Are there any books that I can read to help me decide if a clinical psychology degree is right for me?

If you are enrolled in an on-campus or online clinical psychology degree programs, you might be interested in some of the following books to increase both your savvy and your interest in the field.

The PsychNotes item is from the popular Davis’s Notes series. It is a handy pocket guide with quick access to basic behavioral theories, key aspects of psychiatric and crisis interventions, mental status assessments and exams, mental health history and assessment tools and more.

Couch Fiction is a graphic novel that gives readers a fly-on-the-wall glimpse of a year of psychotherapy sessions and a peek into the minds of the protagonists on both sides of the couch. The book is a witty, thought-provoking look at psychological therapy that covers a variety of techniques, skills and insights that could be interesting to a clinical psychology student.

The Silence of the Lambs is a successful work of fiction covering the dark side of abnormal psychology. A young FBI special agent reluctantly collaborates with an incarcerated genius serial killer to create a psychological profile and hopefully stop a new serial killer who is abducting and murdering young women. For anyone interested in degrees in clinical psychology, it might help to see some extreme examples of abnormal criminal psychology.

What are some online resources that will give me ideas about how to use a degree in clinical psychology?

The American Psychological Association (APA) is currently the largest scientific and professional psychology organization in the U.S. Whether you are interested in tips on applying to grad school or want to know what the hot discussion topics in clinical psychology online are, the APA’s website is an authoritative and reliable source of information for students.

The Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) creates the Examinations for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP), which is used to assess candidates for licensure and certification. If you want to know what to expect on the EPPP and how to prepare for it, this online resource is indispensable.

The American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) is the primary organization for specialty board certification in psychology. If you are interested in a traditional or online clinical psychology degree and want in-depth information about certification and clinical psychology degree requirements, the ABPP’s website is 1 of the most trusted sources available.

Originally published in 1992 in the Usenet newsgroups, Psychcentral claims to be the oldest annotated directory of online psychology and mental health resources. It is intended as a resource for those who suffer from a variety of psychological conditions, but it also offers plenty of useful resources for people interested in both clinical psychology degrees online and brick-and-mortar schools.

What organizations accredit on-campus and online clinical psychology degree programs?

Whether you are looking into traditional or online clinical psychology degrees, the American Psychological Association (APA) is the national accrediting authority for professional education and training in psychology, focusing mostly on the accreditation of pre-doctoral internships, doctoral programs and post-doctoral residencies in counseling, clinical and school psychology. The APA also has valuable resources if you are considering clinical psychology online colleges.

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs is an independent agency that accredits many masters degree programs in psychology as well as doctoral programs in counselor education and supervision. CACREP’s website also has a handy database of accredited clinical psychology online degrees.

The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy’s (AAMFT) Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) is an organization that accredits masters and doctoral degrees as well as post-graduate clinical training programs in marriage and family therapy throughout the United States and Canada. The website also features a number of articles about clinical psychology online graduate programs.

Is a degree in clinical psychology recession proof?

Very few fields of employment can claim to be recession proof, but the outlook is good for clinical psychologists. In 2010, the reported number of open jobs in the psychology field was 174,000, and the projected job growth for the field of psychology is 22% through 2020, which is slightly above the average for all professions according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Psychologists need a masters, specialist or doctoral degree in psychology as well as a license or certification to enter the field. For clinical, counseling, school or health service jobs, students must also usually complete a 1-year internship as part of a doctoral program.

Generally speaking, a traditional degree is held in more esteem by employers than a clinical psychology online degree, although those who receive the best online clinical psychology degrees at the masters level are becoming increasingly competitive on the job market. The median income for a clinical psychologist is approximately $68,640 per year.