clinical psychologist
Clinical psychologists diagnose, rehabilitate, and support individuals affected by mental, emotional, and behavioural disorders and problems as well as mental changes and pathogenic conditions through use of cognitive tools and appropriate intervention. They use clinical psychological resources on the basis of psychological science, its findings, theories, methods, and techniques for the investigation, interpretation, and prediction of human experience and behaviour.
clinical psychologist clinical psychologists diagnose, rehabilitate, and support individuals affected by mental, emotional, and behavioural disorders and problems as well as mental changes and pathogenic conditions through use of cognitive tools and appropriate intervention. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.45 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include clinical reports, counselling methods, conditions for professional practice of clinical psychology, psychological diagnostics, creation of clinical psychological opinions.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £47,971 a year for Psychotherapists and cognitive behaviour therapists (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 2224). ONS rates this estimate acceptable: it rests on a small sample, so treat it as a rough guide. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only clinical psychologist, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 2. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Knowledge you'll build
- Psychology
- Therapy and Counseling
- English Language
- Education and Training
- Medicine and Dentistry
- Biology
- Customer and Personal Service
- Mathematics
What you'd actually do
- Interview patients to obtain comprehensive medical histories.
- Write or prepare detailed clinical neuropsychological reports, using data from psychological or neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct observations, or interviews.
- Conduct neuropsychological evaluations such as assessments of intelligence, academic ability, attention, concentration, sensorimotor function, language, learning, and memory.
- Diagnose and treat conditions involving injury to the central nervous system, such as cerebrovascular accidents, neoplasms, infectious or inflammatory diseases, degenerative diseases, head traumas, demyelinating diseases, and various forms of dementing illnesses.
- Diagnose and treat pediatric populations for conditions such as learning disabilities with developmental or organic bases.
- Provide education or counseling to individuals and families.
Tools & technology you'd use
Frequently asked questions
What does clinical psychologist do?
Clinical psychologists diagnose, rehabilitate, and support individuals affected by mental, emotional, and behavioural disorders and problems as well as mental changes and pathogenic conditions through use of cognitive tools and appropriate intervention. They use clinical psychological resources on the basis of psychological science, its findings, theories, methods, and techniques for the investigation, interpretation, and prediction of human experience and behaviour.
What skills does clinical psychologist need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include clinical reports, counselling methods, conditions for professional practice of clinical psychology, psychological diagnostics, creation of clinical psychological opinions, expert services in clinical psychology. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace clinical psychologist?
Our AI-durability model gives clinical psychologist a score of 0.45 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.