This is an interview between a 2nd year psychology student and a psychologist specialising in neuropsychology (Anne-Laure Pinson, 6th district of Marseille). The student asks questions in order to get to know this profession better, and perhaps to specialise later on. 13/03/18
Fiona : What is the title of your job ?
Anne-Laure : You can call it a neuropsychologist, but in reality I say cognitive psychologist. I did the DESS in cognitive disturbances in Aix-en-Provence. So it’s mainly the cognitive side, it’s true that the term “neuropsychologist” speaks a little more to people. Above all it is a psychologist, specialised in the cognitive, who can be called a neuropsychologist.
F : What has been your career path ?
A-L : At first I was a nurse, I practised for about twelve years, and I stopped when I was pregnant with my first child, because it was complicated in liberal. I completely stopped my practice, and I thought about going back to school and studying psychology. It was an opportunity to start over again. I’ve had my degree for twelve years now.
F : What does your job involve ?
A-L : It’s divided into several parts, there’s the assessment side, with the tests, which can be with children who have learning disabilities, with older people but it’s rarer, or with people who have had a stroke or a brain problem. So there is the assessment part, then the cognitive remediation part, and sometimes some basic psychological follow-up. For the neuropsychological side, it is mainly cognitive tests.
F : Which patients do you see most often ?
A-L : Children with learning difficulties, difficulties at school, behavioural difficulties at school, but also adults for research into potential cognitive problems when they wonder, or about the consequences of accidents. Sometimes it can be people who have had a car accident and there is a search for expertise for legal proceedings and to make an assessment to see if the person has disturbances, to know what the state of “drunkenness” is.
F : What are your working conditions ? Do you work alone for example ?
A-L : So I work alone, then in the general practice there are also two speech therapists, with whom we can work for identical patients, but on the neuropsychological level I work alone. Sometimes I take part in meetings with educational teams when I meet children for check-ups or follow-ups. This is mainly at school level. All the professionals who revolve around the child meet each other. Afterwards I also have telephone contact with the doctor, the speech therapist, the psychomotor therapists and the people from the school who follow the child.
F : There are a lot of speech and language therapists in your circle after all ?
A-L: Yes, especially in terms of written and oral re-education. I do more general assessments and I can do remediation for memory, for example. The only barrier is that it has to be a follow-up that lasts a certain amount of time, and our services are not reimbursed, unlike speech therapists. Most paramedical services are reimbursed, and indeed for most people ours should be as well, so it is a very important cost when we have to do a regular follow-up.
F : What is your working week ?
A-L : So it takes a long time to set up a real income generating activity, it takes about 5 years to develop. There is a lot of word of mouth too. I spend 4 and a half days at the office, the mornings are more devoted to drawing up assessments because few people come in the mornings, they are not too available, and I also do one morning a week in an ESAT. After being a freelancer, you have flexibility, but also irregularity.
F : What are the interests and difficulties of this work in your opinion ?
A-L : It’s an area that I like, I find it interesting because it’s varied, we meet a large population and a lot of cases. Sometimes there is a bit of routine but there are also cases that raise questions, especially among children. The human side too, sometimes we meet endearing, atypical people, and then also the impression of being able to help certain people, the gratifying side for example of a person who after a head trauma manages to recover little by little. Also helping children to feel better when they have difficulties at school. What can be complicated sometimes is when a child shows deficiencies, and parents don’t expect it. It’s not easy to get through these moments and announce things you don’t want to hear.
F : What are the required skills and qualities to practice this job ?
A-L : Quite a lot of empathy, knowing how to listen, loving contact with people. There is also the purely intellectual side of the field which is interesting, you have to be interested in science, but above all in people. Because there is a psychologist side and a scientific side. You have to know how to be sensitive to the history of the patients who come to consult us, because there is really a human side to be taken into account, a psycho-affective side that we bring out to the patient during the interview session. The cognitive can largely be impacted by the psycho-affective side and tests sometimes show that there are no cognitive difficulties but rather a psychic blockage.
F : What advice would you give to young people who want to work in this profession ?
A-L : To hold on because it’s worth it, I’ve set myself up as a liberal because it’s rather difficult to find neuropsychologist positions, knowing that it’s often half-time or third-time, there are often the same people in several positions. I also had my second child just afterwards so it was for comfort, but otherwise I think it’s still better to work in institutions before, having seen a lot of things and learning before becoming a freelancer. Or else to do a bit of both, institutions and liberalism at the same time. It is also necessary to inform oneself a lot because it is a field which moves quite a lot, it is necessary to remain attentive to all that comes out lately in neurosciences.
Fiona Lami