The Future of Clinical Psychology

Sherbano

Clinical psychology is a dynamic branch of psychology that adopts change with the new research, new technologies and the emerging needs of the society. The following are some of the trends that define the future of clinical psychology as they come with their own prospects as well as risks. Arguably one of the most important emerging trends over the past few years is the use of teletherapy and virtual mental health solutions. Further, with the help of technology, clinical psychologists can offer their services through teletherapy which will help increase the access to mental health services for individuals in the rural areas or other places they can seldom visit. Teletherapy has been most useful in the current COVID-19 scenario solutions since the therapist can still deliver therapy sessions as per social distancing protocols. In the future, an integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning can add values to the digital mental health tools by providing real-time data feedback to give personalized treatment. Another new trend is the concern about culture-sensitive approaches to patient assessment. With diversification of the societies, the clinical psychologist should have the ability to handle clients from different ethnic background. This entails the knowledge and understanding of cultural practices, religious beliefs, and other social factors whereby the kind of therapy has to be personalized for each patient. Academic students are now using the cultural competence as one of the key components in their training that creating Psychologist trained to practice in inclusive manner. Neuroscience also forms part of the practice today as clinical psychology gains prime importance in the medical field. Positive changes are being observed in mental health disorders incidence, better treatments caused by progress in brain imaging and neurobiology. For instance, there are search for scientific evidence about the neurological basis of anxiety and depressive disorders so that timely and effective treatments – including neurofeedback and TMS – will be developed. Also, understanding of value based care as a new model that is centered on preventive care in mental health is emerging. Clinical psychologists are more times engaged in the design of programs that enhance mental health and reduce incident of mental illnesses. They can be nationwide and tend to address such issues as higher personal resistance, correlations between trauma and mental disorder, and work on formation of proper atmosphere at schools, workplaces and other public places.