Becoming a Clinical Psychologist: Personal Stories of Doctoral Training

Whether you are thinking about starting therapy, going to graduate school, or are yourself a practicing healer of hearts and minds, Becoming a Clinical Psychologist: Personal Stories of Doctoral Training offers a wealth of useful information about today’s training and trainees.. This book is a collection of accounts written by a diverse group of early-career psychologists and doctoral students in their final stages of training. Each of the twelve authors provides a deeply personal, inside perspective on becoming a therapist. Some of the chapters combine qualitative research with the author’s particular experience, while others emphasize the author’s personal journey as s/he moves from novice to clinician. Some of the issues that are covered include the ways in which training affects personal and professional relationships with spouses, friends, peers, faculty and supervisors, and clients; how budding clinicians deal with their own issues and feelings of inadequacy; and how trainees learn to develop the right balance of empathy and detachment in working with clients. Also unique to this collection is the diversity reflected in the contributors, which include an Orthodox Jewish gay man who “came out” during training; a Black woman of African descent who found a home in the psychoanalytic approach; a White man who experienced minority status in his mostly female doctoral program; a bisexual, White woman who had to negotiate misperceptions and judgments as she moved through her clinical training; and a dissident student who came from another profession and found herself at odds with most of her professors and supervisors about the role of trauma in the etiology of mental illness. Becoming a Clinical Psychologist is a compelling read for those both inside and outside the field of psychology.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Danielle Knafo, Robert Keisner, and Silvia Fiammenghi Part I: Beginner’s Mind: First Experiences Conducting Therapy Chapter 1: Personal and Professional Integration in a Dual-Oriented Doctoral Program Dustin Kahoud Chapter 2: Conducting Therapy for the First Time Adi Avivi Chapter 3: Guilt in the Beginning Therapist: Etiology and Impact on Treatment Benjamin Gottesman Chapter 4: The Novice in the Therapist’s Chair Samantha Shoshana Lawrence Part II: Navigating the Personal and Professional during Doctoral Training Chapter 5: Clinical Psychology Training and Romance: For Better or for Worse? Silvia Fiammenghi Chapter 6: Clinical Psychology Doctoral Students with a History of Eating Disorders Brianna Blake Chapter 7: Life as a Juggler: Work, Family, and Study inside a Doctoral Psychology Program Matthew Liebman Chapter 8: Experiences of a “Black Sheep” in a Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program Noel Hunter Part Three: Outside the Norm: Effects of Diversity in Training and Treatment Chapter 9: A Few Good Men: The Male Experience of Minority Status in a Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program Ian Rugg Chapter 10: Notes from a Queer Student’s Graduate Training Kathleen Kallstrom-Schreckengost Chapter 11: Finding My Place in Psychoanalysis as a Black, Female Student Adjoa Osei Chapter 12: From the Closet to the Clinic: An Orthodox Jewish Man Comes Out in Training Jeremy Novich Contributor Notes