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Clinical Psychology Paper
The great evangelist D.T. Niles once said, “Christianity is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread” (Niles, 2010). At its most basic level, clinical psychology is the enterprise of one educated, licensed person using their knowledge of human behavior to address, assuage, or otherwise moderate the troubles and concerns of another person’s life—whether they be relational, affective, or physiological. Strictly speaking, clinical psychology is, “the assessment, treatment, and understanding of psychological and behavioral problems and disorders” (Plante, 2005, p. 7). Clinical psychology is a scientific endeavor, utilizing the instrument of the scientific method to inform the practice, procedures, and treatments used to address human problems. There is an interplay that exists between treatment outcome research and psychotherapy in clinical psychology—the science informs the art and the art informs the science (Plante, 2005). The point of this paper is to catalogue and compare the history and evolving nature of clinical psychology as well as to consider the specific case of counseling within the framework of clinical psychology.
History
Hippocrates—the original author of the Hippocratic Oath—formed the first complete, if naïve, physiological explanation of disease and dysfunction (Plante, 2005). He proposed that imbalances in the mixture and quantity of four fluids: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood, caused several emotions and psychological maladjustment, such as sadness, irritability, and anger. It was not until the advents of Plato that it was conceived that the metaphysical realm of the soul could have an effect on the corporeal domain. However, it was to Galen that a holistic theory of medicine was formed which incorporated the physiological explanations of Hippocrates with the metaphysical explanations of

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