How To Become A Child Psychologist

I'm Dr. Eldad Farhy. I'm a counseling and psychotherapeutic psychologist.

I run psychologyexpert.co.uk and today, I will be talking about psychology.

To become a child psychologist, that is the type of applied psychologist who works mostly with children and/or adolescents, one would choose the training path required for that. In the UK, for instance, you will probably train as a clinical psychologist. However, you will ask and will arrange together with your training organization that a substantial part of your training is done in a setting in which children and adolescents are the main population so that you garner the experience that is neccessary for working with that particular type of client.

You will also aim more of your studies towards the specialty, that is, you will do more of developmental psychology as compared for instance to forensic, that is prison psychology, since children have a lot to do with development and hopefully less to do with prisons. In other countries, you will also join a specialized study program which focuses on your target audience and then as a successful candidate, you will probably join a child or adolescent department of psychology in a various organization that provides a service and slowly build up both your expertise and your role. A common misconception about being a child psychologist is that you work solely with children.

This is not so. Children do not respond that well to formalized therapy, not to the extent that adults do, therefore when you work with children, you often have to work with the adults in their lives. That is, the relatives or the organizations which have a significant input into their environment.

By working together with those adults, not only with the children, you can affect change. So a child psychologist works mostly for and with children but often has to work with adults as well. .