PhD/PsyD Is it possible to focus entirely on neuropsychology?

[NMoren]

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Background: I'm currently an undergrad Psychology major/Bio minor student who's done research within a Psychiatry department and now a Neurology department. I'm extremely passionate about neuroscience and neurological diseases, especially those relating to cognitive impairment. I always thought I would just go on to get a PhD in Neuroscience and become a full-time researcher/professor but recently I've learned about neuropsychology. Now, I've done my fair bit of research of it but apparently where I live there are no neuropsychologists that can help me out or answer some questions so I was just wondering...

Question: Is it possible to major in Clinical Psychology and do both my internship and my post doc on neuropsychology? Basically, can I avoid anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, etc. patients/practice? It's just not what I'm interested in. And also, would a degree in Clinical Psychology and a post doc in Neuropsychology give me the appropriate education to be a neuroscience researcher?

Thanks all in advance. I've been a lurker of this website for years now and it's been of great help.
P.S. I should point out that I've considered medical school > Neurology but I've decided that I really, really have no interest in going to medical school for several reasons. However, the idea of helping people directly has always interested me, so neuropsychology definitely sounds like something I'd enjoy.

 

[NeuroTrope]

You will not be able to avoid patients with anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric illnesses as a clinical neuropsychologist. You are still a referral source for all issues relating to mental health and a majority of your patients will have some component of mental illness that either masquerades as a neurological disorder or is simply comorbid. If you want to stay away from mental health you might serve better in neuroscience or neurology if you want clinical practice (though all clinicians will deal with psychological issues along the way).

Most neuropsychology training really begins at the internship level (officially the post doc level though this is becoming less so as post doc applicants will need some neuro experience to be competitive). There are some graduate programs that focus on neuropsychology such as UCSD, UF, Houston, etc. but even in a neuropsychology track you will have extensive training in general psychology and learn the basics of mental illness, treatment, etc. You'll engage in practicums that are primarily therapy and work with patients with a range of mental illnesses. Neuropsychology is a specialty beyond clinical psychology and it is unwise to pursue it at the expense of your general training.

My training was at a general psychology program where I was housed within a neuropsychology lab. My practicum experiences included regular therapy clients, basic assessment, child behavioral therapy, and neuropsychology assessment. My internship had a neuropsychology track and I spent 50% of my time there, but also worked in general mental health, a pediatric hospital, etc. My post doc is very neuropsychology heavy but up until now, I've worked in a wide variety of settings with a wide variety of clients. You should have a passion for clinical psychology first, then neuropsychology second to be successful (you can narrow your interests by the time you're in post doc).

 

[NMoren]

You will not be able to avoid patients with anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric illnesses as a clinical neuropsychologist. You are still a referral source for all issues relating to mental health and a majority of your patients will have some component of mental illness that either masquerades as a neurological disorder or is simply comorbid. If you want to stay away from mental health you might serve better in neuroscience or neurology if you want clinical practice (though all clinicians will deal with psychological issues along the way).

Most neuropsychology training really begins at the internship level (officially the post doc level though this is becoming less so as post doc applicants will need some neuro experience to be competitive). There are some graduate programs that focus on neuropsychology such as UCSD, UF, Houston, etc. but even in a neuropsychology track you will have extensive training in general psychology and learn the basics of mental illness, treatment, etc. You'll engage in practicums that are primarily therapy and work with patients with a range of mental illnesses. Neuropsychology is a specialty beyond clinical psychology and it is unwise to pursue it at the expense of your general training.

My training was at a general psychology program where I was housed within a neuropsychology lab. My practicum experiences included regular therapy clients, basic assessment, child behavioral therapy, and neuropsychology assessment. My internship had a neuropsychology track and I spent 50% of my time there, but also worked in general mental health, a pediatric hospital, etc. My post doc is very neuropsychology heavy but up until now, I've worked in a wide variety of settings with a wide variety of clients. You should have a passion for clinical psychology first, then neuropsychology second to be successful (you can narrow your interests by the time you're in post doc).

