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Benefits
of the Board Certification in
Cognitive and
Behavioral Psychology for Private Practice
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Kevin D. Arnold, Ph.D., ABPP, FAABehP
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The Board Certification process in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology is perceived by many as a
daunting task, and often a pros/cons analysis leads to a decision to put
it off or not seek it at all. The private practicing psychologist often
finds the list of pros to be far sparser than the obvious items on the
list of cons. However, the pros of Board Certification are likely
underestimated or perceived in a distorted fashion. My goal in this
article is to use my personal experiences with the Board Certification
that illustrate the ways in which it can benefit the private practicing
psychologist.
Benefits of Board Certification.
In my own practice, I have been able to create three distinct
benefits from Board Certification in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology [collegiality,
identification to referral sources, branding]:
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1. Collegial Relationships—One of the things about which
private practicing psychologists often complain is the degree of
isolation that occurs as a result of the practice setting. In contrast
to academic or hospital work, settings in which there are organized and
informal structures that promote support among colleagues; private
practice often entails long, continuous hours delivering therapy and
consultation, and seldom includes structured or informal opportunities
share experiences or talk of recent articles.
I have found that Board Certification created an opportunity to
build relationships with others who have like-minded approaches to
treatment and who share a common language. There are but a few
Cognitive and Behavioral Diplomates in Ohio, but we know each
other, and have come to know that we can discuss things when needed.
Similarly, when I attend conferences such as APA or AACBT, the Board
Certification and its related Academy membership promotes ways in which I
can find others with whom to relate during the conventions that are
often more collegial than meetings such as Division socials at APA.
Common experiences, common treatment models, and common affiliations
that build within the network of Behavioral Diplomates drive the
affiliation.
Yet another way in which Board Certification and Academy
membership promote collegial relationship is the number of opportunities
for involvement in leadership. I took opportunities to serve both the
Board that oversees the certification process, and the Academy that
promotes recruitment and professional development. By serving on the
Board of Directors of the Behavioral Board, one can develop sustaining
relationships with others who have the same interest in leadership; and
further, one can become acquainted with leaders in the field (e.g.,
Richard Suinn, Tom Dowd, Howard Kassinove). The latter allows for
discussions of both professional issues in the field as well as
discussions of clinical/theoretical ideas that can rival the
intellectual exchanges of graduate school days when we formerly sat up
until the dawn arguing the differences among such things as the
mechanisms that differentiate systematic desensitization versus exposure
therapy.
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2. The second benefit is the opportunity to create a clear
identity that can be communicated to referral sources.
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology is now at a point in its
development as a specialty area that its name has taken on an image of
certain assumptions that are understood by most other professionals. For
example, in a recent episode of the TV show, Sapranos, the dynamically
oriented psychiatrist told her patient that his anxiety disorder might
now benefit from a specialist in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology. While the reference here
is to a fictional psychiatrist, the identity that
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology now enjoys cannot be better
represented than the reference to our expertise in this popular TV
show. The reference illustrates that our identity is now understood in
the culture, and obviously then in the community of professional from
whom we receive referrals.
Board Certification in Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology creates
identification with, among other things, an approach to treatment that
is based on validated techniques, the use of a directed form of
treatment, treatments that are often tailored to specific disorders
(e.g., exposure and response prevention treatment of
obsessive-compulsive disorder; cognitive-behavioral therapy of
depression), and assessment techniques that include idiographic data.
One example is the referral base I have with national organizations—I
regularly receive referrals from the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation and
Borderline Personality Disorder Central. My own experience reveals
that, additionally, my Board Certification has led to referrals from
local attorneys, psychiatrists, and primary care physicians who have
become, through some form or another, educated about the basic notions
of
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology, and now refer to me
because they look to me as able to carry out behavioral therapy because I
have identified myself with that specialty area through Board
Certification.
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3. The third benefit to be found in Board Certification in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology is the manner in which one
can create a branded product to be held out to the public. While similar
to the identity issue related to professional referrals, I am narrowing
the issue of creating a brand identity to the image the pubic has of
me. There are two aspects to the branding I have found to flow from
Board Certification.
First, the public holds, and I believe rightfully so, a perception
of my practice as one that is clearly defined by my having earned the
certification. The public is familiar, thanks to the boarding process of
physicians, with the idea of specialization and its defining
characteristics of defined training, experience, and expertise (the
latter derived from passing an examination process to earn the
certification). I have found that the public understands that my Board
Certification indicates these things, and creates for them a better
initial understanding of what they will receive as a level of quality in
the treatment approach if they use my services.
Second, the public not only identifies the level of specialization
implied by Board Certification, but it is relatively sophisticated
about the strategies likely to be used. The branding from Board
Certification in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology taps into the public’s
understanding of correcting distorted thinking, modifying life patterns,
use of activities to counter low mood, and paradoxical acceptance of
anxiety. In our practice we place self-help books such as those written
by Drs. Beck, Burns, Freeman, Foa, Gottman, or Young in the lobby to
create not only a subtle encouragement of using the aids, but also to
identify the practice with books that are often known to the public. It
is not uncommon to have a new patient explain that they chose me because
I was Board Certified in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology, and that they had read a
book by one of the above authors and wanted someone who was a
behaviorist. Through the Board Certification in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology, my practice has now
established a brand identity that is understood by the public.
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Board Certification, not Magic Pill. Our colleagues in
psychodynamic schools sometimes talk of magical thinking, describing a
belief that something will happen through magically wishing it so. The
value Board Certification in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology comes not from earning the
certification (i.e., magically flowing from its having been obtained),
but from using what it represents to create the benefits described
above. The Board Certification process is, itself, an opportunity to
improve one’s knowledge of various components of behavioral practice
while studying to complete the worksample and take the oral examination.
Earning the certificate creates opportunities to obtain benefits, but
those who want those benefits must do those things necessary to take
advantage of the identification with the behavioral specialization. If
you, the reader, have considered Board Certification in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology but have heard from someone
that earning a certificate failed to provide him or her with benefits,
you should consider whether or not that individual did anything to
promote their specialization. My experience is that, obtaining the Board
Certification in
Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology, and then working to take
advantage of the opportunities it provides, led to personal and business
benefits that outweighed my efforts and costs in obtaining the
certificate.
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Kevin D.
Arnold, Ph.D., ABPP, FAABehP is the Director of The Center for Cognitive
and Behavioral Therapy of Greater Columbus, Inc. He serves as the
coordinator for worksamples for the American Board of Behavioral
Psychology, and is on that Board’s Board of Directors. He is the
President of the Ohio Psychological Association, and serves as the
Co-Chair of the Franklin County Parenting Coordination Project.
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