This is only the Q&A portion of the event. Click the questions below to view the answers. Link to full notes for this event here! Q&A What is the most notable difference working with children instead of adult clients? Are there challenges specific to child patients?
Confidentiality is a big one. For adults, they sign all the forms directly and you get permission from them. For kids, you have to determine what their parents are not going to know about and what is specifically kept between you and the child. You have to go to the parents and other family members and constantly involve them in the treatment. Sometimes kids also don’t want to be involved, so you have to find ways to get them comfortable with you and build that relationship. Adults have more agency, while children oftentimes rely on the parents so if the child is motivated and the parent is not that may be an issue. When Dr. Langer was in high school, her brother had a bone tumor and her whole family was too scared to talk about it on the off chance it was cancerous (fortunately it was benign!). This made her think about all the families in her position who needed help and did not have it and got her interested in the field. What have you found to be the most rewarding part of your work?
Seeing the resilience of the parents and kids is really rewarding. Dr. Langer loves helping these children get through the hard time while also still getting to enjoy their childhood. Any career subtypes you find interesting?
Rehabilitation psychology and pediatric psychology (of course)! Rehabilitation psychology often isn’t talked about due to stigmas but it’s very interesting! Are there any ways in which you separate yourself from the experiences of your patients?
It can be very difficult, but having good boundaries between work and home is so important. You really need to keep your own thoughts and feelings separate from those of the parents/children involved. You need to focus on how they are viewing this experience rather than how you are personally. Followup: How is this different now doing everything online? Any issues?
Older kids are generally able to adapt to the changes, however kids under 7 have a hard time engaging online because they want to play and have fun but they can’t. You can’t give them that when it’s all online, so it’s hard to get them to stay focused and interested. What is something kids do that you have to deal with that you had no professional training for? Is there anything you disagreed with in your training or education?
She’s never had any experience with having health conditions like cancer, or really any of the conditions her clients have. It is good to note though that you don’t have to have lived these experiences to be helpful! You will through experience gain the tools and skills needed to know how to help a child. Kids will do a lot to avoid getting treated and oftentimes you won’t have any experience with that prior to it happening. You might have a hard time dealing with imposter syndrome as a result, but don’t worry about it! As for anything Dr. Langer disagreed with her training/education, many professionals are taught in a way where they have a very medical model based focus on treating a child, but Dr. Langer found that to be lackluster. She found it more important to think of it more holistically and consider both the medical side and the mental side. Is there any practice that’s prioritized more in pediatric clinical psychology as opposed to adult clinical psychology?
A lot of things begin with adults. Research tends to focus on adults first since they are easiest to work with and then later on will “trickle down” into testing children (they adapt their tests to kids). You talked about internships/residencies and practicing/externships. Are there options for these where you get paid? I was wondering if it's also common for people to juggle a job on top of all of these, or is it not recommended?
She taught psychology 1 and 2 as a teaching assistant to help pay off her tuition. Many internships don’t pay and if they do it is very low. Postdocs tend to be better and you get more of a manageable salary though. She often worked during the summer, and many people also do other jobs on the side while studying. Providing assessments is a good way to get paid since you don’t generally need to work long term. PhD tend to provide more money, tuition is lower, and they also tend to take in less people. Depending where you work, there are even some opportunities that provide loan forgiveness programs. Take the time to really look and research the programs you are interested in to see what works best for you! In the beginning of the zoom the personality tests were mentioned. This was something we spent time learning in our class, could you expand on how these come to play in your field?
She personally does not use personality tests, but many others do. Forensic psychologists typically do it a lot to help them better understand the personality of the patient to learn their strengths and weaknesses. For example, these tests can reveal what the patients are susceptible to socially (or otherwise) that can affect their behavior.
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