Clinical psychology is the scientific study and application of psychology for understanding, preventing and relieving psychological distress or dysfunction. It promotes subjective well-being and personal development. Central to its practice are psychological assessment and psychotherapy, although clinical psychologists also engage in research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, programme development and administration. In many countries it is a regulated mental health profession.

In the first half of the 20th century, clinical psychology focused on psychological assessment, with little attention to treatment. This changed after the 1940s when World War II resulted in the need for trained clinicians. Since then, two main educational models have developed — PhD (focusing on research) and PsyD (focusing on practice).

Clinical psychologists are now considered experts in providing psychotherapy, and generally train within four primary theoretical orientations — psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive behavioural and family therapy.

Clinical psychology may be confused with psychiatry, which generally has similar goals but the difference is that psychiatrists are physicians with medical degrees and focus on medication-based solutions, although some provide psychotherapeutic services as well.

In practice, clinical psychologists often work in multidisciplinary teams with other professionals such as psychiatrists, occupational therapists, counsellors and social workers to bring a multimodal approach to complex patient problems.

• What do I have to do?

Clinical psychologists work in hospitals and clinics seeing patients who are referred by psychiatrists and other medical specialists. The patients include children and their parents, adolescents, adults and elderly people or individuals with behavioural problems and psychological difficulties.

Typically, clinical psychologists treat severe disorders such as phobia, bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. Each client has his or her unique personal problems and needs. This must be taken into account while deciding which therapy is best for him or her.

Clinical assessment assists clinicians in choosing the best treatment for their clients via techniques such as interviews and testing. There exist literally hundreds of assessment tools, although only a few have been shown to have both high validity and reliability. These measures generally fall within one of the following categories.

Intelligence and achievement tests are designed to measure specific kinds of cognitive functioning. They assess traits such as general knowledge, verbal skill, memory, attention span, logical reasoning and visual / spatial perception. Several tests have been shown to predict accurately certain kinds of performance, especially in the field of education.

Personality tests aim to describe patterns of behaviour, thoughts and feelings. They generally fall into two categories: objective and projective. Objective measures, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) are based on restricted answers — such as yes / no, true / false, or a rating scale — which allow for computation of scores that can be compared to a normative group.

Neuropsychological tests consist of specifically designed tasks used to measure psychological functions linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. They are used to assess impairment after an injury or illness known to affect neuro-cognitive functioning, or when used in research, to contrast neuropsychological abilities across experimental groups.

• What should I study?

For an MPhil in clinical psychology, you should have completed MA or MSc in psychology with at least 55 per cent marks in aggregate. It is preferable to have a special paper in clinical psychology at the masters level.

You should be empathetic in nature since this profession involves an understanding of clients’ problems and their solutions. Effective communication skills are also required, since one has to uncover the innermost workings of the patients’ mental processes by talking to them.

• What next?

Clinical psychologists can find jobs in government and private hospitals / clinics, in licensed psychiatric nursing homes and in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that offer counselling services. You can also specialise in marital counselling, or set up a clinic and start counselling.

Clinical psychologists can work in many areas, including general healthcare as well as hospital and community-based mental health programmes for children, adolescents and adults.