Clinical psychology
integration of science and clinical knowledge for the purpose of relieving psychologically based dysfunction / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clinical psychology is the study in psychology of mental disorders.[1][2] It is about learning, understanding, diagnosing, treating or preventing these types of illnesses. Clinical psychologists examine the mental functioning of a person and use psychotherapy to treat the disorder. Psychotherapy uses talking instead of medical or physical treatments.[3]
The first psychological clinic opened in 1896 at the University of Pennsylvania by Lightner Witmer.[4]In the first half of the 20th century, clinical psychology mainly was about psychological assessment, and not treatment. After World War II, there was a big increase in the numbers of trained clinical psychologists. There are two main educational models - the Ph.D. scientist-practitioner model which looks at research, and the Psy.D. practitioner-scholar model which looks at the treatments. Clinical psychologists are now regarded as experts in psychotherapy.