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There have been many SDN Psychology debates putting the Ph.D. against the Psy.D. Whatever your opinion is of the debate, at least we know that those are legitimate doctoral degrees that enable one to get the well respected state license in psychology.
Today I got a brochure about a mental health conference. I looked at the presenter's credentials and nearly hurled!
Has professionalism just come down to how many alphabet letters one can stick after his/her name?
This psychologist (who does have a Ph.D. - that is fine) also has the following letters:
1. CHT - Certified Hypnotherapist
2. CT - Certified Thanatologist (from ADEC - Association for Death Education and Counseling).
3. GMS - Grief Management Specialist, and
4. CPBS - Certified Pastoral Bereavement Specialist
What on earth is the point of all of these certifications. I could see if the psychologist did not have a doctoral degree and a state psychology license, then the person might want to sound more legitimate, but once one is a state licensed doctoral level psychologist, these other certifications seem meaningless. Unless the person gets to bill at a higher rate. If anything, these other combinations of letters after the Ph.D. only belittle the Ph.D. (i.e. it would not be good enough without these additional certifications). Does anyone know what the APA thinks of all these others certifications floating around out there which doctoral level psychologists doing applied work pick up?
Let me give an example which counters the need for the extra certifications. There is a well known Applied Behavior Analysis certification which does mean something if one only has an undergraduate degree, a Masters, an Educational Doctorate, or a non-licensed Ph.D. in Psychology. However, I once asked a behavioral clinical psychology professor if the doctoral students of the professor at the school were getting the ABA certification in addition. The professor said that there was absolutely no need since the Ph.D. students would eventually get a state license which would legally allow them to do anything the ABA certification would allow and more. In addition, the students did get the behavior analysis course work so they knew the material. In short, the extra certification for the licensed clinical Ph.D. person is pointless.
Maybe I am wrong and maybe states require licensed doctoral psychologists to have certain extra certifications before they implement certain types of practices but many of these extra certifications seem bogus to me.
I do understand that even a licensed psychologist would not ethically attempt methods on a patient with which he/ she in which he/ she was not trained. I also see nothing wrong with getting extra training in different types of professional methodology. However, to list the training as a long string of supposedly impressive sounding letters seems silly.
Today I got a brochure about a mental health conference. I looked at the presenter's credentials and nearly hurled!
Has professionalism just come down to how many alphabet letters one can stick after his/her name?This psychologist (who does have a Ph.D. - that is fine) also has the following letters:
1. CHT - Certified Hypnotherapist
2. CT - Certified Thanatologist (from ADEC - Association for Death Education and Counseling).
3. GMS - Grief Management Specialist, and
4. CPBS - Certified Pastoral Bereavement Specialist
What on earth is the point of all of these certifications. I could see if the psychologist did not have a doctoral degree and a state psychology license, then the person might want to sound more legitimate, but once one is a state licensed doctoral level psychologist, these other certifications seem meaningless. Unless the person gets to bill at a higher rate. If anything, these other combinations of letters after the Ph.D. only belittle the Ph.D. (i.e. it would not be good enough without these additional certifications). Does anyone know what the APA thinks of all these others certifications floating around out there which doctoral level psychologists doing applied work pick up?
Let me give an example which counters the need for the extra certifications. There is a well known Applied Behavior Analysis certification which does mean something if one only has an undergraduate degree, a Masters, an Educational Doctorate, or a non-licensed Ph.D. in Psychology. However, I once asked a behavioral clinical psychology professor if the doctoral students of the professor at the school were getting the ABA certification in addition. The professor said that there was absolutely no need since the Ph.D. students would eventually get a state license which would legally allow them to do anything the ABA certification would allow and more. In addition, the students did get the behavior analysis course work so they knew the material. In short, the extra certification for the licensed clinical Ph.D. person is pointless.
Maybe I am wrong and maybe states require licensed doctoral psychologists to have certain extra certifications before they implement certain types of practices but many of these extra certifications seem bogus to me.
I do understand that even a licensed psychologist would not ethically attempt methods on a patient with which he/ she in which he/ she was not trained. I also see nothing wrong with getting extra training in different types of professional methodology. However, to list the training as a long string of supposedly impressive sounding letters seems silly.
