Clinical psychology is a lucrative and rewarding career. It also offers many opportunities for salary advancement as you gain more experience. However, salary shouldn’t be the sole factor when considering a new job or advancing your current one.
The main purpose of a clinical psychologist is to provide therapy and treatment for patients with mental health problems. They may use a number of evidence-based therapeutic approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, psychodynamic therapy and others. They also conduct psychological testing, including the administration of assessments such as the CAPS-5 and MINI.
A large percentage of clinical psychologists work in a medical setting with psychiatrists and social workers, but there are plenty of other options for them as well. They may work for government agencies assessing potential parolees or criminal defendants, with the armed forces to evaluate or treat service personnel, in schools working with students, or even in private practice.
Salaries vary considerably by state and region as well. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the top states for employment and wages for clinical and counseling psychologists are New York, California, Texas and Florida. The highest salaries are found in the affluent, coastal areas of those states, while wages tend to drop as you move away from metropolitan areas. The hill country region of Texas, for example, ranked high in terms of the number of jobs but low in wage averages. The BLS also reports that the nonmetropolitan areas of Kansas, Mississippi and West Virginia offer lower mean wage averages than other regions as well.