Chicago Psychologist Co-Signs Entrepreneurial Spirit For Newbies
It's easy to imagine psychologists with a pen and paper, sitting in chairs, asking philosophical questions. But in community psychology, the idea is to fix an issue within a community before it becomes a much bigger problem. With an average salary of $62K, these problem solvers spread out in a business environment, school environment, treatment center or private practice, gathering research statistics to help determine and fix an issue before it continues to spread.
Monika Black, M.A, M.H.A., Ph.D., who is the leadership catalyst of TandemSpring, discusses this newer field in psychology and explains why leadership is so important.
How did you get started in the psychology industry?
"In my senior year of college, when I took Abnormal Psychology, I really fell in love with the field. I wanted to leave the clinical aspect of the business to seek more community and preventative-oriented approaches to health care. I came across Community Psychology as a growing field that focused on more contextualized and strengths-based approaches."
Although some people have been able to succeed without a degree, what makes you believe that education helps in your industry?
"Education served as an entry into an entirely new professional space for me. This helped immensely as I did not have a network of professional support, even after working for five years in the related field of health care administration. I leveraged my time in education to incubate a non-profit and launch my consulting business."
What classes do you feel students in your career field are overlooking?
"Psychology students should all take business management and leadership development courses. Most people are going to have shifts in their careers. Psychologists are no different. We need to better prepare ourselves to run clinical practices, nonprofits, organizations and movements."
Do you have any advice for new people in your current field?
"Learn through and live beyond the textbook. Embrace all forms of knowledge and knowing, especially those your peers might be quick to reject. Embrace your full leadership potential, and inspire others to realize their leadership potential as a part of your commitment to and value in your community."
Shamontiel L. Vaughn is a professional journalist who has work featured in AXS, Yahoo!, Chicago Defender and Chicago Tribune. She's been an Examiner since 2009 and currently writes about 10 categories on Examiner.com.
