Forensic Psychologist Career Profile
Learn more about Forensic Psychology fields and careers in this growing industry...
Psy.D., MFT
For Diana Barnes, having a child was not the blissful, euphoric time so often idealized in our society. In 1993, one year after giving birth to her first child, Barnes was ill, suffering from something that no one knew how to treat.
She couldn't understand why she felt so overwhelmed and filled with anxiety (see Anxiety)over taking care of her new baby - which she had wanted so much. In her daughter's first year of life, Barnes was hospitalized four times, and during that time she never once heard the words "postpartum depression."
"No one knew; no one understood," Barnes said. "Not even the doctors." No one had a name for her severe depressive symptoms. She continued to relapse for two more years before someone finally treated her for something called postpartum depression, or PPD.
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Like others with PPD, Barnes lost focus with her day-to-day life and routines. Although she held a master's degree in marriage, family and child counseling, her career stalled. But once she received effective treatment, it didn't take long for her career to find a new direction. Her personal experience with PPD fueled a passion for women's reproductive mental health.
The Centers for Disease Control report that 12-20% of new moms – about 1 million U.S. women each year – experience PPD. The CDC also states that the actual number is much higher than this because many women don't report their symptoms.
Symptoms of PPD include sadness, mood swings, difficulty concentrating, guilt, irritability or anger, sleep and appetite changes, panic attacks, excessive worry about your baby, racing thoughts, headaches, and stomach problems.
Barnes, now a psychotherapist and internationally recognized forensic psychology expert in postpartum mood disorders, said that PPD distorts thinking. "It's a devastating illness that can impair judgment," she said. "It leaves the mother less attuned and responsive to the baby's needs, which can lead to neglect and abuse - and possibly leave the baby vulnerable to serious harm."
Seventeen years after Barnes' encounter with PPD, doctors are starting to consider screening and risk assessment for this illness. But much more needs to be done. "Pregnancy is not just a physiological gestation period but also a time of psychological gestation," Barnes emphasized. Too many women and their families still suffer without seeking treatment, failing to recognize or admit to having the pregnancy-related mood disorder.
Postpartum psychosis, another, more severe disorder, is also one of Barnes' specialties. Much more rare than PPD, postpartum psychosis occurs in about 1 to 2 women per 1000 after delivery, according to a recent study of data collected by the Swedish Medical Birth Registry. Untreated postpartum psychosis can have life-threatening consequences.
Attorneys who represent clients charged with infanticide - the killing of a child within its first year of life - consult with Barnes, often seeking a psychological evaluation of their clients. In these cases, Barnes must determine if the woman's psychosis did in fact cause the woman to kill her child.
"My role is to construct what I call a reproductive roadmap of what the woman's pregnancy looked like, what other pregnancies, if there were any, looked like, and what a picture of the woman's mental health history looks like in order to make a determination of whether there was a psychotic episode that precipitated the death," Barnes said.
The legal definition of psychosis, or insanity, is that the woman couldn't determine right from wrong at the time of the death. This can be get complicated, Barnes said, because "in psychosis there's a kind of waxing and waning presentation. So in one moment the woman can be completely lucid, and the next saying things that don't make any sense."
Barnes said that postpartum psychosis cases resulting in the death of a child affect a disproportionately high number of poor, uneducated and minority women. These women don't have the resources or support to seek help and treatment, and in many cases their pregnancies were the result of trauma or abuse.
Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders - which include postpartum depression - are the number one complication of childbirth. Women, now more than ever, are in need of education, screening and risk assessment. The importance of preventive health services for the nation's foremost childbirth complication can't be overstated, which means a growing demand for trained psychology professionals, including forensic psychologists, in women's mental health issues.
If you find that you want to make a difference in women's lives, and are interested in a career in forensic psychology, you have several options. A master's degree or PhD in one of the following areas provides the required education: clinical, social, cognitive, criminal investigative, and developmental psychology. Find employment or an internship in either a hospital, clinic or government agency, and work with a supervisor or mentor trained in postpartum mental health issues. A PhD and several years of experience is usually required to become an expert witness and consultant for the legal system.
Find out how you can become involved, request information from schools offering Psychology degree programs. Also, learn more about the psychology career licensing processes and what the requirements for licensure are: Psychology Career Licensure.