Psychologist CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for an HCPC-registered clinical psychologist eight years after qualifying, working in an NHS adult psychological therapies service after three years in a community mental health team. The name, employers and universities are made up, and earlier assistant psychologist posts are cut to save space. Keep the structure and replace the registration, caseload, assessments and outcomes with yours.

Psychologists in the UK come across three formats, and sending the wrong one costs interviews. Most NHS posts are applied for through an online application form (NHS Jobs or Trac) with a supporting statement scored against the person specification. Private hospitals, independent practice, charities and corporate employers ask for a two-page CV. Academic and research posts want the full academic CV: every publication, presentation, grant, teaching role, placement and supervisor. Here is how to choose.

• Use a full academic CV for: lecturer and research posts, research fellowships, honorary contracts with universities and any advert that asks for a full publication list. Length is whatever it takes; 4 to 10 pages is normal.
• Use a two-page CV for: private hospitals, independent and group practices, charities, local authority and school services, occupational and corporate roles, and online therapy providers. Two pages for a qualified psychologist; one page for an assistant psychologist or graduate.
• For NHS posts the application form and supporting statement do the work. Keep your CV beside you to copy from, answer each point of the person specification in the statement, and attach a CV only if the advert invites one. Shortlisters will not search a 9-page CV for your caseload.
• Applying to the US? There "CV" means the long academic record and the short document is called a resume, and clinics expect a state licence rather than HCPC registration. Australia, Ireland and other countries have their own registration bodies; follow each country's conventions on length and personal details.

“Half the psychologist applications arrive as an 8-page academic CV for a clinic job. The first page shows whether the registration is current, what populations they treat and how many clients they can carry; if that requires a hunt, the application goes to the maybe pile.”

• HCPC registration. Registered under a protected title, in the final months of a doctorate awaiting registration, or not yet in training (assistant psychologist). Each is a different job and a different Agenda for Change band; say which you are in the header.
• Client groups and therapies, by name. "Adults with anxiety and PTSD; CBT, ACT, prolonged exposure" tells the service you can fill a specific gap. "Diverse client groups, evidence-based practice" tells them nothing.
• Assessment competence. Which batteries you administer and interpret (WAIS, WISC, ADOS, PAI, neuropsychological screens) and how many reports a year. Assessment waiting lists are long and assessment skills are scarce.
• Activity and outcomes. Caseload, contacts per week, DNA rate, note timeliness, measured change on the PHQ-9, GAD-7 or CORE-10. Services report these numbers to commissioners; put yours on the CV.
• Supervision, groups and consultation. Supervising trainees, running groups and consulting with GPs or psychiatry make a stretched service go further and are worth a bullet each.

Qualified psychologists use a personal statement: protected title and HCPC registration, years, client groups, therapies, assessments, one outcome number. Graduates and assistants use a career objective, because the reader needs to know which job you are aiming at in a field with many titles.

Clinical CVs are full of duty statements ("provided individual and group therapy"). Turn each into what you did, for whom, how many and with what result. Never include identifying client details; numbers about your caseload are fine, stories about a client are a confidentiality and UK GDPR problem.

List 10 to 14 skills and name the actual protocols, instruments and systems. Shortlisters and applicant tracking systems look for the specific words in the advert and person specification, and "strong interpersonal skills" is not one of them.

Therapy skills (list the ones you are trained in, and say trained versus accredited honestly):

• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) skills
• Trauma therapies: prolonged exposure (PE), cognitive processing therapy (CPT), EMDR (training through an EMDR Europe-accredited provider), TF-CBT for children
• Exposure and response prevention (ERP) for OCD; behavioural activation; motivational interviewing
• Parenting interventions, PCIT and positive behaviour support (PBS) for child, learning disability and autism work
• Group therapy, psychoeducation and crisis intervention

Assessment skills (name instruments and the editions you use):

• Cognitive: WAIS-IV or WAIS-5, WISC-V, WPPSI-IV, BAS3 (UK editions)
• Personality and psychopathology: PAI, MMPI-3, MCMI-IV, SCID-5-PD
• Neurodevelopmental: ADOS-2, ADI-R, DIVA-5, Conners 4, CAARS, Vineland-3
• Attainment and school: WIAT (UK edition), BAS3 attainment scales, behaviour rating scales (SDQ, BRIEF-2)
• Screening and outcome measures: PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5, C-SSRS, CORE-10 and CORE-OM
• Report writing, feedback sessions, formulation and diagnostic interviewing (SCID-5, MINI)

