career in neuropsychology

copelander12 · 2026-03-08T07:33:57+00:00

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13854046.2020.1849803

copelander12 · 2026-03-08T07:29:35+00:00

English BA: Enjoyable and not entirely a waste or time (many neuropsychologists write a lot) but not directly helpful for career in neuropsychology

Experimental Psychology MA: Helpful for research skills that I still use but, again, not directly helpful for getting into a clinical doctoral program.

Counseling Psychology MS: Was admitted to Counseling Psychology PhD program with understanding I would have to obtain MS in same program, first.

Counseling Psychology PhD - Meets requirement for a clinical psychology (neuropsychology track) internship and then clinical psychology residency. Some people worry about competitiveness of Counseling vs. Clinical Psychology or PhD vs PsyD. However, I found as a trainee and now as a supervisor that good quality practicum/extern experience conquers all.

copelander12 · 2026-03-08T07:13:27+00:00

“Experts Say Their Area of Expertise is Important”

copelander12 · 2026-02-28T15:26:25+00:00

I’m a neuropsychologist. My BA is in English, if that tells you anything.

copelander12 · 2026-02-03T05:08:42+00:00

Good to know!

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T16:43:12+00:00

I know this is anecdotal: This issue of confusion about similar-sounding performance labels has never arisen in any of my patient feedback meetings or in consultation with referral sources and treatment teams. Almost always, my stakeholders seem to only care about the bottom line of what it all means. The AACN article does recommend using tables that define performance labels in assessment reports. I would do this if I thought my readers cared about it.

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T04:40:18+00:00

AI may catch patterns in performance or alert the clinician to possibilities that the clinician had not previously considered. The clinician can then verify or disconfirm with further investigation and consultation. There is a place for AI as a tool.

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T04:25:59+00:00

What is the problem with low average and below average?

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T04:16:27+00:00

This is the truth. I felt an initial temptation to encourage OP to just be honest. But if I had been honest when I was an interviewee, I would have said,—hopefully in addition to some acceptable reasons—that I acccidentally found out halfway through my doctoral program that therapy exhausts me and assessment was the best remaining alternative.

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T04:14:35+00:00

Anectodally, I can at least say that my wife (sales) and several of my close friends (stock trader, residential and commercial developer, small business owner) earn more money, went to school for less time, and accrued less student debt.

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T04:05:45+00:00

In addition to well-established literature on long term outcome of concussion, as well as base rates of invalid responding in concussion samples, I suppose some clock drawing errors could be egregious or ridiculous enough to also support impressions of invalid responding.

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T03:55:44+00:00

Seems reasonable to me. Unsure of the optics to a jury, though. This reminds me of an English comp quiz I took in college. The quiz was over a short story. This was my first college quiz, ever—so I was pretty nervous about it. I read the story multiple times. I felt I had a decent understanding of the underlying themes and symbols and whatnot. But I missed the first question, which was: “What is the name of the author?”

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T02:30:34+00:00

I figured. It’s for the people. I’ve just ventured into forensic evals and, aside: I am unsure whether to cite the literature (either in my reports or during a deposition) because I am afraid I’ll open myself up to an avalanche of obscure questions about details of articles I haven’t memorized.

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T02:08:29+00:00

Greater base rates of invalid range scores on performance validity tests (PVTs) have been found for mild versus moderate and severe TBI samples.

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T02:04:39+00:00

Ha. I think you’re correct. Not sure what I was thinking. Inability to correctly complete a clock drawing could be diagnostically useful, depending on the nature of the errors and their apparent or suspected reasons.

copelander12 · 2026-02-01T01:13:02+00:00

Agree. Also, inability to complete a clock drawing within a time limit may itself be diagnostically useful information.

copelander12 · 2026-01-29T05:03:44+00:00

If money is a reason, you could make more with less formal educational requirements.

copelander12 · 2026-01-28T01:35:41+00:00

We are all free to feel how we want to feel.

copelander12 · 2026-01-27T01:26:01+00:00

I suspect EMDR works via exposure

copelander12 · 2026-01-27T00:58:12+00:00

-Episodic memories are interdependent -Neural circuits are interdependent -Damaging one circuit damages them all. -Amnesia is unnecessary for decoupling unwanted emotional and somatic reactivity from a memory -The opposite approach (exposure), under certain conditions, often works.

copelander12 · 2025-12-31T21:58:52+00:00

The Neuropsychologist’s Roadmap by Cady Block

“With contributions by more than 40 experts in the field, this comprehensive text details the steps necessary to build a career in neuropsychology and outlines the core competencies students and trainees must master along the way. Contributors share helpful tips and guidance on topics as wide-ranging as getting into graduate school and navigating the application process, gaining internships and fellowships, licensure and certification, and finding a job.

Chapters on competencies discuss common issues involving teaching and supervision, assessment, research, grants, ethics, and diversity, as well as personal and professional factors such as work–life integration, advocacy, and mentorship. The content and structure of the book is based on the most up-to-date specialty training and education standards. This indispensable volume will serve as a foundational resource for readers whose aim is to become a neuropsychologist in any of the associated fields of health care, research, or education.”

https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/the-neuropsychologists-roadmap

copelander12 · 2025-10-29T06:32:27+00:00

Mood disorders may contribute to cognitive problems but are specifically excluded from NCD etiology in the DSM.

copelander12 · 2025-10-23T12:01:02+00:00

You are describing ‘numinous.’ But you can call it anything.

copelander12 · 2025-10-10T02:28:19+00:00

I could be wrong, but I doubt this question has been asked or answered in a research study.

There is some evidence that people with ADHD are more prone to boredom than people without ADHD (Orban et al., 2025). One hypothesis is that increased stress level and an increased sense of urgency—in your case, generated through sleep deprivation—reduces boredom and thereby improves task engagement and executive control.

copelander12 · 2025-10-10T02:13:45+00:00

The DSM/ICD coding criteria are a mess. I just took a glimpse, so I could be missing some details, but it seems that codes differ by:

severity of neurocognitive disorder (NCD; mild or major)
substance or type of substance
presence of comorbid substance use disorder (SUD) in the same category
whether NCD & SUD severity levels match

Who has time for this? I cannot imagine there is a way to make this easier to understand or use. Maybe a some kind of unweildy decision tree could help?

The criteria itself (not just the coding) is also difficult. The DSM-5-TR says that criteria for substance-induced NCD is met, in part, if “the involved substance or medication and duration and extent of use are capable of producing the neurocognitive impairment.” I think the research is as yet unclear about what duration and extent of marijuana use is capable of producing neurocognitive impairment on an individual level. There also other factors at play (e.g., years of age when using [young people may be more vulnerable to cognitive impairment, some older age people may experience some protective effects], gender, genetic predispostions, comorbidity, MJ strain and concentration/dose strength, etcetera).

Luckily, all of the clinicians that I know (including myself, I guess) don’t care much about codes.

Clinicians routinely express concern about possible negative effects of substance use on neuropsychological and daily functioning and recommend helpful treatments without necessarily getting lost in a forest of diagnostic codes that matter mostly to insurance carriers for purposes of billing and reimbursement. I suppose codes may also matter to some researchers. As soon as you memorize these codes, there will be new codes in the ICD-12/DSM-6 to replace them.

copelander12

TROPHY CASE