Ronald Lovell

My recently acquired psychology degree from UMass Amherst, my clinical experience, and my research experience all make me comprehensively qualified for a graduate level education.

I wish to practice psychotherapy. I would like to do this by becoming a psychologist, as opposed to a social worker or a psychiatrist, because I feel that psychologists get the most formal training and education related to therapy. The most appropriate degree for this end is a PsyD degree, which is a PhD equivalent directed towards clinical practice. Through this degree hope to attain a professional and working knowledge of clinical psychological, such that I can increase my ability to understand psychopathology, and in doing so become better at treating it. I am a very introspective person, and I have long held that I should pursue a career that mirrors this quality. I also come from a thoughtful family. A therapy-related career represents me and my values well.

My clinical experience at a psych hospital makes me uniquely qualified to learn more about disorder and maladaptive behavior, since I have worked directly with patients presenting countless of these disorders and behaviors. This skill has been being developed every time I talk to someone in a helping capacity, however working with real and severe mental illness was a large part of developing that skill further. I gained insight into what causes these disorders, because although more acute patients were less apt to share information about their lives, I became more able to infer what kinds of experiences had shaped them by interacting with them. Upon reflection, I have concluded that psychopathology is not the fault of the people it affects, but rather it is a combination of biology and experience, neither of which are within a human’s control.