North Carolina Psychological Association (NCPA)/24th Psychology Undergraduate Conference (Fall 2017)/Child/Adolescent/Pediatric

Speaker: Sandra Wartski, Psy.D.

A Typical Day

• writing case notes
• meeting families
• therapy with kids
• communicating with teachers, parents and pediatricians
• testing
• note: every day is a little different

Various Setting a Child Psychologist may practice

• Private Practice
• Juvenile Detention Centers
• Hospitals
• Schools

Important things to consider

• Need to learn to compartmentalize in order to not bring home sad stories and hard cases
• Set boundaries for what times you are in the office and what times are family time
  • don't schedule late nights back to back, family or self time is important in not getting burnt out

Pros

• working with people
• often see progress in kids
• flexibility of your schedule, especially in private practice
• combines both assessment and therapy
• always intellectually challenging

Cons

• results may not always be recognized

Money

• untraditional and unpredictable because no salary
• get paid for seeing patients
  • first years is tough to gain client base
  • build rapport with local pediatricians
  • do good work
• averages between 60,000-80,000

Speaker: Karen Kirk, PhD

• Has Private Practice
• Licensed Child/ Adolescent Psychologist
• Some jobs will need only BA/BS degree, but most will offer more with graduate level degree
• There are many career options for working with children and adolescents
  • Individual or group counseling or therapy
  • family counseling / therapy
  • in home support teams
  • developmental therapy for young children
  • testing and evaluation
• Working with children and adolescents occurs in different settings:
  • clinics (large or small)
  • psychiatric hospitals
  • residential treatment facilities
  • homes - foster homes/ facilities
  • schools
  • community-based
• Chance of working with adults when working with children and adolescents because they come with a caregiver
• To prepare for work with pediatric/teen population: LEARN everything about CHILD DEVELOPMENT (physical, neurological, cognitive, emotional, behavioral)
• Downsides to working with children:
  • They are young for a long time, so they may need your services off and on for yours
  • Other problem is related to school systems, as educational and clinical diagnoses can be interpreted differently
• Differences between clinical and counseling work
  • Clinical: involves more research and being more involved in psychological disorders and works with patients who have more serious disorders
  • Counseling: counselors give advice and does not typically work with patients who have serious disorders
• Pediatric: similar to children and adolescent work, but is more medical related
• Occupational therapy: different from physical therapy, in that occupational therapy treats patients whose motor skills are relatively weaker than those of the normal population
• Different approaches you can take as a clinician: behavioral, cognitive, unconscious, evolutionary, Gestalt, existential
• School psychology focuses on working with children whereas education psychology involves researching on how to improve the school