Rants

[edieb]

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Just some rants about the state of our field:

I was listening to a well known pop culture radio show last night and the host was talking about psychological testing. I was kind of disappointed because he was talking about how "therapists" can test their patients to help with therapeutic and life issues. I understand the use of the generic "therapist" when talking about therapy but when referring to testing, I was shocked to hear the term "therapist" used.

Also, in my area of the country, I hear professioanal organizations run radio ads promoting their profession. For example, I hear the ADA touting dental services and how you should only see a qualified dentist, etc. I wonder why the APA doesn't do this for psychologists?

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Just some rants about the state of our field:

I was listening to a well known pop culture radio show last night and the host was talking about psychological testing. I was kind of disappointed because he was talking about how "therapists" can test their patients to help with therapeutic and life issues. I understand the use of the generic "therapist" when talking about therapy but when referring to testing, I was shocked to hear the term "therapist" used.

Also, in my area of the country, I hear professioanal organizations run radio ads promoting their profession. For example, I hear the ADA touting dental services and how you should only see a qualified dentist, etc. I wonder why the APA doesn't do this for psychologists?

It costs money, and membership is trending down. I usually review their annual report (I posted about it in a thread maybe last year?), and it is quite telling. Most associations that are membership based derive the majority of their funding from membership dependant revenue streams, and the APA is no different. This structure requires constant membership recruitment to substain spending. Like most organizations, they took a bath on their investments over the last few years, so that impacts both short and long term expenditures. I think their publishing arm is still doing well, but that isn't a long term solution to make up the investment losses. I hope they can bounce back, but it will take a number of years before that can realistically happen...short of a large endowment/gift.

 

[FadedC]

This doesn't remotely surprise me. Keep in mind that we use very specific jargon in our field and we all know what it means, but the average person doesn't necesarily know what the implications are of saying therapist rather then psychologist. In my experience a large percentage of the public don't even know what the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist is, let alone that the term therapist indicates someone who may or may not have their doctorate.

Just some rants about the state of our field:

I was listening to a well known pop culture radio show last night and the host was talking about psychological testing. I was kind of disappointed because he was talking about how "therapists" can test their patients to help with therapeutic and life issues. I understand the use of the generic "therapist" when talking about therapy but when referring to testing, I was shocked to hear the term "therapist" used.