Times of India
21 January 2011
Ahmedabad, India

The city will host the 37th national annual conference of Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists (IACP) starting Friday. It will be for the first time that the conference will be hosted in Gujarat. The event is hosted by Gujarat Forensic Sciences University (GFSU).

Dr Malavika Kapur, president of IACP, told mediapersons at GFSU, Gandhinagar, that the association is happy to hold the conference in Gujarat. "The state has been pivotal in establishing forensic psychology as a separate branch and is pioneer in many methods. The number of clinical psychologists is very less in India including Gujarat but we are hopeful that the ratio will improve soon with emergence of institutes such as GFSU," she said.

According to organisers, more than 200 practitioners will discuss new methods, problems and forensic psychology over a three–day period of the conference. The conference aims to address a number of established and emerging specialties of psychology such as psychotherapy and counseling, community mental health, forensic psychology, clinical psychology, neuropsychology and child psychology.

Officials said that clinical psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with abnormal behaviour, personality, development of cognitive functions, effects of stress, etc. However, not every psychologist is a clinical psychologist as for that the practitioner has to obtain certificate from Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI).

Dr SL Vaya, director of Institute of Behavioural Science, GFSU, said that with the introduction of new courses, the university hopes to address the need of trained psychologists in the country. "We are looking at amalgamating clinical psychology and forensic psychology and get the best from both with scientific knowledge. The trained professional can extend his services in prevention, detection and rehabilitation of civil and criminal cases," she said.