and mental illness
• Impact of trauma
• Brain injury
• Family relationships
• Criminal behaviour

Psychologists will offer assessments, therapeutic work, training, supervision, consultation and research within their work. They will often develop their therapeutic expertise using a number of therapeutic approaches, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Cognitive Analytical Therapy, Family Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Attachment Therapy and others.

The British Psychological Society is the organisation that represents the field of psychology and sets guidance about standards of practice, ethical practice and so on. Psychologists may also be members of other professional bodies that are relevant to their area of expertise.

Clinical Governance

As an organization, we constantly strive to maintain and improve our standards of services provided. This means giving time and attention to risk management, complaints monitoring, celebrating excellence, communication, team working and lessons learned.

In accordance with BPS guidelines, psychologists should be pro-active in ensuring our professional skills are kept up to date and continuously improve the quality of the care we provide by utilizing evidence based practice and seeking appropriate outcome measures.