Systems and practice skills:

• Clinical record systems: RiO, SystmOne, Carenotes, EMIS, or WriteUpp and Cliniko in private practice (name yours)
• Video consultation and remote working
• NICE guidelines, routine outcome reporting (for example NHS Talking Therapies datasets), clinical audit
• Clinical supervision, service development and quality improvement
• UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, confidentiality and information sharing, safeguarding adults and children, Mental Capacity Act and Mental Health Act awareness

Titles in this field are legally controlled. In the UK the HCPC protects "practitioner psychologist", "registered psychologist" and seven domain titles: clinical, counselling, educational, forensic, health, occupational, and sport and exercise psychologist. The usual route is a BPS-accredited degree or conversion course giving Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC), then an HCPC-approved qualification in your domain: for clinical psychology, the three-year DClinPsy, with salaried NHS-funded training places. Psychological wellbeing practitioners, CBT therapists and counsellors are separate professions, not psychologists. Use only the title you are registered under.

• Chartered membership of the BPS (CPsychol), Associate Fellowship (AFBPsS) and entry on the BPS Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors (RAPPS) are optional and strong signals; list them with the year.
• List therapy trainings with the provider and year (for example EMDR training through an accredited provider, PE intensive training). Do not write "accredited in CBT" unless BABCP actually accredited you; write "trained in".
• Training routes, funding and title rules differ between domains and between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Check the HCPC standards and your programme's guidance before stating that you are eligible to register.

A psychology degree does not qualify you to practise, but a BPS-accredited one with GBC qualifies you for the jobs that lead there: assistant psychologist, trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner (PWP), healthcare assistant or support worker in mental health services, research assistant, behaviour support worker, recovery worker and helpline worker. Your CV should aim at one of these, not at "psychologist".

1. 1Put the target job title under your name ("Assistant Psychologist" or "Research Assistant"), not "Psychology Graduate".
2. 2Write a two-line career objective with your degree and classification (a 2:1 or First matters for many assistant and doctorate routes), GBC eligibility, the client group you want to work with and any hours you have already logged.
3. 3Move Education to the top and add relevant modules, your dissertation, and lab or statistics tools (SPSS, R, Qualtrics).
4. 4List placements, volunteering and research work like jobs: hours per week, number of participants or clients, tasks (coding transcripts, running study sessions, leading activity groups), and your supervisor's profession.
5. 5Add trainings that are quick to get and valued: Mental Health First Aid, Emergency First Aid at Work, de-escalation or breakaway training, safeguarding adults and children, information governance. Mention an Enhanced DBS check if you already hold one.
6. 6Keep it to one page, no photo, PDF.

• Two pages for a qualified psychologist; one page for graduate and assistant applicants. Send the full academic CV only when asked, and for NHS posts put the effort into the supporting statement.
• Order: header with title and HCPC registration, personal statement, registration and qualifications, clinical experience, assessment and supervision (if you want them to stand out), education and training, selected publications or presentations (3 to 5 at most on a two-page CV).
• Use a clean single-column layout like the cvplex psychologist or medical-clean template. Many employers use applicant tracking systems that read plain text; no photo, no date of birth, no columns, no tables for skills.
• Put your doctorate after your name ("Maya Feldman, DClinPsy") or use "Dr", but never a protected title you are not registered under. "Clinical Psychologist" goes in the title line only if you are on the HCPC register with that title.
• Never include client stories, initials or diagnoses tied to a person. Numbers about caseload and outcomes are fine.
• Dates by month and year. Training years (assistant posts, trainee placements) are expected to be short; label them clearly so they do not look like job hopping.

Words to mirror from the advert and person specification when they apply to you: HCPC registered, clinical psychologist, practitioner psychologist, DClinPsy, BPS, chartered, psychological assessment, formulation, evidence-based, NICE, CBT, DBT, ACT, EMDR, trauma-informed, primary care, community mental health, video consultation, caseload, RiO, SystmOne, supervision, risk assessment, safeguarding, outcome measures, Band 7, Band 8a.