Change from Neuro to general psych as a PostDoc

[Carson_Tay]

I'm a first year neuro post doc. I'm realizing I'm really missing doing therapy and that I don't think I like neuro very much and am feeling completely burnt out in the field, but i am also feeling stuck. I am considering quitting my post doc after the end of my first year however most of my training has been focused on neuro and assessment with only 2 years of therapy training as a prac student. Do I have options? Do I need another post doc? Am i marketable on the job market with mostly adult neuro training?

I am not yet licensed but will have sufficient hours in a month and a half and am currently studying for the EPPP so I can be licensed by the time I leave my post doc if i left early

Will take all advice or recommendations.

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[AcronymAllergy]

Yes, you have options. It's going to be easier for a neuropsychologist to go into a more general psych role than it is a general psych person to try to do neuropsych. Start by seeing if you can get additional therapy experience on postdoc, either with your supervisors or other psychologists at the facility. See if there are any workshops or other CE-type activities you can fit in. After you finish, if you don't feel comfortable, try setting up some formal peer-to-peer consultation. Maybe limit yourself initially to low-acuity cases for conditions with which you feel most adept and then consider branching out, as appropriate.

You could also consider working in more psych rather than neuropsych assessment. If you're comfortable performing ADHD and/or adult autism evaluations, you could probably almost fill a practice just with that. And you may be one of the only people in the community doing it (or at least doing it well). If you're interested in medicolegal work, plenty of demand there as well for psych assessment.

 

[PsyDr]

Tell your supervisors you are getting more interested in rehab psych, and ask for some rotations that are supportive of those interests. Then you can do therapy and get boarded in rehab.

 

[summerbabe]

At the broadest level, you'll be fine career wise. If people from terrible for profit PsyDs with highly questionable training can land jobs straight out of school, so will you.

A bigger question might be where you want your career to go and what can sustain you from future burnout.

So you know that you don't want to be a full neuropsychologist but AA has great advice regarding whether there are any components of assessment/neuro that you do enjoy and can potentially continue doing in the future. As does PsyDr on ways to shift your postdoc, even if just for the last few months if you decide to exit.

I'm a full-time PhD therapist who enjoys their full-time therapy job but that's because I know there are lots of therapy types/settings which would be bad fits for me so I selected my current position with that in mind. I had VA therapy focused internship and postdocs so I had a lot of direct trial and error.

Are there any therapy subfields that you think or know you'll enjoy? Or types of settings where even if you didn't enjoy the neuro, you could see yourself wanting to work in the future?

I would imagine a strong neuro background would be valued in primary care-integrated mental health settings (PCMHI, health psychology, geriatrics). But you are certainly not limited by any means (but may require additional training/supervision).

 

[smalltownpsych]

One of the good things about our field is the built in flexibility. Rey few psychologists that I have known just did one thing. Research, teaching, testing, all the various kinds of therapy, program development and administration. Wide variety of settings. I am more than ten years post-licensure and still trying to figure it out. 😁