I'd like to switch careers and become a therapist/psychologist. How?
January 11, 2022 10:51 AM Subscribe
I'd like to switch careers and become a therapist/psychologist, or a conflict mediator, or an organizational psychologist, working with somatics, psychedelics, mindfulness, and doing research. How?
I'm in my mid-30s. I come from a design and technology background, but have been working in community spaces and teaching in graduate-level academia for the past ~8 years and realize that what I really enjoy is talking to people, listening, mediating conflict, etc. I think by now I'm quite skilled at the interpersonal and energetic aspect of teaching, and think I'm pretty good at advising students, listening to them talk about their projects, encouraging them to grow. I want to further lean into the aspect that feels like I'm helping / supporting people; for example, the times when I talk to students one-on-one about their projects is very invigorating and exciting, and several students have said that it feels as supportive as therapy to be in conversation about their projects with me.
I've been thinking about this for a while, now. I've been in therapy/analysis myself for 2+ years, and have really valued it, and know that my own journey of healing is ongoing. I've been part of volunteer conflict mediation practices, etc. I find myself researching different therapy modalities and reading conflict mediation books, therapy papers in my spare time.
As of right now, I'm really interested in developing a practice in therapy, organizational psychology, and conflict mediation. I'm specifically interested in how groups work and feel together. I've already been partially in academia, and I (think) really want my future career to split between practice, and research/teaching. I'd probably continue to do design/technology as a casual practice on the side, unless there's a way to integrate this into psychology.
Question: I would now actively like to take this to the next level, but I'm unsure how to pivot. I have a few options; perhaps you have some ideas?
- Use my existing connection to an academic institution to cold-call people and reach out to shadow & interview & ask questions of peoples' time to understand what the day-to-day is like
- Apply to MSW or Clinical Psychology PhD programs (perhaps an MSW first, see what happens later?)
- Find a job working in a related field first (mindfulness coaching, harm reduction, etc) and eventually transition to applying to a program (but how would I find a job, given my lack of experience?)
- Something else?
Perhaps I'm most interested in connecting with someone who could listen and advise me on some ideas and options; if you've had a career change, or work in psychology or therapy, I would love to listen and hear any advice or thoughts.
I'm in my mid-30s. I come from a design and technology background, but have been working in community spaces and teaching in graduate-level academia for the past ~8 years and realize that what I really enjoy is talking to people, listening, mediating conflict, etc. I think by now I'm quite skilled at the interpersonal and energetic aspect of teaching, and think I'm pretty good at advising students, listening to them talk about their projects, encouraging them to grow. I want to further lean into the aspect that feels like I'm helping / supporting people; for example, the times when I talk to students one-on-one about their projects is very invigorating and exciting, and several students have said that it feels as supportive as therapy to be in conversation about their projects with me.
I've been thinking about this for a while, now. I've been in therapy/analysis myself for 2+ years, and have really valued it, and know that my own journey of healing is ongoing. I've been part of volunteer conflict mediation practices, etc. I find myself researching different therapy modalities and reading conflict mediation books, therapy papers in my spare time.
As of right now, I'm really interested in developing a practice in therapy, organizational psychology, and conflict mediation. I'm specifically interested in how groups work and feel together. I've already been partially in academia, and I (think) really want my future career to split between practice, and research/teaching. I'd probably continue to do design/technology as a casual practice on the side, unless there's a way to integrate this into psychology.
Question: I would now actively like to take this to the next level, but I'm unsure how to pivot. I have a few options; perhaps you have some ideas?
- Use my existing connection to an academic institution to cold-call people and reach out to shadow & interview & ask questions of peoples' time to understand what the day-to-day is like
- Apply to MSW or Clinical Psychology PhD programs (perhaps an MSW first, see what happens later?)
- Find a job working in a related field first (mindfulness coaching, harm reduction, etc) and eventually transition to applying to a program (but how would I find a job, given my lack of experience?)
- Something else?
Perhaps I'm most interested in connecting with someone who could listen and advise me on some ideas and options; if you've had a career change, or work in psychology or therapy, I would love to listen and hear any advice or thoughts.
File under "something else": if you're interested in people/groups/mediation/conflict resolution, and also in design and technology, what about pursuing some kind of work in developing universal design?
posted by assenav at 11:12 AM on January 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by assenav at 11:12 AM on January 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
A lot depends on what country you are in, as different jurisdictions have very different regulations about who can call themselves a therapist or a counsellor.
