Emotions used to be neglected both in Medicine and business relationships. Those times are gone and hopefully they won’t be back anymore. Mental disorders like anxiety or depression are not mixed up with madness anymore. Nowadays, business sciences acknowledge that workers’ welfare is essential to achieve a high productivity, and that human relationships are much more than accessory in a company’s success.
Psychology has showed itself to be a very useful discipline, not only in human resources, where labor psychologists have been traditionally hired, but also in areas like customer service or public relations.
Pernicious attitudes like mobbing and work addiction have been identified and they are slowly being removed from business culture. Nowadays, managers follow training programs to improve their emotional skills, in addition to their intellectual ones.
On the other hand, private life is a growing field for counselors. Nowadays, unfortunately, stress is as common as headaches; food disorders like bulimia and anorexia are widely spread among teenagers… and people who left their teens long ago; one in every twenty people will suffer from panic attacks at least once in a lifetime; and depression is foreseen to become the second cause of death in the first world. So, sadly, there’s still a lot of work beforehand for clinical psychologists.
Psycho dynamics versus cognitive-behavioral therapies
Labor and clinical practice are the two great job specializations for a bachelor in psychology, but in addition most students will learn two main different therapy trends: psycho dynamics and cognitive-behavioral. Psycho dynamics evolved from the pioneer works by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and explore people’s motivations at the unconscious level. This kind of therapy is usually offered in private institutions and implies a very long process of self-discovery for the patient. Cognitive-behavioral therapies have proved themselves to be the most effective for anxiety issues like panic attacks and all kind of phobias (irrational fears). Other therapies influenced by eastern philosophy are pushing through, like gestalt or language neuroprogramming.
Though these studies last four or five years in most countries, the real amount of time one student invests in learning will vary depending on his or her vocation. Clinical practice requires longer internships and will benefit a lot from masters or a second bachelor degree, specially if one intends to work in a hospital instead of setting an office of his own. A career in public institutions means a long process, very close to that followed by medicine students, with an entrance examination an a period working as a resident, but the reward is a very gratifying job.
Psychologists often work as counselors at hospitals and private offices, but they can also become career coaches, social mediators, family and marriage therapists, school counselors, teen educators and so on. Labor psychologists usually become headhunters, but they can also specialize on work mediation and workers training.
Perfect for… students with a lot of empathy and anyone who loves caring for people.
Don’t choose it if… you tend to feel overwhelmed by other people’s emotions.
Match it with… Labor studies, Psycho pedagogy, Philosophy, Education sciences.