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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Take a vow of poverty.  Most of the Psych PhDs I know never clear $100k.  [/quote]
There's a Psych PhD and a PsyD. How many do you know?[/quote] PsyD programs are usually private and very expensive. The PP is right that it can easily be a 10 year investment. Think hard about the career- the pay rarely goes above 100k and there is high burnout in the field.

Some other options to consider aside from Psychologists include:
[b]- social workers
-licensed professional counselors (LPC)
-school counselors
-guidance counselors
-Psychiatric nurses
-Psychiatric nurse practitioners[/b]

All of those options will be a much lower time investment, although they each have varying pay levels.[/quote]

I'm 13:32 above: this list comprises very different career paths and daily duties.  A psych RN or CRNP isn't going to do psychotherapy, nor would school counselors or guidance counselors.  Any counselor, including an LPC, is going to have a fairly limited scope of practice.  An MSW is a robust degree that is well-respected and offers various career paths.  It has some of the flexibility afforded by a PhD in clinical psychology, although obviously not as much.[/quote]

I am an LPC and chose counseling v. social work because the program of study - at 3 years v. 2 years for SW - was much more clinically focused. I was surprised by how many of my SW colleagues never sat with clients before graduation. A counseling degree at an accredited school (make sure this is the case, OP) requires deep clinical experience and leaves candidates with a strong set of skills to use when accumulating those 3000 clinical hours required for licensure. I am in fee-for-service private practice and see a wide range of cases relating to my interests (and my post-graduation continuing ed). I made well into six figures last year, so no vows of poverty are required, but I have been in practice 10+ years.

But if you are planning to live and work in DC, SW might be a better call due to the prevalence of LICSWs and the associated preference for that affiliation when looking for internship placements, supervision and jobs.

OP, the median age of students in my MS-level grad program was 35, so you go ahead and make this change! You won't be the only one, and life experience is very useful in this work.[/quote]

PP again: the differences between an LPC and MSW may be program-dependent, but most of the former are not three years.  I know plenty of counseling programs that do not require deep clinical experience and don't turn out well-prepared candidates.  Obviously, not all are the same.  And like it or not, an MSW is absolutely more respected and in most states will allow for more responsibility than counselors.  LPCs (or MSWs, or clinical psychologists, for that matter) making well into the six figures is not at all the norm.[/quote]

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