Psychologists: Walk me through a typical day?
-How many people you see each day, and for how long.
-How well the majority of your clients function (ex: are most functioning moderately well, or are most severely disturbed and functioning poorly?)
-Do you bring your job home with you? Ex: do you feel depressed/sad all day after hearing about another's troubles? Or can you let it go after work?
-Would you ever be able to take a week-long vacation, or are you unable to because you have a commitment to your patients?
Answer:
I'm not a psychologist yet, but I am graduating with my doctorate this year. This is what I've gathered from my externships and internships, as well as supervisors and postdoc interviews.
1. As a psychologist, you can expect to have 30-35 sessions per week. So, about 6-7 sessions per day. This can be less depending on your other duties, like if you do psychological testing or consultation. Sessions usually last 45-50 minutes long.
2. The clients you work with depends on where you work. If you are working on an inpatient unit or a community mental health clinic, you can expect to see people with more serious psychopathology. If you open your own private practice, you can pick and choose who you will or won't work with, so if you want to work with the "working well," you are more than welcome to. There are some psychologists in the city here that won't accept insurance, charge an arm and a leg, and don't see anyone with major problems. It depends on your interests.
3. I wish I could say that I can totally separate myself. For the most part, I don't take my job home with me. But I'm human and sometimes its hard to be unaffected. I've come home a couple of times, completely exhausted. When I worked with kids, a couple of days, I came home in tears. That is why its important to get good supervision, have collegues that you can talk to when you are overwhelmed, and pay attention to your own limitations and have ways that you can de-stress.
4. You are encouraged to take vacations. You would burn out if you didn't take vacations. Your patients understand. Psychologists take vacations like everyone else. Usually, they notify their patients a couple of weeks in advance and make sure that their patients have an emergency number to call if they need someone over the psychologist's time away.
1) relatively 1-2 hours per person. Can vary depending on patients
2) most are poorly, some somewhat well
3) lets it go after work. Too tired to think about it.
4) wants a vacation soon
Im not a psychologist. I asked a psycologist the same questions =P
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