The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology

A dictionary definition of clinical psychology would be something like “the use of expert knowledge and clinical skills firstly to assess and then to prevent or relieve mental distress or disorder”. As such, it can be said to be as old as the human race. All old wives and witchdoctors operate by finding out the mental state of the sufferers, for example “assessment”, and then finding the words to guide them into recovery, for example “psychotherapy”. Providing they start with sufficient empathy and understanding, the more training and the more practical experience they have, the better at it the healers...