Eating disorders affect a lot of people today. Occurrences like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa have gotten very common today for the simple reason that people do not know how to handle their eating and weight control matters.
Eating disorder psychologists offer very useful expertise in helping the person with such a problem to get to a normal eating lifestyle. The reason why the problem needs to be handled professionally is that normally an eating disorder gives rise to a number of other health challenges that may compromise the life of the person in several ways.
What are the Duties of an Eating Disorder Psychologist?
What are the Requirements to Become an Eating Disorder Psychologist?
Education
To become a successful eating disorder psychologist, one needs to have the right education and training. The requirement necessary for one to break into the field is a master’s and/or doctorate studies inclinical psychology. Alternatively, one can also opt for a master’s and/or doctorate inmental health counselingorcounseling psychology.
To start off, it would be important to go for abachelor’s degree preferably in psychology. Each graduate school has its set of requirements but basically they check on adequate psychology coursework to give a student admission.
After completing a bachelor’s degree, one would need to enroll for a master’s degree which would take two years of study. If a Ph.D. is desired, the period of study can stretch to 5 years.
Biological lessons, psychoanalysis,psychotherapy, social work and personality classes are some of the areas of focus that are taught to students wishing to engage in this kind of work. Of course the research that is needed in this kind of training revolves around ways of finding underlying patient problems.
Internship
A supervised internship is an important aspect of the training of an eating disorder psychologist. One will have to get the real experience of working with patients having eating related problems. This will definitely be needed if one is to planning to get the license from state agencies. A dissertation report will also be needed if one is to go ahead and break into the field of eating disorder psychologists.
Other Essential Skills Required
What is the Salary for an Eating Disorder Psychologist?
What is the Job Outlook for an Eating Disorder Psychologist?
The prospects of finding employment in this sector are positive. This is because there are several people facing weight control issues and a number of them end up with eating disorders. Hence, these professionals have become an integral part of hospitals and healthcare centers where there is acknowledgement that there needs to be a psychological approach to the issues of eating disorders.
As with several other branches of psychology, the demand for these professionals is set to increase in coming years.
What Careers are Similar to Eating Disorder Psychology?
There are many careers available for individuals to enter the field of treating eating disorders:
Registered Dietician: Registered dieticians often work cooperatively with an eating disorder psychologist to address the changes in diet that are necessary to help a person with an eating disorder develop a better relationship with food.
Registered dieticians will devise a detailed meal plan that is healthy and well-balanced. Often, registered dieticians will also implement Medical Nutrition Therapy, which combines detailed meal plans, nutrition therapy, and education about food to help facilitate the recovery process.
Eating Disorder Psychiatry: Like eating disorder psychology, eating disorder psychiatry seeks to treat the mental and behavioral aspects of eating disorders.
In addition to providing counseling services, psychiatrists, as trained medical doctors, can also prescribe and manage drug therapies to help their patients deal with the symptoms of their eating disorder. Often, eating disorder psychiatrists will work alongside psychologists and other professionals to develop a comprehensive treatment plan that includes counseling and drug therapies.
Marriage and Family Therapy: Whilemarriage and family therapiststypically do not specialize in the treatment of eating disorders, they nonetheless serve a similar purpose as eating disorder psychologists. I
n the context of family counseling, therapists in this field help sufferers of an eating disorder to identify maladaptive eating patterns and the associated maladaptive thought processes that go along with it.
