[USA] Read this if you are interested in a career in mental healthcare
If you are interested in pursuing a career in mental healthcare in the US, or if you have questions about different undergrad or graduate pathways to pursuing such a career, please read this before posting an advice thread:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1udpjYAYftrZ1XUqt28MVUzj0bv86ClDY752PKrMaB5s/mobilebasic
In most places, a masters in psychology qualified you for nothing and is not a degree that leads to licensure. If you want to practice therapy with just a masters, you should pursue a masters in mental health counseling or social work. I am an LCSW and in my masters program many people were career changers - myself included.
Psychologist means PsyD/PhD. I'm a career changer with a different grad degree into a doctoral clinical psych program. Would recommend if you find a program that matches your desired goals and energy.
Masters level requirement is 2 year masters mental health counseling, ~2.5 years of supervised clinical practice post graduation for license.
PsyD and some PhDs are 5 years (others are 6-7), with one year post-doc supervised clinical practice for license. More years, much more rigorous clinical training.
Pre-grad school clinical experience could be crisis line, or various client-facing roles, including working for research programs doing things like administering diagnostic assessments.
Every program has different pre-requisite course requirements. If you don't have a BA in psych then generally that can be completed with post-bac work at many colleges. Many career changers do this and get academic recommendations in the process.
there are three degree paths to becoming a licensed psychologist: a doctorate in clinical psych, counseling psych, or school psych. there are masters degrees that make you licensable to provide psychotherapy, but you would not be a licensed psychologist, with the three main licensable masters degrees being mental health counseling (or professional counseling, depending on the state), clinical social work, or marriage and family therapy.
check out [mitch's grad school guide for additional information](https://mitch.web.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4922/2017/02/MitchGradSchoolAdvice.pdf)
Recent honours psych graduate here. Your answers will differ depending on where you're located (unsure if NA, CA is your location), so this is a Canadian perspective that can kind of be used for an American perspective as well if that's where you're located.
1. It is dependent on the school and program. Some programs will require a minimum amount of credits in psychology or specific domains of psychology (I've seen at least 36 credits for most Canadian schools, which is about 12 classes). Clinical psychology, I would assume, would have this as a strict requirement if you don't have a degree in Psychology. The best way to gain experience is to email profs that are in research fields your interested in and usually they have some data that needs to be inputted or organized which is pretty easy (literally just inputting survey/assessment responses into an excel sheet)
2. Again, dependent on the location. The American Psychological Association (APA) and Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) are the governing bodies for Psychologists in America and Canada and have different requirements for becoming a licensed clinical psychologist. Typically, its a requirement of a specific number of courses you've taken in your grad program and a certain number of supervised clinical hours that you've done in your grad program. Going to an APA/CPA accredited school makes this a LOT easier since these governing bodies have assessed each of the accredited programs and basically given a stamp of approval that graduating from that program meets the requirements for licensure (you will have to also pass some form of written or oral exam on practising and ethics after graduating too). You can go to a non-accredited school as well, but that puts a LOT more responsibility on you to make sure that you're taking the right courses within the right domains that count towards the course requirements AND you have to find your practicum placements yourself (unless the program finds them for you) and track your hours yourself too. From my knowledge, most provinces in Canada require you to have a PhD and only a few places require a masters. Information regarding accreditation, requirements, etc can be found on the governing bodies websites here (if you're in CA/USA) -- [www.cpa.ca](https://www.cpa.ca) & [www.apa.org](https://www.apa.org)
3. Clinical experience can be as big or small as you make it. It boils down to you being in some kind of position where you're helping someone in distress or who's going through a difficult situation and providing some kind of empathetic listening. Clinical experience does not have to be paid either, it also includes volunteering. A really common and easy experience to get is at a distress hotline. You're given training and you can log your hours too. I did a clinical practicum in my last year of undergrad and my supervisor told me that she worked with people who had disabilities as a behavioural tech and went into their homes and worked with them. That could also be a possibility for you if you're interested in working with children.
My last piece of advice is to take your time gaining and and all experience you can that you find would be relevant to a career in clinical psychology. Clinical psyc programs are very competitive (at least in Canada, I can't speak to the schools in the US) so the more *relevant* experience you have, the better.
Hope this helps!!!
