Insight into Clinical Psychologist Salary
Clinical psychology is one of the most lucrative career choices in the medical field. Not only do practitioners get a high level of job satisfaction, the clinical psychologist salary is attractive, even for fresh graduates. If you are looking for a career where you can enjoy growth and great job prospects, this is one area you can consider joining.
Clinical psychology covers a wide range of areas, including counseling, clinical and school psychology. In 2008, the BLS reported the average clinical psychologist salary to be $64,140, rising to $68,400 for professionals who worked in other health practitioners’ offices or clinics.
Career prospects in this field are positive, with a minimum growth of 18% expected over the next 7 years. Demand for clinical psychologists is high, and is expected to soar more over the next five years. The higher the demand for these valuable professionals, the higher the mean clinical psychologist salary is expected to climb. Psychologists can work as individuals or in hospital and institutional settings.
In order to qualify as a clinical psychologist, one must graduate at master’s level at the very least. With this qualification, you can work in hospitals, mental health institutes, outpatient mental health centers, substance abuse centers, physician’s clinics/offices, law enforcement agencies, correctional centers, and other related organizations, both private and public. You can also venture into private health.
Approximately 35% of qualified clinical psychologists’ salary is in private practice. This is one of the most lucrative job areas for this profession, with private practitioners earning more than double the average clinical psychologist salary earned in employment. Under private practice, one can establish their own clinic or treatment facility. They can also go into consultancy and teach in colleges and universities. Often, clinical psychologists combine the two so that they teach part time and work part time.
There are different areas of specialization that one can venture into. Specialization often requires you to go back to school and pursue a course that is specific to your chosen area of specialization. You must qualify with certification in this area before you can be licensed to work as a psychological specialist or expert. A PhD is the standard qualification for specialized clinical psychologists.
Specialty courses involve spending a large mount of time interning in institutions where your skills and knowledge are required. In addition, you must undertake continual education to stay abreast of changes in the profession. Unless you can prove that you’ve been going through continual training, you also won’t be able to renew your license.
You can specialize to become a: psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, counseling psychologist, neuro-psychologist, pediatric clinical psychologist, psychology associate, behavioral health consultant, clinical health psychologist, public health clinical psychologist, child clinical psychologist, clinical sports psychologist, clinical research psychologist, clinical psychology professor, rehabilitation clinical psychologist, substance abuse clinical psychologist, family and couple clinical psychologist, school clinical psychologist; or military, policy, forensic or prison clinical psychologist.
The clinical psychologist salary you earn even as a specialist will depend on your education level, additional certifications earned and experience. You will increase your earning potential if you go back to school and undertaking short, continual courses.
