PSYCHOLOGY TALKS 2011

BY MS GITANJALI GOYAL KHANNA (NUH)

28 JAN 2011, FRIDAY, LT14

 ‘The Guest House’ –Rumi (Poem)

→ Poem that fully describes what it’s like to be a clinical psychologist
→ To be a clinical psychologist, an attitude of openness is required
→ Acceptance of the highs and lows in life

 Important to reflect and know what you want to do as a psychologist (what you
are interested in)
→ Helpful to do so before embarking on Masters’ programme so that you know
what modules to take
→ Eg. To help people, inspirational figures

 Many subfields in Psychology

→ Developmental psychology – no prescribed Masters in Singapore
→ Clinical Psychology – more opportunities in Singapore
- Do more specialized interventions for specialized disorders
- Know classifications of disorders like ICD10 or DSM-IV
- Do more therapies for specific disorders
- Usually in hospital settings
- Can conduct research on treatments (what works better?)
- Contributing back to the field of psychology through teaching and supervision
- Important role of supervision as the supervisee may see therapy going
nowhere, or supervisee may be confusing their own problems with clients’
problems
- Program development and evaluation
- Consultation liaison psychiatry: eg working with patients with physical
problems

 What is psychotherapy? (analogies)

→ A dance: mutual, different ‘dances’ with different clients, being fully present
with the clients
 → Therapy as an instrument; need to ‘tune instrument’/refine therapy every now
and then
→ ‘Clients’: They are not that helpless, believe in the positivity and the power
that they can recover; Not ‘patients’

 What is Psychological Assessment?

→ Analysis & Synthesis
- Cater to the needs of the clients (strengths and weaknesses)

→ Goal follows from referral question

→ Sources: interviews. Observations and standardized tests and projective tests

(clinical skills very important)

→ Technician vs. Clinician!

→ To be a psychologist: Marks/grades may be important for admission into

program, but truly living the knowledge we learn is equally important

 Research in Clinical Psychology

→ Research in the etiology (causation) of major mental disorders (schizophrenia,
depression etc)

 A typical day of clinical psychologist

→ Work is very varied, but some commonalities:
- Diagnostic interviews
- Psychotherapy
- Psychological assessment (for explaining clients as best as you can)
- Appropriate report-writing

 Working in a multidisciplinary team

→ Assessment can only be done by clinical psychologists
→ Psychotherapy may be conducted by different professionals, but their training
makes a difference
→ Important to define well and clarify the role of each professional when
collaborating together in a team

 Attitude to be a clinical psychologist

 → Able to separate work and life well
→ Important to take care of one’s own well-being
→ Own attitudes and beliefs towards mental health issues
→ Ability to recognize our own limitations (there’s no right or wrong; will impact
clients)
→ Tolerance to stress
→ True empathy
→ Good listener
→ Clinician or technician

 Re-emphasis; Understanding what you want

 Psychology Observation Programme (POP)

→ Intake once a year (May)
→ http://www.med.nus.edu.sg/pcm/Psychology_Observation_Program.htm
→ For graduate students with degree in Psychology: GRP Programme
→ For graduate students with Bachelors Degree in Psychology: Reach Programme
(working with schools, full-time school counselors and tackling at-risk children
and youths)

 Ethics in clinical psychology

→ Implies an understanding of moral principles underlying psychological thought
and activity

 Question-and-Answer

1) What is the selection criteria for POP?

→ Based on resume and written essay

2) What’s the intake for each round?

→ Capped at five (depending on availability of senior psychologists as
supervisors)

3) How do you deal with unchanging patients?

→ Patients usually have personality disorders
→ Therapy may be hindered by therapist’s own personal issues
 → Supervision to help overcome such problems

4) Who are the clients that you typically see?

→ Adolescents and adults
→ Educational psychologists: doing assessments for children with learning
disabilities (At the paediatric wards)

Disclaimer: The above notes were taken down to the best of our abilities during the
course of the talk. NUSPsyche is providing this for the benefit of students who were
interested in the talk but unable to attend due to various reasons. We shall not be
responsible for any changes in the information or uncovered topics during the talk.