PSYCHED FOR CATIE WEIMER | The Signpost
24 | MyWeberMedia.com | March 29, 2022
Part of the Zoom presentation by Dr. Benjamin Eschler on March 24. By CATIE WEIMER Reporter
Dr. Benjamin Eschler spoke to students interested in neuropsychology over Zoom to explain what a neuropsychologist does. The former WSU student explained possible academic paths to take to become one and what to expect when applying for master’s or doctoral programs. “If it’s something you want to do, just prepare in your mind that it might not just be five to seven years before you’re out working and doing what you want to do,” Eschler said. “You may have to do two years of work, or you may have to do a master’s degree. Not to scare you, but just to prepare you and encourage you that it’s possible.” A neuropsychologist is a person with a doctorate in clinical psychology that studies the
brain-behavior relationships in a person with potential memory and thinking problems through cognitive testing. Eschler gave two different talks on March 24 for the Neuroscience Lecture Series as part of Brain Awareness Week. His second lecture was “The Neuropsychology of Brain Tumors.” “We try and map different areas of the brain to discover different patterns,” Eschler said. “Usually, it’s to identify symptoms or complaints involving memory or other thinking skills.” The changes in a person’s thinking and memory can occur from various disorders or diseases, such as ADHD, epilepsy, a traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s or depression. Memory changes can even happen in people with cancer, from what’s known as “chemo brain,” or from a stressful period in a person’s life. “Our tests are actually sensitive enough
that I can, usually, with 80–90% accuracy, determine whether someone has Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia,” Eschler said. “We had come up with some really sound techniques to help us understand that.” It may be hard for students to know if neuropsychology is a field of interest. Eschler compared it to the training necessary to become a therapist, since it’s challenging to shadow a neuropsychologist to learn. “You may have learned that if you want to do therapy, but you’re not sure if you like it or not, there’s not a lot of ways to get good experience doing it,” Eschler said. “It’s similar with neuropsychology.” As far as choosing where to take one’s education, Eschler told attendees it’s essential to know where they want to end up in their careers. An endpoint will help individuals figure out what extra education they do or do not need.
“If you want to do therapy, don’t get a Ph.D., right?” Eschler said. “If you want to be in a room with a patient doing therapy, seeing ten patients a day, then get a master’s degree; it’s done faster, you’ll have less debt and you’ll be able to do what you want to do.” According to Eschler, it does not necessarily matter what a student’s bachelor’s degree is. However, working on an undergraduate degree is when a student should start preparing for getting into a Ph.D. or PsyD program. “The main difference between a Ph.D. and a PsyD program is that Ph.D.s typically have more research requirements,” Eschler said. “PsyDs typically have less research and are more clinically focused.” Eschler told attendees to begin looking through sites and information early. Students should be figuring out where they will need to apply near the end of their junior year. Eschler told attendees that there are two
