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What do you need to start in Psychology?

What do you need to start in Psychology?

March 24, 2024

Anyone who studies a career has the great illusion of being able to exercise some day in what they have invested so many years of study. Psychology is a discipline that generates great interest among students; however, and at least in Clinical and Health Psychology, opportunities to work for others are scarce .

That's why many professionals in Psychology decide to start and move towards their professional growth, but the career does not prepare to run a company, or provide knowledge about marketing or the digital environment, so important today.

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What you need to know to start in Psychology

In this article we will see several keys to undertake in Psychology, as well as tips for not falling into frequent mistakes when starting a business.


The problems when entering the labor market

The field of psychology is one of the most complicated when it comes to finding work both in Spain and in many Latin American countries. The reasons for this are several.

On the one hand, the fact that the types of work performed by psychologists are very varied, the relative novelty of their professionalization, and the diffuseness of their limits in the world of research and applied science are factors that have contributed to that this profession or group of professions has not been legally regulated.

To this we must add a generational problem related to the different ways of regulating training and legal requirements to practice the profession. Today, graduates or graduates in psychology are one of the largest pockets of unemployment in the post-university world, something that also has to do with the fact that it is one of the most attractive training trajectories, with thousands of enrolled in each course that begins.


Finally, in the Spanish context also comes into play the devastating context that the economic crisis has left in the field of job search , and specifically among young people, already accustomed to companies asking for years of work experience from recent graduates, and without paying enough to support themselves.

Ideas on how to start your own business

So, given the perspective that what most companies ask candidates is unrealistic or directly absurd, many people decide to undertake in the world of psychology, be your own bosses .

This has its advantages, but it is also a challenge. Among other things, because to do it, it is not enough to know about the subject in which we were trained during the university years; You have to master skills linked to marketing and management of resources that initially, in the vast majority of cases, will be very limited .


And, of course, it is also necessary to accumulate experience linked to the real work context as quickly as possible. To this day, the training given in the universities remains fundamentally theoretical. In this way, the day-to-day interaction with real patients, for example, can give rise to situations in which indecision can block novice psychologists.

The need to go through specific training programs of the work environment in which we want to receive training is something complicated to satisfy, because that requires an important investment. And that tends to favor that the rate of unemployment among psychologists remains high.

But that undertaking in psychology is complicated does not mean that it is impossible. Below you will find a series of tips and key ideas that will help you to progress in this challenge of create yourself your own job .

1. Create a clear idea of ​​what you want

To start building your own business, it is essential to know what should be the backbone of this, which will give continuity over time. If not, the most likely is that you end up lurching, making investments that will then be wasted and not amortized. At a time when resources are very limited, this must be avoided at all costs.

So that, it is essential to be clear about the business model , in which you specify what your mission is and what will be your way of carrying it out. From this, in addition, the brand image you want to transmit will be derived.

2. Be aware of the sacrifices to take

To undertake in psychology, in the current context, means to assume that there are many sacrifices to be made in the short term and in the medium term; that is, months before. First of all you have to have a minimum amount of money saved and to dedicate time and efforts to decide how to invest it in a space and a work team.

3. Get experience

It's not just a matter of having a good resume, that's the least of it. Although it may not seem so, in the professional practice of psychology there are always many surprises, many unforeseen events.

Remember that it is not just about talking to people and then apply about intervention programs that have been described in the faculty. You have to adapt to the circumstances , and each client or patient is a whole world of specific circumstances.

On the other hand, this will allow your definitive entry into the labor market to be much cleaner, free of serious imperfections. And this has to do with the following key idea.

4. Keep in mind that there is only one launch

For the sake of your brand image, you underestimate the impact that you can leave in your first weeks and months performing your professional work. What you do in this stage can leave a mark difficult to erase in the brand image that you are going to transmit.

For some things it is relatively easy to change the way clients and the competition see you, but in other cases, it costs a lot. In short, if the brand is you, there can not be a second brand launch, start from scratch.

5. Define your target audience

There are different needs to be addressed in the world of psychotherapy or psychological intervention in general, but there is also another way to classify potential clients; Think about your profile from the advertising point of view. Orientation to the retired seniors is not the same as for parents whose children have problems, for example.

The brand image we project, as well as the means we use to promote our services, they must adapt to the type of profiles that we have defined .

6. Do it well and let him know

This is one of the maxims of the world of Advertising and Public Relations, and in what concerns the task of undertaking, it is vital to take it into account.

And among the initial efforts that must be made when taking the first steps from the business assembled by oneself, not everything is paying for expenses that respond to services and products that are easy to determine. In addition, there is a more subjective factor. You have to develop your own brand, it is very possible that during the first weeks not a single client appears. Necessary put work to make themselves known , as good as we are, that will be of little use if nobody has heard about us and what we do.

7. Learn to reject jobs

As much as the economic need may urge, it is essential to be clear that in the labor market there will always be offers that are a dead end. If the goal is set in the long term , it is worth not to deviate from it at the first exchange when there is relatively easy money in sight but that has nothing to do with the business plan and that will carry a significant opportunity cost (the possibility of not being able to serve other clients). more interesting to be dedicating efforts to something else).

8. Take advantage of the importance of the Internet

Increasingly, everyone is on the Internet, for better or for worse. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as before to reach a massive number of people, but it is not impossible. With a bit and originality, there is still the possibility of creating viral contents that are being shared from user accounts.

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Intro to Psychology - Crash Course Psychology #1 (March 2024).


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