For a UK based perspective, everyone can call themselves counsellor of therapist as these are not protected terms. However, if you want to be registered with one of the recognised organisations BACP, UKCP, you need at least 2 years of training and 100 hours of supervised practice. In many cases, the training required is more like 4-5 years and 450 hours of supervised practice. If you want to work in the therapy-related field, my suggestion would be to get into personal therapy. You said that you've been in therapy for two years, but most serious therapy training institutions will require you to be in therapy when you start the training, in some cases you are required to be in therapy for a year before starting the training. The next question is what school of therapy or what approach to study. It might be good to read on the difference between person-centred to psycho-dynamic, existential and integrative, just to get some basic idea of the lay of the land. Many people begin with person-centred, and it is also, in my opinion, a good basis for branching into other specialisms.
In terms of day to day life of a therapist, a lot depends on whether you are in private practice or working for an institution (university, hospital, insurlace). There is a very large Facebook group that deals with many aspects of training and becoming a therapist with a focus on the way it is done in UK the group is Counselling Tutor.
posted by slimeline at 11:15 AM on January 11, 2022
For a UK based perspective, everyone can call themselves counsellor of therapist as these are not protected terms. However, if you want to be registered with one of the recognised organisations BACP, UKCP, you need at least 2 years of training and 100 hours of supervised practice. In many cases, the training required is more like 4-5 years and 450 hours of supervised practice. If you want to work in the therapy-related field, my suggestion would be to get into personal therapy. You said that you've been in therapy for two years, but most serious therapy training institutions will require you to be in therapy when you start the training, in some cases you are required to be in therapy for a year before starting the training. The next question is what school of therapy or what approach to study. It might be good to read on the difference between person-centred to psycho-dynamic, existential and integrative, just to get some basic idea of the lay of the land. Many people begin with person-centred, and it is also, in my opinion, a good basis for branching into other specialisms.
In terms of day to day life of a therapist, a lot depends on whether you are in private practice or working for an institution (university, hospital, insurlace). There is a very large Facebook group that deals with many aspects of training and becoming a therapist with a focus on the way it is done in UK the group is Counselling Tutor.
posted by slimeline at 11:15 AM on January 11, 2022
Best answer: Absolutely start with #1 - reaching out to people in the profession and find out more about what it is like to really do the work and what career path will get you where you want to be. Good news is that this is a helping profession so if you call and ask for this kind of information interview, people are more inclined to respond. You can also find out more about the differences between individual vs family vs workplace vs other forms of conflict mediation and see which might make the most sense as an initial direction for you.
posted by metahawk at 1:07 PM on January 11, 2022
posted by metahawk at 1:07 PM on January 11, 2022
Best answer: I have a friend who did this, pivoting from being an academic to being a therapist; he did so in his early 40s, I believe. Feel free to send me a MeMail if you'd like to contact him, and I'll see if he's available.
posted by Dr. Wu at 1:39 PM on January 11, 2022
posted by Dr. Wu at 1:39 PM on January 11, 2022
Re: psychedelics, if you want to work with any kind of medication in an official capacity you'd need to go to medical school. Then likely also a psychology or social work program for the therapy side, as that's really not part of med school curricula (there are joint PhD/MD programs out there that could maybe make this more possible in a shorter time, though).
posted by augustimagination at 2:19 PM on January 11, 2022
posted by augustimagination at 2:19 PM on January 11, 2022
You may not need a medical degree for psychedelic therapy if you work with a prescribing psychiatrist. My friend was a monitor for the MAPS studies with veterans using psilocybin and MDMA, and she said there was a doctor in charge, a bunch of licensed councilors (who were not MDs), and then assistants like her who had experience but no degree. She was not involved with in-depth talking to / counciling the vets, she just did check-ins during their experience and would get the on call councilor if needed.
posted by ananci at 3:03 PM on January 11, 2022
posted by ananci at 3:03 PM on January 11, 2022
What about doing some variation of leadership and performance coaching? lots of top notch schools are offering certification programs like this one
posted by wowenthusiast at 9:47 PM on January 11, 2022
posted by wowenthusiast at 9:47 PM on January 11, 2022
I am an IT project manager slowly transitioning to counselling psychology - but your question is very difficult to answer without knowing your location as rules vary depending on the country, I am in the UK and it is very much as slimline explained. Wouldn't have a clue for how things work outside of UK in terms of licensing etc
posted by coffee_monster at 3:02 AM on January 12, 2022
posted by coffee_monster at 3:02 AM on January 12, 2022
Best answer: Whether you need medical training to provide any support around psychedelics probably depends on your jurisdiction. Where I am, psychedelic integration therapy is a thing that therapists offer without medical credentials. Obviously you wouldn't be administering anything but basically either help with set and setting or help with aftercare and digesting of the experience.