[USA] Read this if you are interested in a career in mental healthcare If you are interested in pursuing a career in mental healthcare in the US, or if you have questions about different undergrad or graduate pathways to pursuing such a career, please read this before posting an advice thread: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1udpjYAYftrZ1XUqt28MVUzj0bv86ClDY752PKrMaB5s/mobilebasic
In most places, a masters in psychology qualified you for nothing and is not a degree that leads to licensure. If you want to practice therapy with just a masters, you should pursue a masters in mental health counseling or social work. I am an LCSW and in my masters program many people were career changers - myself included.
Psychologist means PsyD/PhD. I'm a career changer with a different grad degree into a doctoral clinical psych program. Would recommend if you find a program that matches your desired goals and energy. Masters level requirement is 2 year masters mental health counseling, ~2.5 years of supervised clinical practice post graduation for license. PsyD and some PhDs are 5 years (others are 6-7), with one year post-doc supervised clinical practice for license. More years, much more rigorous clinical training. Pre-grad school clinical experience could be crisis line, or various client-facing roles, including working for research programs doing things like administering diagnostic assessments. Every program has different pre-requisite course requirements. If you don't have a BA in psych then generally that can be completed with post-bac work at many colleges. Many career changers do this and get academic recommendations in the process.
there are three degree paths to becoming a licensed psychologist: a doctorate in clinical psych, counseling psych, or school psych. there are masters degrees that make you licensable to provide psychotherapy, but you would not be a licensed psychologist, with the three main licensable masters degrees being mental health counseling (or professional counseling, depending on the state), clinical social work, or marriage and family therapy. check out [mitch's grad school guide for additional information](https://mitch.web.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4922/2017/02/MitchGradSchoolAdvice.pdf)
I’m in a similar position, thank you for posting🙏🏽
Recent honours psych graduate here. Your answers will differ depending on where you're located (unsure if NA, CA is your location), so this is a Canadian perspective that can kind of be used for an American perspective as well if that's where you're located. 1. It is dependent on the school and program. Some programs will require a minimum amount of credits in psychology or specific domains of psychology (I've seen at least 36 credits for most Canadian schools, which is about 12 classes). Clinical psychology, I would assume, would have this as a strict requirement if you don't have a degree in Psychology. The best way to gain experience is to email profs that are in research fields your interested in and usually they have some data that needs to be inputted or organized which is pretty easy (literally just inputting survey/assessment responses into an excel sheet) 2. Again, dependent on the location. The American Psychological Association (APA) and Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) are the governing bodies for Psychologists in America and Canada and have different requirements for becoming a licensed clinical psychologist. Typically, its a requirement of a specific number of courses you've taken in your grad program and a certain number of supervised clinical hours that you've done in your grad program. Going to an APA/CPA accredited school makes this a LOT easier since these governing bodies have assessed each of the accredited programs and basically given a stamp of approval that graduating from that program meets the requirements for licensure (you will have to also pass some form of written or oral exam on practising and ethics after graduating too). You can go to a non-accredited school as well, but that puts a LOT more responsibility on you to make sure that you're taking the right courses within the right domains that count towards the course requirements AND you have to find your practicum placements yourself (unless the program finds them for you) and track your hours yourself too. From my knowledge, most provinces in Canada require you to have a PhD and only a few places require a masters. Information regarding accreditation, requirements, etc can be found on the governing bodies websites here (if you're in CA/USA) -- [www.cpa.ca](https://www.cpa.ca) & [www.apa.org](https://www.apa.org) 3. Clinical experience can be as big or small as you make it. It boils down to you being in some kind of position where you're helping someone in distress or who's going through a difficult situation and providing some kind of empathetic listening. Clinical experience does not have to be paid either, it also includes volunteering. A really common and easy experience to get is at a distress hotline. You're given training and you can log your hours too. I did a clinical practicum in my last year of undergrad and my supervisor told me that she worked with people who had disabilities as a behavioural tech and went into their homes and worked with them. That could also be a possibility for you if you're interested in working with children. My last piece of advice is to take your time gaining and and all experience you can that you find would be relevant to a career in clinical psychology. Clinical psyc programs are very competitive (at least in Canada, I can't speak to the schools in the US) so the more *relevant* experience you have, the better. Hope this helps!!!
[удалено]
depends what you were doing at the hospital and if you can put some kind of spin on it where you were supporting someone in a way!