Practice Preferences of Clinical Psychologists in South Africa

Abstract

There is a need for information on the practice of clinical psychology in South Africa. The characteristics of clinical psychologists and the patients who consult them were discussed elsewhere. The present article deals with the practice preferences of clinical psychologists in South Africa. Results of a study indicated that the majority of clinical psychologists spent most of their time conducting psychotherapy. They expected this trend to escalate and diagnostic psychological testing to decline in the next decade following the survey. The psychotherapy was generally completed in less than 20 sessions. Respondents were predominantly eclectic in psychotherapeutic orientation but frequently used client-centred and behaviour therapy. Most were satisfied with the suitability of the psychological tests they used, with the exception of neuro-psychological tests. Intelligence and personality assessments were the most common psychometric procedures. The WAIS/SAWAIS was most commonly used to assess intelligence, the TAT to assess personality and the Bender Gestalt Test for neuropsychological evaluation. Findings are discussed with reference to related literature.