Clinical psychology: Professional roles, competence, and criteria

Abstract

Preamble: This review article is a part of a survey research “Competencies and Self Development of Thai Clinical Psychologists”, which was financially supported by Saint Louis College in 2016. The research was conducted with the aims for developing effective academic programs and trainings for clinical psychology students, and also Thai clinical psychologists willing to improve their knowledge and skills. The researcher believed that defining the professional roles alone was not able to guide students and clinical psychologists’ on how to improve their competencies. Thus the information gathered from the literature review would be discussed in this article for the use of Thai clinical psychologists, academic settings, and professional organizations.

Content: The search targeted professional agencies in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Australia, where their professional and academic quality are highly accepted worldwide. The searching focused on 1) professional roles and responsibilities of clinical psychologists 2) standard criteria to become a clinical psychologist and 3) criteria and levels of competence. The obtained information was compared with the Thai context.

Conclusions: All the great nations valued every single professional steps - including the specification for each degree in clinical psychology together with prerequisite knowledge and course work, a curriculum with years of practice opportunity, clinical experiences after graduation, requirements for professional licensing, and continuing education through-out professional life as a clinical psychologist.