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One of the great things about pursuing a degree in psychology is that once you graduate with your degree(s) there are a plethora of fields and professions from which you can choose to specialize. While many academic disciplines limit the graduate to participation in closely related fields, a psychology degree can be utilized for a seemingly infinite number of career options.
A common misconception of a career in psychology is the notion that the resulting day-to-day job consists of seeing clients and employing traditional therapeutic techniques. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Two of our profiled experts are living proof that a student can pursue clinical or research specialties in the field of psychology and yet transform the resulting career into one that suits their individual interests and passions.
After he earned his PhD in clinical psychology at Columbia University, Adams stayed on at the university for three years as a post-doc in the Psychiatric Epidemiolology Training (PET) Program. “I’ve never been so spoiled in my life,” says Ben about his time in the PET program. “I got to do tons of reading and learning and writing. They really gave me the time and space to figure out my own niche.”
During this time period, Adams conducted his first major study; a body of work characterizing the nature and scope of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Viet Nam veterans. Together with Bruce Dohrenwend, PhD, their groundbreaking research revealed that 18.7 percent of Viet Nam veterans had developed war-related PTSD and that over a decade later, 9.1 percent were still acutely affected.
Interestingly enough, Adams found that, for him, the study of PTSD was in fact an artistic endeavor.
I love studying PTSD as a person interested in art. I believe it’s the most interesting thing in psychology. It’s the one disorder that is based around a story and a cause; there are symptoms related to trauma. In my heart of hearts most studies don’t interest me as much as art, except PTSD. Dohrenwend was writing on his own trauma, which gave me the idea to weave together some of my more artistic theories as applied to PTSD.
Adams is a perfect example of how a student’s passion can be a driving force in their career and be significantly present in their life’s work. He lives in New York City, New York, and is the author ofThe Creative Process Dieta revolutionary book which blends art theory, concepts of mastery, spirituality and the possibilities inherent in one’s relationship to food.
In her words;
I had initially been in the cinema television field and wanted to be a film producer and actress. With that experience, I was introduced to the opportunity of understanding ‘people’ and ‘characters’ which are people in a fictional sense. My curiosity of how people act and behave and relate the way they do has always intrigued me. When my film career did not take the turns I would have preferred, I decided it may be time to reconsider my career work and began to do my own self-evaluation and through that process became more and more intrigued with psychology and the opportunities to actually be in the profession as a career choice.
Bahar attended the University of Southern California and studied Cinema Television production and received a Bachelor’s Degree. She then worked with independent producers right out of college and was in development and story editing for most of her career. She worked primarily with writers, development executives and producers to pitch thought provoking and healing stories for the field of cinema. At this point, Bahar began to consider entering the field of psychology.
Due to her passionate beginnings as an actress, today Bahar can offer her clients one of the newest forms of therapy available–Cinema Therapy; a therapy which utilizes the evocative medium of film to explore and examine feelings and emotions. She sees clients at 2 California offices; one in Laguna Niguel at Southern California Psychiatric Associates and also Newport Beach.
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