In non-professional circles, there is often confusion in distinguishing between Psychiatrists and Psychologists. Psychologists differ from Psychiatrists in a number of primary areas. The first is that a Psychiatrist is an individual who has gone through medical school and then focuses on mental illness. A Psychologist, in comparison, has never taken a medical degree. Rather, a Psychologist has studied only Psychology. The undergraduate degree, the graduate Masters degree and the post-graduate Doctorate degrees are all in Psychology. This constitutes a minimum of 6-7 years study though, it often extends beyond 10 years. The Psychologist then requires a number of years additional studies in order to be able to take on responsibility for independent functioning.

All the Psychologists within Midlands Psychological Services have met the requirements for membership in the British Psychological Society (BPS) and have gone on to gain the additional experience and education required to become Chartered within the BPS. On the rare occasion that an individual is involved who is still in the process of gaining chartered status, all work is reviewed by a Chartered Psychologist before a report is issued.

Dr Dennis R. Trent. Founder of Midlands Psychological Services Ltd.

Born in Ohio, USA, Dr Dennis Trent began his career in the United States Air force in 1964. He left the Air Force in 1984 after a number of different postings including David Grant Medical Center, Travis AFB, Iraklion Air Station in Crete, Greece and Ehrling Berquist Medical Center, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. He completed his Bachelors Degree in Psychology at Chapman College, Orange, Ca, USA, in 1979 and his Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology in 1981, again from Chapman College. He left the Air Force to purse his PhD, completing it at the University of Nottingham in 1988. He has a wide variety of clinical and academic experience including being Past Director of the Mental Health Promotion Unit at University of Keele, and a founding board member of the Clifford Beers Foundation (a charitable organisation dedicated to the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental illness).

In addition to being Founder and Director of Midlands Psychological Services, he has also been on the Board of Directors of the International Council of Psychologists (ICP), a Past-President of ICP and Past-Editor of the International Psychologist. He is currently the co-Editor of the International Association of Applied Psychologists Bulletin

Dr Trent is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He provides expert reports in the field of child protection/custody issues, pre-sentence reports, Life Review Panel reports, psychosexual assessments, risk assessments, suggestibility, learning disabilities and other court related psychological assessments.

Midlands Psychological Services saw its first client in Derby in 1988 under the name Psychological Services Derby. In 1993 it moved to Sutton Coldfield but kept its office in Derby and changed the name to Midlands Psychological Services. We spent six happy years in Sutton Coldfield before moving to offices in Central Birmingham,

We moved again in 2001 to our current offices in No 3 Brindley Place (next to the National Sealife centre).

From that humble beginning in those small offices in Derby we have continued to grow and to provide the highest quality service to the community. We have provided contractual services to seven different health trusts and have produced over 600 psychological reports for courts in the areas of child risk, personal injury and accident, criminal and malpractice.

Our reports have been seen at the highest levels of the court system including the Old Bailey and the Court of Appeal (High Court). We have additionally provided a large number of child and adult dyslexia and educational reports and have provided training and recruiting services to numerous public and commercial organisations. We currently provide training placements for students from the University of Birmingham's Masters course in Applied Forensic Psychology.

Midlands Psychological Services became a limited company in 2001 and registered its logo as a trademark.

• The average turnaround time for a psychological assessment from Midlands Psychological Services is less than six weeks.
• Our fastest time for accomplishing an assessment and delivering the report was sixteen hours.
• A psychological report can back its findings up with hard scientific data gained from psychometric testing. It’s more than just an opinion.
• In order to keep costs down, Midlands Psychological Services charges on an hourly basis.