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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

196414

South Korea

Sunyoung KimHyun Kim

pp. 139-157

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide history and systems of Korean clinical psychology and the general ideas on where Korean clinical psychology currently stands as well as where it should be headed for the future development.Currently, mental health care in Korea consists of the practice of five main types of professions: psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, counseling psychologists, social workers, and counselors (art therapists and general practitioners, etc.). Although clinical psychology emerged later than other groups, it has made a rapid development since its beginning in the 1960s. Its development during the last three decades has been especially excellent in terms of quantity and quality. As of 2015, about 1,000 clinical psychologists are considered to have both licensures as Level 1 Mental Health Clinical Psychologist (issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare) and Professional Clinical Psychologist (issued by the KCPA). This group is the clinical psychologists who have most education and longest training as they must have a master's degree in clinical psychology and minimum 3 years of post-graduate supervised clinical training. Currently there are approximately 1,700 Level 2 Mental Health Clinical Psychologists who are required to have a bachelor's degree and 1 year supervised clinical training. These licensed clinical psychologists are now providing psychological services in government and semi-government agencies, medical centers, clinics, and enterprises.Currently over 100 students graduate with a master's degree in clinical psychology from approximately 40 universities in Korea each year. A small number (average one or less per year per doctoral program) of individuals receive a doctoral degree in clinical psychology as well. Since a doctoral degree is not necessary to become a licensed clinical psychologist in Korea, a majority of graduate students in clinical psychology programs are master's degree seeking students. Those who pursue doctoral degrees are interested in working in academia, research or supervising psychologist positions. The consensus among Korean clinical psychologists is that a larger number of qualified clinical psychologists should be supplied to meet the increasing demand of the society and to become an influential professional group in the field of mental health. Most graduate programs consider their training model to be the scientist-practitioner model. However, some members raise questions about this implicit agreement, pointing out that the scientist-practitioner model may not be practical in Korea where most licensed clinical psychologists are master's level clinicians.With the recent revision of the Mental Health Act in 2016 and upcoming enforcement of it in 2017, Korean clinical psychologists are having active discussions about future directions of this field and changes to be made in the enforcement decree. Underlying philosophy of this revision is moving the focus of mental health care from the treatment of the mentally ill in the medical setting to general improvement of mental health in the community setting. This change is likely to be a positive one for Korean clinical psychologists, since they are trained to work not only with psychiatric patients in medical settings but also with diverse populations in the community.

Publication details

Published in:

Hofmann Stefan G. (2017) International perspectives on psychotherapy. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 139-157

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-56194-3_7

Full citation:

Kim Sunyoung, Kim Hyun (2017) „South Korea“, In: S. G. Hofmann (ed.), International perspectives on psychotherapy, Dordrecht, Springer, 139–157.