Becoming an adolescent psychologist requires an undergraduate degree in psychology, followed by a doctoral study program that offers a focus on adolescent treatment. After graduation, individuals must obtain a license and perform supervised therapy before becoming a specialized adolescent psychologist.
Adolescent psychology is a specialized field. It is not child psychology, as teenagers are not children. However, it is not adult psychology either, because teenagers are certainly not adults either. However, those wishing to become an adolescent psychologist will study child psychology and should likely choose a doctoral study program that offers a focus on adolescent treatment.
The path to becoming a teen psychologist starts with earning an undergraduate degree and the best important thing to choose is psychology. Many graduate programs expect in-depth knowledge of the subject. Grades will also need to be excellent because people will have fewer options when choosing a graduate school and will need to narrow it down to schools that can provide substantial instruction in child and adolescent psychology.
While at the end of their freshman year of high school, students will need to begin the process of selecting a graduate school. This requires research and also a decision. Students can choose to obtain a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) or a PsyD (Doctor of Psychology). Students sometimes choose an EdD (doctor of education), but licensure can be more difficult. If the goal is to treat patients, a PsyD may be preferable, as a doctoral orientation is usually more about research. However, there are several excellent schools that offer PhDs and considerable training in child/adolescent psychology.
After students have researched schools and narrowed the field, they will need to do some additional research by contacting schools. Getting program guides, talking to consultants, and maybe even visiting campuses and meeting professors are all good ideas. Students should plan to submit applications to multiple schools to increase the likelihood of being accepted to at least one.
Acceptance of a graduate program means that people are really moving along the path of becoming an adolescent psychologist. They will spend the next three to six years training in school for this profession. Students should take every opportunity to take classes related to child or adolescent psychology, or they may be in a specific program for that subject. Psychology students can also expect to receive personal counseling while studying and will need to submit a final dissertation in order to graduate.
It doesn’t actually end when people graduate. They need to get licensed to work as a teen psychologist. This will mean another year or two of performing supervised therapy before being eligible for licensure.
People tend not to become teen psychologists when they get a license. They just become psychologists. They may claim to specialize in adolescence and may belong to organizations that exist for child and adolescent psychology. In theory, this means that anyone who is a psychologist could be an adolescent psychologist, but having the extra work and study in that particular area would certainly be beneficial for the patient population one wants to treat.
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