This chapter describes professional issues within clinical psychology. It includes summaries of several national conferences on training, the development of the doctor of psychology (PsyD) degree, and the establishment of the clinical scientist model, the scientist-practitioner model, and the practitioner-scholar model of clinical training. It also outlines the contours of professional regulation including via certification and licensure by state clinical psychology boards, and the American Board of Professional Psychology. It also discusses the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association, and regulation of clinical psychologists’ behavior by the APA ethics committee and state licensing boards. The chapter tells the story of how clinical psychologists gained the right to practice psychotherapy independently and to receive insurance coverage for mental health services, summarizes the impact of changes in the economics of mental health service delivery, and provides the latest information on the controversy over clinicians’ right to prescribe medication. There is also a review of efforts being made to enhance clinicians’ multicultural competence and, based on historical and current forces in the field, a set of predictions about where clinical psychology is heading in the future.

There is a growing body of research pertaining to the empirical basis of psychodynamic psychotherapy, with contributions from various angles. These include clinical trials, studies of live therapy sessions (process research), transference and countertransference research. Our aim here is to give a readable and clinically relevant brief description of the empirical basis of psychodynamic psychotherapy, making links to other parts of this book where topics are described clinically.

Although most psychologists will provide clinical supervision during their career, it can be daunting to step into this critical professional role. This chapter is intended to demystify the process of becoming a supervisor. We will do this by providing broad theoretical models for conceptualizing the practice of supervision and specific practical suggestions that are intended to guide graduate students, interns, postdoctoral fellows, and early career psychologists through the process of learning to be a supervisor. We will review the ethical context of clinical supervision, provide an overview of current competency-based supervision practice, and provide suggestions for how to integrate ethical and multicultural considerations into supervision. Throughout the chapter we use a narrative approach that incorporates the perspectives of an experienced clinical supervisor and the perspectives of the second author from when she was an advanced graduate student just starting her journey towards becoming a competent supervisor.