So I heard that you're wondering what does a child psychologist do. I think I
can help you with that. So, I got to tell you right out front. When people find out
that I'm a psychologist, some of them want to spill their whole life story to
me. It's like I can't turn them off. And other people, "Don't dare tell me a thing."
It's just kind of funny. I think a lot of people misunderstand what psychologists
do. Since you've joined me for this episode, you're probably wondering about
a child psychologist specifically. My wife teases me a little bit because when
people find out I'm a child psychologist, they say, "Yeah. And sometimes he works
with children too." I'm trying to be more mature. But it's overrated. There's a lot
of different kinds of psychologists. Even in child psychology. School psychologists
for example are typically masters level professionals who work exclusively in a
school environment. They focus a lot on assessment and interventions in the
schools. Behavioral psychologists focus on behaviors. Typically disruptive
behaviors. And there's a lot of room for that in the industry of child psychology.
Clinical psychologists tend to work in clinics or more clinical settings. Where
they work on pathology and the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. That can
be particularly challenging for a child psychologist because diagnosis is so
tricky. There's a lot of different things that manifest for children that might
represent totally different problems. And it's kind of tricky for a clinical child
psychologist to sort all of that out. There's also academic and research-based
psychologists who focused more on studies and research to try to come up
with new treatments or interventions or simply understanding how things work.
Psychology is such a diverse field. It can be a very
rewarding direction to go. If that's something that you're considering. Let's
talk about the area of child psychology, specifically. Child psychologists are
specially and specifically trained to work with children and their caretakers.
Now, I added that second part because really, every child psychologist has at
least 2 clients. The child. But children don't call and set up appointments. I
have never had a 7-year-old call me up and say, "Dr. Paul, can I come and have
an appointment with you?" Somebody else is taking care of them. And so as a child
psychologist, you're going to need to have the skill of working with those
caregivers as well. Usually the parents. But in my history as a child
psychologist, I've also had to work with social workers and foster care providers
and group home leaders. There's all kinds of caregivers that work with children
who are the gatekeepers for those children to access services. A child
psychologist needs to know a lot about human development. How kids typically
would hit their milestones and develop and gain skills and abilities to
interact with others socially, to communicate. And so child psychologists
also would often function as part of a multidisciplinary team. There might be
behavior specialists or speech language professionals or occupational therapists
who are working with this family as well. I'm reminded of the old saying that it
takes a village to raise a child. I think that's really true especially for
working professionals who focus on children. Before I conclude this video, if
you're considering either hiring a child psychologist to work with you or with
your children or if you're consider going into the field as a professional, I
would strongly recommend that you talk to some people who are doing it. If
you're a parent especially, interview the professionals that you're considering
bringing in to work with your kids. They are working for you not the other way
around. And I've found a lot of times in child psychology especially, the
professionals kind of take over and tell you what to do as a parent. You're still
the parent. So make sure that you approve of whatever professionals that you're
working with with your children. That is a huge responsibility for you and I want
you to stay in the driver's seat as the parent. If you're going into the field,
find someone who's doing what you are considering doing and interview them.
Find out more. Ask them a lot of questions like, "What do you enjoy about
this job? What is it that challenges you?" What are some of the pitfalls that I
should look out for if I'm going that direction? It's a really great way to get
more information for yourself so that you can make good decisions. Now, before
we wrap up this video, I want to introduce you to something that you
might not encounter regularly in the industry of child psychology. And that is
the distinction between traditional psychology and positive psychology. If
you've been here on the channel very long, you know that I am a strong
advocate of positivity and positive psychology. Traditional psychology tends
to be focused on diagnosis, pathology, treatment. So one of the main questions
is "What's wrong with you?" And "Can we put a label on it? And is there treatment
approach that will help us to overcome the deficits?" Positive psychology is on
the other end of the spectrum. If you think of your mental health or your
child's mental health on a spectrum or a continuum, clear over here on the left
end is the sick end. That's where we have diagnosis pathology treatment.
The other end is really fascinating. And to understand that end. Let's go to the
middle first. The middle is health. Health meaning not sick.
You'd think health is the opposite of sick. I just mean not sick. So you could
be sick in bed with a fever throwing up. There comes a time when you can get out
of bed and you're not sick. But that doesn't mean you're truly fit, thriving,
prospering. That's the other end of the spectrum. So, if you think of this entire
spectrum, traditional psychology focuses on the left end of that spectrum. The
pathology end. And there's a lot of really important research and treatment
approaches that are being innovated over there to help our kids who are really
struggling in that zone. Now, this end of the spectrum clear over here on the
right and this positive end is not picked up by insurance companies. It
won't be referred by the Division of Child and Family Services. This part of
the spectrum is for kids who are not sick, right? But not sick doesn't mean
truly thriving. So, the positive end of the spectrum focuses on adaptive
behavior and how to really succeed in our relationships and social
interactions in our cognitive abilities in our psychological life. So, I've moved
my practice from this end of the spectrum where I was for about 12 years
or so over to this end of the spectrum where I'm having a lot of fun. And
there's some overlap in the middle. Because everybody's got issues. I think
this is true when we talk about child psychology as well. And it's important to
acknowledge that kids who have issues and which kid doesn't may not be sick.
They may be human. Welcome to earth, everybody's got issues. And we can deal
with those according to principle like the ones that we talked about
on the channel in a way that allows us to move farther in that direction. And
that's really good news. I think it's been far too common of a
practice in our society to over diagnose children. Because sometimes when a parent
is frustrated and they go in for help with someone who's on the traditional
end of the spectrum, the first thought is what diagnosis does this child have? And
there are some that just come out of the blue. Attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, for example. Which is a legitimate diagnosis. But which often
means adults in this kid's life are frustrated with a behavior that they're
observing or a set of behaviors. And that kid may or may not qualify for an
official diagnosis. I think we need to consider that this may be a kid who's
got some issues but doesn't have a diagnosis. They need to apply principles
to move farther to their path of excellence which is on this end of the
spectrum. I thought that might be a helpful distinction for you to at least
think about as you look at this possibility of child psychology and how
that can help you. I hope that gave you a couple of ideas about what a child
psychologist does. If you're looking for someone to work with you on the positive
end of that spectrum which doesn't necessarily require a psychologist, you
might be interested to look up liveonpurpose.coach where Live On Purpose
certified coaches might be able to help you on the positive end of that spectrum.
I'll see you tomorrow.