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Qualifications to consider when selecting a neuropsychologist:
Training: A clinical neuropsychologist will have a doctoral degree from an accredited university training program in psychology. They should also possess a license to practice psychology in their state or province. Currently, it is expected that anyone who presents himself or herself as a clinical neuropsychologist has successfully completed two-years of post-doctoral training, during which they are supervised by a clinical neuropsychologist in the study and practice of clinical neuropsychology and related neurosciences.
Knowledge and Skills: Clinical neuropsychologists use their knowledge of how different areas of the brain are related to different thinking abilities and behavior to assess, diagnose, treat, and/or provide rehabilitation to people with neurologically based difficulties. Such problems can result from medical, neurodevelopmental, and psychiatric conditions, as well as other cognitive and learning disorders. A clinical neuropsychologist will use psychological, neurological, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological principles, techniques, and tests to evaluate a person’s neurocognitive, behavioral, and emotional strengths and weaknesses. These areas of abilities are then related to normal and abnormal central nervous system functioning.
Competence: A person can be an excellent neuropsychologist without having gone through the board certification process. However, having an outside body evaluate a professional’s education, training, experience, and abilities in a particular specialty is an extra assurance that the professional is competent to deliver high quality services in that specialty area of psychology. The most stringent certification process for clinical neuropsychology is provided by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). The ABPP is a unitary governing body of separately incorporated specialty examining boards that was incorporated in 1947 with the support of the American Psychological Association. A specialty is a defined area in the practice of psychology that connotes special competency acquired through an organized sequence of formal education, training, and experience. Before a specialty board is accepted for affiliation with the ABPP, it must meet the standards for affiliation, which include a thorough description of the area of practice, the pattern of competencies required in that specialty (particularly for education, training, and experience), research bases of the specialty, practice guidelines, and a demonstrated capacity to examine candidates for the specialty on a national level. For more information about what is involved in the process of becoming board certified in clinical neuropsychology by the ABPP, go to the following webpage: www.theabcn.org.
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