All Psychologists must be registered with the Psychology Board of Australia, meet high education, training, ethical and professional standards, and undertake ongoing training and skills development. Psychologists have a diverse range of skills, experience, and expertise. You may see a Psychologist with general registration, or one who has a specialist endorsement or advanced level of specialty in a specific area of professional practice, such as Clinical Psychology, Educational and Developmental Psychology, Forensic Psychology, or Organisational Psychology. You can read more about these different types of psychology and professional endorsement specialties below.
types of psychologists
Generalist Psychologist
A Generalist Psychologist is trained to help individuals deal with emotional, cognitive, and behavioural problems across all ages and in a wide variety of circumstances. They use evidence based Psychological approaches customised to suit each individual, setting, issue or challenge.
Clinical Psychologist
A Clinical Psychologist is an expert in mental health who has undertaken highly specialised training in the assessment, diagnosis, formulation, and treatment of mental illness across the life span. Clinical Psychology is a scienced-based profession that integrates theory and clinical practice to understand, prevent, and relieve psychological, behavioural, and emotional problems or disorders, whether they are mild or severe.
A Clinical Psychologist is trained to assess the causes of psychological distress within the context of the history of the problems and contributing factors, such as genetic predisposition, social and family influences, and psychological coping styles. They develop management or treatment plans for stabilisation or recovery and work collaboratively with other professionals. Clinical Psychologists also provide specialized secondary consultation, differential diagnosis, opinions, and advice to other mental health professionals, as well as being involved in research, teaching and supervision and policy development. Clinical Psychologists do not prescribe medication; they use psychological therapies.
Forensic Psychologist
A Forensic Psychologist is an expert in human behaviour and in preventing problematic behaviours associated with offending. Forensic psychology is the application of Clinical Psychology to the forensic/legal setting. A Forensic Psychologist utilizes legal and psychological knowledge to help individuals, government employees and organisations navigate the legal and criminal justice systems. A Forensic Psychologist may be engaged to assist in areas that include, but are not limited to, child protection, family services, alcohol and other substance abuse, rehabilitation services (such as pain clinics or head injury services), corrective services, and research.
Educational and Developmental
Psychologist
An Educational and Developmental Psychologist is an expert in areas related to child development and the educational system. They use their expertise to help children and young adults with learning difficulties, social and emotional problems, developmental disorders, and other special educational needs. They primarily work with children, parents, carers, and teachers to help them understand issues a child may experience; however, they also work with adults and organisations on a range of issues. Educational Psychology draws from other fields such as neuroscience and often involves standardised testing to obtain information about children’s learning skills and abilities. This information enables insight into how children learn and process information and what their learning potential might be, enabling specific, individualised recommendations regarding learning strategies and support for home and school to help children reach their full potential.
Organisational Psychologist
Organisational Psychologists are experts in group and organisational dynamics and are specialist trained in human behaviour in the workplace. They apply their knowledge and expertise to identify solutions to problems that improve the wellbeing and performance of organisations and their employees. Organisational Psychologists use a variety of tools that include psychological testing and behavioural interviewing for career coaching and to identify work development needs, optimise quality of work life, coach individual’s employees and organisations, and to develop criteria to evaluate the performance of individuals and organisations.