Clinical Psychologist Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Clinical Psychologist resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Clinical psychologists are highly trained mental health professionals who use psychological principles to help people identify and resolve challenges that affect their everyday lives. These highly skilled professionals are often called upon to provide therapy for patients suffering from depression, anxiety, substance abuse issues, and other mental health concerns. They’re also often tasked with helping people cope with terminal illnesses like cancer or Alzheimer’s disease and terminal illnesses like cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.
Because clinical psychologists work with people at some of the most difficult times in their lives, it’s important that they have strong interpersonal skills. They need to be compassionate, empathetic, and patient in order to develop trusting relationships with their clients. And because clinical psychologists work with people across a wide range of age groups and with a variety of needs, they need to possess a diverse set of skills.
Here are some tips and an example to help you write a fantastic clinical psychologist resume that hiring managers will love.
How to Write a Clinical Psychologist Resume
Here’s how to write a clinical psychologist resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
Bullet points are the most effective way to showcase your experience and qualifications. But rather than simply listing your duties and responsibilities, you can make your bullet points much more interesting and compelling by using specific examples and metrics.
For example, rather than saying you “conducted psychological evaluations,” you could say you “conducted psychological evaluations for veteran patients suffering from PTSD, resulting in a 98% accuracy rate in identifying symptoms of the disorder.”
The second bullet point is much more interesting and provides a lot more detail about what exactly you did and the results of your work.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you apply for a job as a clinical psychologist, your resume is likely to go through an applicant tracking system (ATS). This system will scan your resume for specific keywords related to the job opening. If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right terms, your application might not make it past the initial screening process.
One way to make sure your resume includes the right keywords is to read through the job posting and take note of the terms that are used most frequently. Then, you can try to include those same terms throughout your resume. Here are some examples:
- Psychotherapy
- Mental Health
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Working with Adolescents
- Psychology
- Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
- Mental Health Counseling
- Family Therapy
- Trauma Therapy
- Neuropsychology
- Psychological Assessment
- Anger Management
- CBT for Anxiety
- Mindfulness
- Psychiatry
- Motivational Interviewing
- Research
- Crisis Intervention
- Group Therapy
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Program Development
- Mental Health Clinical Work
- Patient Safety
- Clinical Supervision
- Clinical Research
- Health Psychology
- Leadership
- Teamwork
- Customer Service
- Public Speaking
Showcase Your Technical Skills
Clinical psychologists use a variety of technologies in their work, from assessment tools to therapy software. They are also expected to be familiar with research methodology and data analysis software. So if you have experience with any of these programs, be sure to list them in your technical skills section.