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Benefits of the Board Certification in
Behavioral Psychology for Private Practice
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Kevin D. Arnold, Ph.D., ABPP, FAABehP
President of the American Academy of Behavioral Psychology
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The Board Certification process in 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 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 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 AABT, 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. 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 Behavioral Psychology. While the reference here is to a fictional psychiatrist, the identity that 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 also the President-elect of the American Academy of Behavioral Psychology. 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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