Thank you so much for the feedback! I am interested in mental health to a certain extent..I mean I worked in a research lab that studied Fear expression related to PTSD, it was incredibly interesting. I just don't know if I have the personality to help people with personality disorders. Anyways, given the private nature of psychology, I don't imagine I can shadow any, right? Is it completely unheard of?

 

[nessa34]

Also keep in mind that neuroscience + clinical =/= neuropsychology. Do you want to research the disorders you talked about (depression/anxiety/schizophrenia) or are you more interested in dementia/stroke/brain injury/etc.?

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[NMoren]

Also keep in mind that neuroscience + clinical =/= neuropsychology. Do you want to research the disorders you talked about (depression/anxiety/schizophrenia) or are you more interested in dementia/stroke/brain injury/etc.?

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I'm interested in research that relates to (mainly) neurological disorders and behavioral neuroscience/neuroendocrinology. (I should maybe point out that the research I do now is related to neurosteroids and their relation to depression, postpartum depression, and anxiety.) So I pretty much just like to look at it all from the biological point of view first and foremost, and then from the behavioral point of view. I hope I'm making sense. But I'm interested in both, I just have a strong preference over neurological disorders.

 

[WisNeuro]

If you avoid anything but npsych, you will be a terrible neuropsychologist. You can't be a neuropsychologist without first being a psychologist.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

If you avoid anything but npsych, you will be a terrible neuropsychologist. You can't be a neuropsychologist without first being a psychologist.

This. While we do receive additional training/education in areas such as neuroanatomy/neurophysiology and brain-behavior relationships, neuropsychologists still approach their work from the framework and mindset of psychology. Thus, many of the referrals we receive have a psychological component (e.g., is this dementia or depression?), many of our conceptualizations contain psychological components, and many of the recommendations/treatments we offer are also heavily psychology-based.

Now, do you have to treat depression/anxiety/whatever else after you're licensed and practicing? No. Heck, you don't have to do psychotherapy at all at that point, although I personally think you're doing yourself and your colleagues a disservice (and are eliminating a huge advantage of your training) by removing everything psychotherapy-related from your research and practice. But you should most definitely have some exposure to, and experience with it while training. You can certainly focus on neuropsych while in grad school, internship, and postdoc, but not at the complete expense of other aspects of psychological theory and practice.

 

[NMoren]

Thank you all for your honest feedback! I will definitely be giving this a lot of thought. I still have some time left before I have to make a decision.

 

[quickpsych]

If you avoid anything but npsych, you will be a terrible neuropsychologist. You can't be a neuropsychologist without first being a psychologist.

Spot on. A professor in my program (I'm a Year II in a Clinical Psych Psy.D.) is a neuropsychologist who got his start in family/group therapy. I'm considering neuropsych because I'm starting to enjoy testing/assessment/intake interviewing but I still want to do therapy sometimes. I'm considering becoming a neuropsych as my "day job" and then having a small private practice for individual therapy on the side. I like doing therapy but I realize it's not what I want to do 100% of my work time. Anyways, I digress. In discussing this path with my neuropsych professor the biggest piece of wisdom he offered to myself and my cohort was "Remember you'll always be a clinical psychologist first and foremost. I'm a clinical psychologist first and a neuropsychologist second; my training and your training allows you to do all a clinical psychologist does. The neuropsych training and title is for additional work you can specialize in."

Don't lose sleep over it is the take away message. Many people don't "know" what they want to specialize in until they're already at the doctoral level. In fact most niche or specialty training comes in internship and beyond in fellowships/residency. In med school some students don't choose their specialty until they've begun rotations. I know at least one psychiatrist who went in thinking on specialty, did the psych rotation and stuck with that instead. In our field we do have to plan ahead a little more, but always remember the training will be clinical psych first, specialty second.