MSW is the fastest route to independent clinical practice as far as I know, unless you want to go for the LMHC or LPC license which is also Master's level.
My first thought reading your post is to recommend that you get involved in a peer support role. You can find positions where you're meant to use your own experience, and probably leverage that into either informal or more formal counseling or therapy. This is especially valued in the field for areas such as substance use disorder, eating disorders, cutting, trauma, etc, but is also useful for other types of conditions as well. Only issue is that you'd need to break the habit of being so openly part of the tribe if or when you get into independent private practice where self disclosure is generally frowned upon.
Organizational psychology is highly competitive as far as admissions goes, and many who go into I/O end up hating it, FWIW. Organizational psychology will also generally preclude somatics. They are going to want systems work primarily, although you might be able to incorporate mindfulness. Your desired specialities don't mesh with a corporate environment outside of PNW and some urban centers, if you're in the states. I see that you're interested in a hodgepodge of things, so perhaps this feedback is irrelevant but in case you wanted to apply those kinds of interventions in a corporate setting, most orgs are not likely to accept more integrative, holistic, or body oriented interventions.
MSW most places in the US is 2-3 years plus a minimum amount of supervised practice hours before you can become licensed to practice independently (1500-3000 hours for states I'm familiar with). Psychology is similar, although there's separate doctoral level requirements for more school and possibly more supervised practice.
Psychology offers more robust research training especially at a doctoral level, but most social work programs have some of that as required by the accreditation. If you want an official job working for someone else in research, psychology will get you there faster than social work will. A degree in social work is generally much more versatile than a degree in psychology, though.
posted by crunchy potato at 11:55 AM on January 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
MSW is the fastest route to independent clinical practice as far as I know, unless you want to go for the LMHC or LPC license which is also Master's level.
My first thought reading your post is to recommend that you get involved in a peer support role. You can find positions where you're meant to use your own experience, and probably leverage that into either informal or more formal counseling or therapy. This is especially valued in the field for areas such as substance use disorder, eating disorders, cutting, trauma, etc, but is also useful for other types of conditions as well. Only issue is that you'd need to break the habit of being so openly part of the tribe if or when you get into independent private practice where self disclosure is generally frowned upon.
Organizational psychology is highly competitive as far as admissions goes, and many who go into I/O end up hating it, FWIW. Organizational psychology will also generally preclude somatics. They are going to want systems work primarily, although you might be able to incorporate mindfulness. Your desired specialities don't mesh with a corporate environment outside of PNW and some urban centers, if you're in the states. I see that you're interested in a hodgepodge of things, so perhaps this feedback is irrelevant but in case you wanted to apply those kinds of interventions in a corporate setting, most orgs are not likely to accept more integrative, holistic, or body oriented interventions.
MSW most places in the US is 2-3 years plus a minimum amount of supervised practice hours before you can become licensed to practice independently (1500-3000 hours for states I'm familiar with). Psychology is similar, although there's separate doctoral level requirements for more school and possibly more supervised practice.
Psychology offers more robust research training especially at a doctoral level, but most social work programs have some of that as required by the accreditation. If you want an official job working for someone else in research, psychology will get you there faster than social work will. A degree in social work is generally much more versatile than a degree in psychology, though.
posted by crunchy potato at 11:55 AM on January 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thank you for all of your responses! This was super helpful. The idea of peer support and reaching out to people is a good idea, and Mr. Wu, sent you a memail!
posted by many more sunsets at 12:58 PM on January 13, 2022
posted by many more sunsets at 12:58 PM on January 13, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
What's your timeline? I didn't start grad school until I was 30, and there were plenty of people older than me (up to early 60s) in my program, but if this is something you want to be doing in the next couple of years, clinical therapy is not the path. It's at least 2 years of school plus at least another 2 years of supervised practice, several state level exams, and a lot of financial burden. That said I have no regrets and love my work.
posted by assenav at 11:08 AM on January 11, 2022 [1 favorite]