Whenever people ask me who’s the main focus of this podcast, I always say psychology students and psychology professionals because there are so many different types of students and professionals. From clinical to cognitive to social psychology, there are lots of different areas of students and professionals to work in. Today’s episode proves my point perfectly because lots of psychology students don’t know about all the amazing paths to become a therapist and work in mental health.
This episode has been sponsored by Clinical Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it.
Misconceptions About Paths To Become A Therapists:
Whenever people think they want to become a psychologist, they always think a psychologist is (to my utter horror) profiling. I’m not even going to dignify that thought with a response. Or they think a psychologist is only a therapist, this I understand but what’s amazing about psychology is you can be a psychologist in all areas of psychology.
That’s one misconception.
In addition, the focus of today’s episode is on the mental health field because regardless of what others think the mental health is almost exclusively in clinical psychology’s realm. As well as the amazing thing about this is due to the pandemic and the growing acceptance of mental health, this field is growing rapidly.
Therefore, people who want to go into the mental health field are probably very well set up for the future job market.
Another misconception is everyone (including myself) thinks there’s only one way to become a therapist and that’s to become a clinical psychologist. But there are other ways which is what we’ll look at today.
Paths To Become A Therapist:
There are more but here are some of the most common ways, as well as I should note that some of these paths are very American focused but I have seen some equivalents in other countries.
For example, the UK does have Mental Health Counsellors but I’ve never heard of a Clinical Social Worker which I should have given my old best friend was in the foster system and I liked talking to him about it. Yet I do remember there being a rough equivalent of this role in the UK.
Overall, I would recommend you listen or read today’s episode and if a future role sounds interesting to you. Then research the equivalent in your own country.
Mental Health Counsellor
This requires a Master’s degree but this is offered at a lot of universities with the degree taking about two to three years to complete.
Typically, this degree leads to the person becoming a licensed Mental Health Counsellor. Leading to plenty of possible job opportunities because you can work for a lot of private and public organisations. Schools and universities are options that spring to mind.
Clinical Social Worker
This is very similar to the path above because this role requires a Master’s degree that is offered at a lot of US universities as part of a Social Work Program and it takes around 2 to 3 years to complete.
Leading to a licence and the job market tends to be strong here. with licensed clinical social workers normally having a background in sociology or psychology and they work in a range of public and private settings.
Clinical Psychologists
I couldn’t really talk about therapists and not mention clinical psychologists.
This requires a PhD which takes at least 3 to 4 years to complete and at least in the UK, the degree is made up of you doing a very research heavy dissertation as well as working with the four clinical populations clinical psychologists work in.
In addition, if you do become a clinical psychologist then not only do you get access to high paid jobs but you can have a career in academia or helping people in the real world.
Clinical Psychology Conclusion:
Despite this being mainly an awareness podcast episode, I hope you found it useless and you never know this (unofficial) advice might be useful in the years to come.
The most important thing or things, you need to remember is you need to have fun and love what you do. So don’t become a clinical psychologist if you’re only doing it for the money and you hate what a clinical psychologist does. As well as just do what you want to do with your life.
I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Clinical Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback, large print and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it.
Clinical Psychology Reference:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/202103/5-paths-becoming-therapist
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