Welcome to my website! My name is Judith Norwood Andrews and I am a Clinical Psychologist in private practice in Houston, Texas. I was born in Houston in 1948 and have lived in Houston most of my life. I was educated in public schools: Lamar High School in Houston, B.S. in Elementary Education from UT Austin, Masters in Special Education from University of Houston, and my Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Houston. As a Clinical Psychologist with a general private practice since 1994, I am additionally a specialist in child psychology, school psychology , and disaster response.
What is a Licensed Psychologist?
Licensed Psychologists are Ph.D. (Doctoral level licensed) mental health practitioners. The term “Psychologist” is not a generic term but refers to the mental health professional trained at the Ph.D. level who holds a license as a Psychologist. Only Licensed Psychologists may refer to themselves as “Psychologists” in the state of Texas and in most states.
When you are treated by a Licensed Psychologist you are being treated by a mental health professional who has the highest level of training in their specialty. Like physicians, psychologists have various specialties. Unlike physicians, psychologists do not prescribe medication except in a few states in the United States where psychologists with special training can prescribe psychotropic medications. However, psychologists collaborate with physicians who are prescribing for out patients as we are often seeing the patients more frequently and are better able to follow symptomatic response to psychotropic medications. Physicians who specialize in prescribing psychotropic medications are called Psychiatrists and people often confuse the name Psychologist and Psychiatrist.
Practice and Philosophy
As a Clinical Psychologist, I conduct psychotherapy with children, families, adolescents, and individual adults addressing a variety of psychological and behavioral issues. My philosophy of psychotherapy is that most human beings seek “therapy” every day in their lives. By that I mean that everyone seeks to find relief from stress or pain and to find a more “balance” stat of well being. They do so in a variety of ways, some productive, some destructive. The difference between self-therapy and psychotherapy is that the Licensed Psychologist is well-trained in analyzing human behavior and in guiding a person toward productive change, with professional expertise according to the best practices known to the field of psychology. Psychologists are experts at listening, analyzing, and guiding emotional and behavioral change. And very importantly, psychotherapy involves establishing rapport with a trusted professional who is impartial and non-judgemental.
Additional in my practice, I sometimes conduct formal psychological evaluations which essentially means “testing” for a variety of purposes. In “testing” psychologists employ specialized measures to help verify a patient’s psychological state. If a patient’s symptoms are of sufficient quality and quantity to meet the criteria, the Psychologist may make a formal diagnosis of a specific mental disorder. Diagnosis is made not only for verification purposes, but to guide treatment.
Lastly, my practice involves disaster response which means that I am trained to offer psychological help to victims and first-responders in disaster environments. I am a disaster mental health volunteer with the Greater Houston Chapter of the American Red Cross.
