Psychotherapy "Specializations"

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BSWdavid

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What do you predict will be the trend in psychotherapy specializations? Everything I read, in regards to building and maintaining a thriving practice, suggests specializing in an a particular area. I am curious about where readers think psychotherapy is headed.

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In my opinion, the trend will be toward acceptance and mindfulness based behavioral interventions (e.g., DBT, MBSR, ACT). It just seems to be a lot of what's getting mainstream attention, thus financial attention.
 
What do you predict will be the trend in psychotherapy specializations? Everything I read, in regards to building and maintaining a thriving practice, suggests specializing in an a particular area. I am curious about where readers think psychotherapy is headed.


Ha ha.....um no. Everything I read suggests.....:laugh:...really? No offense but:laugh:
 
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I've seen colleagues find a niche, though it often happens as an extension of their internship/post-doc training. As a business decision, I'm not sure I'd want to label myself a generalist (fighting against more professionals), but it can work for clinicians.
 
For the average clinical psychologist in private practice absolutely! Do you think most referral sources (physicians, lawyers etc..) know CBT from EMDR? No way. All they care about is if you can help them and the patient. If you can you get more referrals, if you can't because you only specialize in a limited type of treatment then you don't get referrals. Academia is very different.
 
Maybe this is a silly question, but how exactly does one specialize in a particular area? My understanding has always been that this is mostly done at the post-doc level. However, if a person only chooses to do their practicas at particular sites/with specific populations, wouldn't this be specializing? I am on my first practica, at an addiction site, and would like to continue on this path. However, would I be limiting myself if I only chose practicas at addiction sites? I am still certainly encountering a wide variety of pathologies/co-morbid issues at these sites.
 
Maybe this is a silly question, but how exactly does one specialize in a particular area? My understanding has always been that this is mostly done at the post-doc level. However, if a person only chooses to do their practicas at particular sites/with specific populations, wouldn't this be specializing? I am on my first practica, at an addiction site, and would like to continue on this path. However, would I be limiting myself if I only chose practicas at addiction sites? I am still certainly encountering a wide variety of pathologies/co-morbid issues at these sites.

I believe the reference is to on going certification in particular modalities such as DBT, ACT etc where you do a 3-5 day workshop and then a few months of video with you doing the modality and thus get a "certification" saying you are competent in that area.

Such as this group:
http://behavioraltech.org/index.cfm?CFID=36410900&CFTOKEN=66125852

I'm not endorsing that group at all... just an example from a google search.
 
Those trainings look like a way to make people money. I have seen some legit training programs (Beck's Institute, a handful of psychoanalytic institutes, etc), and then everything else. The VA has taken an interesting approach that seems like a decent compromise. They offer centralized trainings and then the clinicians are required to submit tapes for review, attend weekly conference call discussions, etc.
 
Those trainings look like a way to make people money. I have seen some legit training programs (Beck's Institute, a handful of psychoanalytic institutes, etc), and then everything else. The VA has taken an interesting approach that seems like a decent compromise. They offer centralized trainings and then the clinicians are required to submit tapes for review, attend weekly conference call discussions, etc.

I agree... another way to make some money as a Clinical Psychologist.
 
I'm not certain doing those workshops are likely to substantially boost your income. I'm not willing to call something you can get in a week-long workshop a "specialization" anyways...its something that comes with years and years of work, some of which may be formal training, some of which may be informal.

Typically, I see specialization referred to as certain disorders, or broader areas (i.e. health psych). This may overlap with treatment modalities, but its not the same thing. My understanding is that the rationale is if you become established as the community "expert" on a topic, it is much easier to take cash clients, and people may pay more to see "the best". Unless you are in the middle of nowhere it is going to be hard to become known as the local "expert" as a generalist...you aren't really showing yourself to be different from everyone else. Of course if "everyone else" is really no one else because you are the only therapist....probably not as critical as if you are in a major urban area.

I'm not sure how any extra income would come from specializing in a therapy modality, particularly not when it is more of a marketing ploy than an actual qualification. I see listservs frequently asking for referrals for people who use EBP...and I think it will be increasingly important to be able to defend what we did and why in the future. Those referrals are probably not common though because as others have mentioned...the average person out in the world has no idea what is legitimate versus illegitimate care.
 
I'm not certain doing those workshops are likely to substantially boost your income.

Just to be clear ... I was saying giving the workshops (and making 2k/head) is a way to make money.
 
Just to be clear ... I was saying giving the workshops (and making 2k/head) is a way to make money.

Yeah, I understood - I had typed my reply before I saw your last post. You are correct that it probably is a decent way to make money. I'm not sure what kind of overhead there is for activities like that, or how difficult it is to fill seats, but I can see it being a decent way to up the earnings a bit with the right business plan and a willingness to travel.
 
You can be a DBT therapist without certification. I agree that it's just a way to make money. I know plenty of DBT therapists who aren't certified and just attend continuing education on DBT topics. Some have also done internships with DBT rotations. Of course, if you are one of the people who believe that only Linehan and co. can train people in it, then by all means you should probably pursue certification.

As for specialization, I think it's probably more useful by population than by therapy type.
 
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