I think I'd like a new career in psychotherapy - where to start?

[Anonymous]

Where do you think you should start?

[Anonymous]

I wish I had done a PsyD instead of a JD.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who studied Counseling part time at Marymount while working full time. I also have a friend who studied psychology full time at Mason.

[Anonymous]

Isn't Marymount private? Again, don't pay private tuition if you want to be a therapist. LICSW/MSW here. There is no reason to pile on debt in this field. Psychotherapy is a professional degree, unless you want to cater to the super rich (in which case I suggest Yale PhD and an internship in their counseling program focused on CBT), it doesn't matter much where you go. Networking and on-the-job experience matter more IMO.

There are a lot of opportunities to work in community mental health with a BA that pay in the 40K range --maybe you should try a year of that and see if you really want to enter the field. If you are working in an agency like this while you do a part-time masters program in either counseling or SW you can usually get paid full-time while doing your internship hours on site.

You might find too that the grass is greener. I know a lot of therapists who don't find the field as full of rewarding experiences as you describe. There are a lot of band-aid type solutions and a lot of problems that you can't fix for people. Not to say i don't love what I do, but it's kind of a love/hate relationship.

[Anonymous]

I'm the JD to PsyD poster. You may have already researched this yourself, but in case it's helpful here are the options for a career change to psychotherapy.

MSW - usually 2 years full time, but you'll need additional supervised clinical hours to become a licensed clinical social worker, which is what you need to practice psychotherapy independently. My understanding is that social work programs vary a lot in terms of how much clinical work is stressed vs systemic issues. My advice is to check the various programs in the area and see which is the best fit for you.

Masters in Counseling - These are generally 2 year programs leading to becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor. Every state's laws differ slightly about what one must do to become licensed as a psychotherapist at the master's level. Often MA level psychotherapists focus on marriage and family issues or substance abuse.

PhD in clinical or counseling psychology - These programs are usually the most competitive for admissions and take the longest to complete. Good clinical PhD programs are small and often admit few than 10% of applicants. You will have to take many years of coursework, conduct research, as well as complete a dissertation. You will also need an additional year of full-time internship and perhaps another postdoc year of supervised practice before being eligible for licensure. Many PhD programs focus on training clinical researchers rather than psychotherapists, so if psychotherapy is what you want you probably don't want to go this route.

PsyD in clinical or counseling psychology - The good ones are also tough to get into and take 5-7 years start to finish (including internship). I am a PsyD program graduate and feel my program provided the right blend of practice preparation while still educating me in conducting psychological assessment and understanding clinical research. It took me 6 years to get the degree (full time) but some of my peers did it in 5.

While I'm very happy with my PsyD I'd strongly recommend looking into MSW or MA counseling programs if your sole interest is doing therapy with individuals. While doctoral level psychologists can make more money, the differential isn't that great. Most psychologists doing therapy don't make more than 100k; starting salaries if working for institutions usually begin at 40-60k. Private practice is often more lucrative (but no benefits, obviously). If you're still pretty young and the prospect of the PsyD doesn't scare you, I'd also recommend that route. I think my training was fantastic, although it took a long time to get going on my second career.

[Anonymous]

Check out the MSW at Catholic University. I considered doing this very change a few years ago and looked into the local programs and found Catholic's to be the most straightforward and practical. I even went to one of their info nights and was impressed. I ultimately decided not to do the program because I already have a Ph.D in something else and just couldn't make myself go back to school again, but I still think I would like a job in counseling.

[Anonymous]

I'm an LICSW (graduated from CUA). OP, you should be aware that, at least in an MSW program, you will be required to do field placements/practicums of about 20/hours per week in an organization where you were supervised by a licensed social worker. I did my first year full-time (while not working) at another university, then finished up at CUA while working, so it acutally took me three years to finish. I split what would have been my second year of school over two years, because I worked full-time and just took classes, and then I worked part-time, did my field placement, and took a couple classes. I had no kids at the time, and I imagine that it would have been even more logistically challenging with kids!

You have not said what kind of work you are interested in? Private practice work? Agency work? I've done agency work for awhile, and am just starting my private practice. Be aware that if you do an MSW, you will still have to work towards licensure (in DC it's an LGSW and then an LICSW, which will take at least two years) before you would be able to be in any kind of private practice situation.

