Careers in Psychology
Specialisations in Psychology
Clinical Psychologists are concerned with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of a wide range of psychological and general health problems affecting adults, children, and families. Many clinical psychologists are employed by health authorities and work in psychiatric clinics and hospitals, general and rehabilitation hospitals, community health centres, specialist agencies (for example, caring for people with physical or mental disabilities, or people with drug and alcohol addictions), and research centres. An increasing number of clinical psychologists also offer private clinical psychological services. Read more about clinical psychologists.
Clinical Neuropsychologists specialise in the assessment and diagnosis of brain impairment and how this affects thinking skills, emotions, behaviour, and personality. They are also involved in the rehabilitation and management of the effects of brain impairment and often work with other allied health professionals. Most clinical neuropsychologists are employed in major hospitals, rehabilitation centres, psychiatric services, and private practice.
Coaching Psychologists use a science-based approach that combines the established principles of professional psychological practice with more recent findings regarding the efficacy of the positive psychology focus on promoting wellbeing, personal values, and individual achievement. The fundamental objectives of coaching are to enable and enhance a client’s capability to reach desired personal and professional goals, often within a complex environment with multiple influences and challenges. Read more about coaching psychologists.
Community Psychologists are mainly concerned with community issues and with creating social change to prevent or improve human problems. Many community psychologists work in community-based agencies developing strong, competent, and resilient local neighbourhoods. Some work in areas of social need, such as with the homeless and people who are socially, mentally, or physically disadvantaged. Read more about community psychologists.
Counselling Psychologists provide assessment, counselling, and therapy to individuals, couples, families, groups, and organisations. They often work in educational or vocational settings, or other health and welfare services and private practice. Their clients are, in general, people trying to cope with everyday stresses and the resulting emotional and social problems. Read more about counselling psychologists.
Educational and Developmental Psychologists provide assessment, intervention, and counselling services relevant to the management of developmental and educational issues across the lifespan. Specialisations include early intervention, disability, problems of learning and adjustment in schools, career and family development, lifespan transitions, and ageing. The Ministry of Education is a major employer of psychologists in their special education service. Read more about educational psychologists. Watch the videos from the Ministry of Education about becoming an educational psychologist and more.
Forensic Psychologists apply psychological knowledge to assessment, intervention, and research in the legal and criminal justice system. They provide expert opinion to the courts in such matters as criminal behaviour, child abuse, and custody disputes. They work in forensic settings such as prisons and detention centres. Read more about forensic psychologists.
Health Psychology is a rapidly developing field of psychology that involves understanding human behaviour in the context of health and illness. Like other specialty areas of psychology, it is a large field and covers areas such as how individuals cope with illness and chronic disease, psychological influences on the development of disease states, understanding and improving adjustment in healthcare settings, patient–practitioner communication, adherence to treatment, determinants of health-related behaviours (diet, exercise, etc), and understanding how individuals make sense of and react to health screening, symptoms, and illness. Read more about health psychologists.
Organisational Psychologists are concerned with people functioning effectively in relation to their working environments. Their areas of expertise include recruitment and selection, training, appraisal and review, vocational guidance, and career development, industrial relations, occupational health and safety, planning technological and organisation change, organisational behaviour, ergonomics, job redesign and marketing. Read more about organisational psychologists.
Sport Psychologists provide psychological assistance to people involved in sport and exercise at all levels who are seeking to function more effectively through enhanced achievement, enjoyment, and social interaction. Sport psychology services focus on performance enhancement, personal development, and wellbeing and adjustment skills. Sport psychologists work with individual athletes, coaches, and teams, and often function as part of a multidisciplinary sport science and medicine team. Employment opportunities exist in sports institutes, tertiary institutions, and private practice.
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Other Categories for Psychologists
Academic Psychologists work in tertiary institutions, are concerned with research, and provide the academic training of psychologists. A good record of research and, increasingly, a PhD qualification are necessary to gain employment in this area.
Research Psychologists use skills in statistics, research design, and computing and data analysis. They may work in government departments, management institutes, market research, media, and public opinion research.
Related Role
Psychology Assistants are a new role developed in 2026. They are not psychologists, but can help mental health and addiction teams offer a wider range of psychological support by supporting people with mild to moderate needs. While psychology assistants may support psychologists with some parts of their work, they will not replace psychologists, who provide more complex care. This role can be a step towards further study in psychology. Read more about Psychology Assistants.
Acknowledgement
Our grateful thanks also to the NZPsS members who contributed to this careers’ section. The information has also been drawn from a number of sources including the University of Waikato and the Australian Psychological Society.
