Which psychology degree should I pursue?

March 22, 2007 11:54 AM

Which psychology degree to should I pursue? (MS Counseling psych. vs. MS Clinical psych. vs. MA in Counseling psych. vs. Psy.D.).

I'm 30 years old, work in education, and after much soul searching I've decided to pursue a graduate degree in psychology. I want to be a therapist and I think that I eventually want have my own private practice. However, I have a long road ahead of me, and I don't want to pursue a degree that will limit my options. (I might also be interested in organizational psychology, educational consulting, or career counseling.)

I've done a fair bit of research online about the different degree options, and I'm getting some mixed signals from reliable sources about the usefulness and prestige of these different degrees. If I don't need the Psy.D., then that would be great, but I also don't want to waste my time on a degree that is less than universally respected.

Background: I have a BA in English from a respected liberal arts college, and took no psychology classes in college. I plan to spend the next eight months taking courses, volunteering, and generally laying the groundwork for admission to a decent graduate program. (Subquestion: is this enough time to get the experience I'll need before applying?)

Any advice from those who have faced a similar dilemma will be greatly appreciated!

posted by man on the run to Education (10 answers total)

If your ultimate goal is private practice, I'm confused as to why you aren't considering PhDs. My understanding is that PhDs are much more respected than PsyDs (and, within that, clinical seems to be respected more than counseling).

Also- don't forget to take the GRE psych as well as the general GRE.
posted by liberalintellect at 12:55 PM on March 22, 2007

Response by poster: Two reasons that I don't want to go for the PhD:
1. I'm not much interested in research (my quantitative skills take a back seat to my analytical and verbal abilities), but I am very interested in gaining clinical experience.
2. I'm under the impression that PsyD programs are slightly less competitive than PhD programs.
posted by man on the run at 1:17 PM on March 22, 2007

My understanding is that PhDs are much more respected than PsyDs

Well, it really depends on what you want to do: PsyDs have a reputation as the poor stepchildren, but that's partly snobbery from the PhDs, because their emphasis on practical experience means candidates spend lots of time -- oh noes! -- dealing with the mentally ill within a clinical setting.

For employment in public mental health, a masters (and masters-level certification) is usually enough to start a career, primarily because public mental health is strapped for cash and it's cheaper than hiring at the doctoral level. You'll also find some PsyD courses that offer a masters for completing the taught course, before the internship and dissertation.
posted by holgate at 1:24 PM on March 22, 2007

Best answer: PsyD programs are less competitive but more expensive than PhD programs. They used to be frowned upon by the academic elite, but are gaining more respect. Professors who are advising students explain that eventually it will be like earning your MD, only in Psychology (which makes sense to me). Most PsyD programs, however, are run by for-profit, private institutions, who charge you a lot, and offer very little in the way of financial aid (not a lot of TA or GA options when there isn't research being done). That being said,if you want broader options, you will want the PhD in clinical. Don't let the "Research is Hard and Scary" thing put you off. There are many facets of research that I'm sure you're not even thinking about. Most of my former advisers worked only in qualitative research, which doesn't involve an iota of stats. Research can be fun and exciting once you get past the idea of measuring ANOVAs and computing stats. That's one TINY part of the bigger picture. With a clinical degree, you can research, teach, practice, and study a fairly broad area.
Masters degrees are certainly respected and are more prevalent, but you do limit yourself to the area that you study unless you go back for further education. If it were me, I'd get an M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology, that way you CAN work in schools if you want, but have the broader base of counseling.
Take all of this with a grain of salt, as I am only a Psych Grad student myself (MS in Experimental, headed for PhD in Clinical) and am regurgitating years of advice from professors. You'd be best to seek out a psych professor at a nearby university (not community college) and set up an appt.
posted by messylissa at 1:37 PM on March 22, 2007

What about an MSW? Does anybody have opinions on getting that degree to become a therapist?
posted by hought20 at 1:39 PM on March 22, 2007

FWIW, my two favorite therapists were both LiCSWs. I don't know that I've ever known anyone who did regular (no-medication-needed) talk therapy with anyone other than a LiCSW - it seems to be a good road to private practice. YMMV.
posted by rtha at 1:56 PM on March 22, 2007

Best answer: The key questions, I think, are (a) the licensure laws in the state where you plan to live and practice; and (b) insurance reimbursement policies in ditto. As a private practice therapist, you're really working for the insurance companies--they're the ultimate source of your paycheck, unless you're lucky and good enough to attract the rare clients who can afford to pay you out of pocket--so you need to make sure you've got whatever credential is going to make it easiest for you to get reimbursed by as many insurers as possible in wherever you hope to end up. Be aware this can change with time; when I got admitted to a PhD program in counseling psych in the '90s, Minnesota only offered licensure at the doctorate (PhD or PsyD) level, but several years later they created a separate kind of licensure (LPP) for Masters-level people. LPP positions pay less and involve being supervised by a doctoral-level psychologist; these people are sort of the line workers in the big "behavioral health" clinics that HMOs are generally willing to cover. If your state has such a setup and you're willing to work in that kind of setting, you can shave some time off your education and save a ton of money by just getting the Masters.

Also re: the PsyD -- I get the sense that there's a lot of variation among the schools that offer this degree, in terms of quality control, prestige, etc. Some really are diploma mills, to be blunt. Be sure to check out the reputation of any to which you might want to apply.
posted by Kat Allison at 3:12 PM on March 22, 2007

I echo the MSW comment. Every therapist that I know has an MSW.
posted by k8t at 3:37 PM on March 22, 2007

When I was working on an MSW (it was nearly ten years ago, I didn't complete the program) the general sense was that managed care was becoming more likely to pay for less expensive LCSW's and less likely to fully cover more expensive clinical psychologists. This made for ripe opportunities in private practice as an LCSW, and I understand that there was substantial tension and resentment between the two professions. This was both because PhD's felt they were getting undercut by less skilled therapists who invested far less time and labor on their studies and because LCSW's generally felt they didn't receive the respect they deserved from the PhD's in the mental health world.

I was doing a Masters in Social Research so I wasn't really embroiled in all this as I never intended to practice in clinical social work. It was certainly hot button amongst my classmates at the time, if my memory serves me.
posted by The Straightener at 6:29 PM on March 22, 2007

As I re-read your original question, man on the run (always a good idea, heh), I wanted to add that if giving yourself maximum flexibility to career-shift within the general field of psych is a high priority--especially if you're looking at organizational psych or working in higher ed--the Ph.D. is probably going to give you the most options. Career counseling you can almost certainly do with a Masters; short-term therapy in a managed care setting can be done with a psych MA or an MSW/LICSW. But, assuming you can handle the costs of tuition and lost income for those years, the Ph.D. is likelier to reward you with the widest range of career flex. The only downside in that respect is that managed care clinics will sometimes see Ph.D.s as being "too expensive" compared to Masters-level therapists, as The Straightener points out above.

And while the statistics/research methodology coursework can be aggravating, I know I found a lot of satisfaction in realizing I could master subjects that had never been an area of strength for me (to put it mildly). Also, it never hurts to have a good grip on statistics, even just in terms of evaluating the reliability of the latest "OMG food item X is going to KILL US ALL!!" press releases.

Whichever way you go, best of luck to you!
posted by Kat Allison at 7:32 AM on March 23, 2007