[Anonymous]

A couple months late, but just saw this thread so in case it's helpful... I'm currently doing my pre-doctoral internship as the last step to finish my PsyD after switching careers (have and MA and license/certification in related field).

I'd take into serious consideration the previous comment about the need to be able to relocate for the one-year internship that is a structured training program required for all doctoral-level psychology students (PsyD and PhD). There's a serious shortage of internships right now that is causing problems in the field, as there are far more psych doctoral students who need internships than there are available internship positions (and we all need to complete an internship in order to graduate, stop paying tuition, start working... we're stuck re-applying if we don't match the first time around, and this is happening more and more lately).

If you do want to go with a doctoral psych program, in terms of selecting one I would only consider programs that are APA-accredited (you can get more info at www.apa.org), as doing one that isn't accredited can make it more difficult to get licensed in the state where you'd like to practice.* Same goes for internship; you want an internship that is APA accredited as well. All APA-accredited doctoral psych programs are required to publish data on their students' match rates for internships (as well as time to completion of degree, etc.), so be sure to check that out. Most internships are full-time, although there are some out there that are half-time, but they are required and you obtain one through a match process (same way med students match for residency). I ended up moving out-of-state for my internship this year, which I did NOT want to do, but frankly I wanted to graduate more than I wanted to stay local and try again next year and delay graduation. When all is said and done, I will have finished my program in five years, but it has been a very-full-time five years, including very-full-time summers, and I haven't had a winter break or spring break since the first year of my program, before I started working with patients (classes didn't meet during breaks, but work at practicum sites with patients and supervisors has continued full-time, year-round). I do have a couple of friends who held full-time jobs during our first year (before we started practica and working with patients) and part-time jobs throughout the rest of the program (until they began their internships), but it did seem to be pretty difficult for them much of the time if they were taking full courseloads.

Can't speak to MSW, counseling programs, etc., because I didn't really look at those, but hopefully this is helpful re psych programs. It's what I want to do in the long run and ultimately I don't regret switching careers to do it, but it's been a challenging road and taken quite an emotional toll as the competition is fierce and morale is low, particularly as students face the threat of putting in several years of high-quality hard work and still not knowing if they'll be able to graduate when they expect/hope to, given the internship imbalance (this year there were only enough APA-accredited internships for about 53% of the students who applied, I believe). I do wish I'd had a better idea of what to expect at the outset. I'm very grateful to be in a place now where I feel I'm getting excellent guidance as to how to pursue next steps (postdoc, licensure, etc.).

*Keep in mind - licensure requirements vary by state, so you can look up the requirements of the state where you'd like to practice, any state(s) where you might want to move one day, etc. More info on licensing requirements can be found at www.asppb.net

[Anonymous]

I have a PhD in experimental psychology. What do you think would be the best route to eventually have a private practice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can also go the counseling route. I think Va Tech Falls Church campus has a Family Therapy program with night classes. Marymount has counseling programs with night classes as well.

PsyD would be the doctorate level way to go. Ph.D.s focus much more on research with the clinical and some Ph.D programs can last way too long if you have a difficult advisor or dissertation team. Keep in mind both of these degrees require an internsip where you apply all over and cannot be guaranteed you will match in the same state where you reside. You need to be able to pick up and move.

Don't expect to make much money for a long time. I know you aren't in it for the money. It takes a while to get licensed. Insurance pays crap and the paperwork stinks if you save money and do your own. You can charge what you want in private practice and not take insurance, but there is competition and renting your own space isn't cheap. You also have to think about whether you want to be the type of person who only caters to the upper middle class and rich. Yes, there's more money, but could you stand yourself if you could not help people who don't have that type of financial means.

Also, if you must work full time at all times once you are licsensed keep burn-out in mind. You can do all sorts of things to take care of you, but when too many of your own life stresses hit you have to evaluate whether it is fair to your clients if you don't have much left to give. It's better if you the freedom to take time off as needed and aren't the only breadwinner. If you plan to be in business for yourself, your spouse needs to have med insurance through work. It's really expensive to buy your own medical insurance.

This is such a good point. Not the OP, but we are in marriage counseling and because our insurance covers it, it is a $20 copay each week. When I was calling around based on recommendations, web searches, etc., people who didn't take insurance were quoting between $120-170 per session. I was thinking, who can afford this??? I mean, maybe if you are only planning 8 or so sessions but we've bene in counseling for months. Crazy!