The Making of a Medical and Health Psychologist. Blog #2 in series

There are actually not that many psychologists who specialize in medical and health psychology and even less who specialize in pain management. The training is typically a bit more rigorous and seemingly unending in
many ways. I am learning every day as a matter of fact; there is still so much I do not know.

Educationally, I always enjoyed philosophy and biology/physiology. There's not much call for practicing philosophers, however, so I found a field that seemed to meld the best  of both which turned out to be psychology. In fact, I pestered my parents for a microscope and a dissection kit at the age of about 11 and soon devised ways of rendering frogs unconscious but not dead so that when I dissected them, the hearts were still beating. My mother was aghast and limited me to reptiles and amphibians only. However, I found it fascinating and my love affair with biology and physiology began at that point. It is sometimes surprising that I did not simply go into medicine, but being 'young and dumb', I  mistakenly thought that a graduate degree in psychology would not take as long as medical school. So, I ended up in psychology with a BS from the University of South Carolina. I worked for a year and then went to Eastern Kentucky University for a 60 hour, 2 year MS in Clinical Psychology. I then worked for 4 years, one of which was in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, from which I have some great stories. I then worked for 3 years in Louisville at a Rehab Hospital where I found my calling. I returned to graduate school in Counseling Psychology at the University of Kentucky where I also became quickly affiliated with the Medical School. My training therefore included courses in both psychology and the school of medicine. (By the way, there are philosophical differences between clinical and counseling psychology, which led me to choose a PhD in Counseling rather than Clinical Psychology.) I did the required clinical practica and internship and I then did a post-doctoral fellowship in pain and neuropsychology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston,SC. Graduate school, practica, internship, and fellowship all totalled many more years of school and equalled med school with a residency. I also had the happy experience of a part-time job while in graduate school at a clinic specializing in chronic pain, which helped crystalize my career goals. So I ended up in Medical and Health Psychology initially through my interests, and  then by a remarkably inaccurate belief that I could enter a career by taking a short cut. As most of us know by middle-age, this never works. However, the outcome has been happy and I enjoy my work, although I do not enjoy insurance companies and managed care.