Psych Careers

Essential Reads Chosen by the editors

Cool Art Therapy Intervention #9: Family Sculpture

By Cathy Malchiodi on February 23, 2010 in The Healing Arts

Given a lump of clay or some canisters of Play-doh, how would you depict each member of your family of origin? It's cool art therapy intervention #9 and it's all about a creative way to explore your family system. Read More

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Ethical Professors: Fact or Fiction?

By Mitchell M. Handelsman, PhD on March 10, 2010 in The Ethical Professor

Sometimes we're a little embarrassed to be college professors. Other times we're downright ashamed. But we're always hopeful. We happen to like being professors even though we realize that professors-like most professionals these days-are not basking in the glory and public worship of ethical perfection. Read More
Cool Art Therapy Intervention #9: Family Sculpture

By Cathy Malchiodi on February 23, 2010 in The Healing Arts

Given a lump of clay or some canisters of Play-doh, how would you depict each member of your family of origin? It's cool art therapy intervention #9 and it's all about a creative way to explore your family system. Read More
Take Sam Culbert's Test and Check Out His New Book

By Robert I. Sutton on February 22, 2010 in Work Matters

Do You Hate Performance Reviews? Read More
Cool Art Therapy Intervention #10: Magazine Photo Collage

By Cathy Malchiodi on February 16, 2010 in The Healing Arts

Those magazine picture clippings you have been saving in a drawer might just mean more than you think. And it's related to the first installment of the "ten coolest art therapy interventions." Read More
The Ten Coolest Art Therapy Interventions

By Cathy Malchiodi on February 11, 2010 in The Healing Arts

I'm taking a cue from Ryan Howes' Top Ten Coolest Therapy Interventions to demystify just what art therapy is and some of the tools of the trade. If you have ever wondered what the heck art therapy is and what art therapists do, this series will help you understand the key concepts and more about some of the methods commonly used promote change, insight, and well-being.
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Psychology: Apparently it isn't rocket science

By Art Markman, Ph.D. on February 9, 2010 in Ulterior Motives

When you sign on to be a Psychologist, you have taken on the study of a topic that is both extraordinarily complex and underappreciated. Read More
Advice from a Stodgy Bastard

By James C. Kaufman, Ph.D. on February 8, 2010 in And All That Jazz

Even though I'm at a university that values teaching over research, I still get many (many) students interested in working in my lab in some capacity (currently, my "lab" is technically a basement office that would be blank except for my lab manager's Flight of the Conchords posters, but you get the gist). Read More
So Much More Than Mere Names and Dates

By Dana S. Dunn, Ph.D. on February 2, 2010 in Head of the Class

I gave a talk on teaching about unobtrusive research methods at a conference last week in Las Vegas (yes, really, and it wasn't about gambling or other addictions, either). Read More
Mosaic Mentoring

By Shirah Vollmer, MD on January 11, 2010 in Learning to Play

Mentoring refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced person helps a less experienced person. The receiver of mentorship was referred to as a protege, but more recently the word "mentee" was invented. Read More
The Best Career We Could Ask For.

By Eva Ritvo, M.D. on January 7, 2010 in The Beauty Prescription

Psychologist and Psychiatrist both made the top 50 career choices in a new survey. Some thoughts about why we love our jobs. Read More
Did Art Therapy Fail to Rehab Terrorists? Oh, Come On

By Cathy Malchiodi on December 30, 2009 in The Healing Arts

Over the past several days, major media outlets have cited art therapy as a source of failed rehabilitation for two former Gitmo detainees who are allegedly connected to the recent bomb attempt on Northwest Flight 253. While the rehab program included religious education, psychotherapy, and other components, just why did the media decide that paints and crayons were culprits in the terrorist plot? Read More
Therapy for Therapists? Maybe. Maybe Not.

By Dana Goldman on December 18, 2009 in Therapist in Training

How can you believe in the work of therapy – and sell it to your clients -- without actually having experienced it in some way? Read More
Doctoring the Doctor

By Nancy Rappaport, M.D. on December 16, 2009 in We Are Only Human

In order to be truly effective in our work, we physicians need to conduct our own personal exploration, take time for introspection, and replenish our personal reserves. Read More
Where Did The Listening Go?

By Shirah Vollmer, MD on December 10, 2009 in Learning to Play

I am an adult and child psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, trained in the 1980’s, pre-Prozac era, whose fundamental conviction about my role in helping patients is under attack. This fundamental conviction is that mental health professionals make people curious about their own minds. Thinking about thinking is what psychiatrists contribute to society. Read More
@im_inebriated to @arttherapynews: Art Therapy is a Fake!

By Cathy Malchiodi on November 12, 2009 in The Healing Arts

OMG, someone is using Twitter to disparage my profession. At first I dismissed this tweeter as twitwit and even a bit of a twhiner. But then I started to wonder: Is Twitter possibly a digital oracle of wisdom? Is art therapy really a fake? Read More
In Memory of Claude Lévi-Strauss

By Guest Blogger

Claude Lévi-Strauss, arguably the world's most famous and influential anthropologist, died on October 30 at the age of 100. This is a lasting memory of my first encounter with him. Read More
Art Therapy Meets Digital Art and Social Multimedia

By Cathy Malchiodi on November 2, 2009 in The Healing Arts

In the 20th century, art therapy mirrored modern art movements and the media of the time period—drawing, painting, and sculpting. And just as digital means of expression, image manipulation, and social multimedia have permeated the early 21st century art, they also are beginning to influence the field of art therapy…well, maybe. Read More
Curriculum, Not Canon

By Dana S. Dunn, Ph.D. on October 14, 2009 in Head of the Class

Psychology is different form other disciplines. Unlike teachers in English literature, for example, psychologists don't usually argue about what to include in the canon. By "canon", of course, I am referring to what writings are sanctioned as great, essential, or otherwise defining of the subject area. Read More
Thinking About Psychological Literacy

By Dana S. Dunn, Ph.D. on September 21, 2009 in Head of the Class

My wife and I belong to a book club. We gather with a small group of friends every month or so for a bit of cabernet and culture. Read More
What is Psychological Anthropology?

By Peter G. Stromberg, Ph.D. on September 13, 2009 in Sex, Drugs, and Boredom

My discipline, Psychological Anthropology (call it PA to save space), may be unfamiliar to many readers, so it's worth spending a few paragraphs introducing this field. This might help you to assess what you are reading on this blog. Read More

Psych Careers Blogs

Am I a Psychologist?
A blog for those considering graduate school in Psychology.
By Timothy P. Lisagor
Head of the Class
How to teach psychology well.
By Dana S. Dunn, Ph.D.

Psych Careers Basics

In a sense, every career is a psychology career. Whether salesman, schoolteacher, or sports coach, to be effective, and especially to advance in one's career, often requires a fine-tuned understanding of other people and what motivates them--to say nothing of oneself!.

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Why we're conditioned to blame our partners for our unhappiness.