PhD/PsyD Masters or PsyD in counselling psychology?

[psych1391]

Hi! I have completed my MSC in psychological counselling from India in 2014.I want to take up further studies in counselling,mainly PsyD with APA accreditation in the US.so I have a few queries regarding the same.any sort of help would really give me some clarity!please help me out here.Any international(especially Indian) students studying in the US?your insights would be best suited for me.
1.I do not have a research background which is why I've been considering a PsyD over a PhD.nevertheless I do have one year before i apply.could i get any sort of research experience in the time being?what could i do to get this experience?Also I have practicum experience in the field of counselling from my MSC.would that give me any added advantage?
2.considering i do not have any research experience,would it be possible to get into a doctoral program at all?PsyD or PhD or should i be trying for a masters instead?
3.In comparison to PsyD how credible is a masters degree in the US?would it allow me get a good job and make enough money to clear out my student loans?(I am coming from a society where in majority of people do not think a masters degree is credible enough to provide therapy.)
4.How difficult or easy is it to get jobs after a masters program?what could be my constraints as an international student?
5.IF i do get into a PsyD program,how many years would it take to complete the course(from a pragmatic POV)?I do have a time crunch.what would the approximate cost of the full course be?
6.Lastly what is the exact difference between counselling programs and mental health counselling programs?
Also i do intend to continue working in the US after.
looking for help!please give me your suggestions.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Temperance]

I am not an international student, but I'll answer what I can.

1) What research experience do you already have? If you're looking for more, you can try contacting labs that are of interest to you to see if they are taking research assistants. Alternatively, you can apply to paid RA positions as they're posted.

3) Some master's degrees can qualify you for licensure, but I'm not sure if that applies to degrees earned abroad. In what state are you planning on working? Try contacting the licensing board of that state to see what the requirements are for you. Clinicians at the master's level can earn a good living, but that heavily depends on area, clients, and probably many other factors.

5) A good PsyD program will take at least 5 years to complete. This includes pre-doctoral internship. Some programs claim four (e.g., Alliant), but do a search for "Alliant" on this board and you'll see that there's a lot of serious concerns about PsyD programs from professional schools. The cost will vary; some programs are fully or partially funded (e.g., Baylor, Rutgers), and others cost at least $175,000 for tuition alone (e.g., Alliant, Pepperdine).

 

[psych1391]

Thanks for your reply!
Like I said I do not have any research experience.I have only studied research methodologies in theory.I had LA in mind.But I am not too particular about any state as such.It depends on what i qualify for i guess.
could you suggest some programs that would take candidates without research?maybe an integrated program of masters plus PhD or a masters program that would qualify me for a good PhD program.

 

[Temperance]

Ah, I misunderstood your statement; you had meant that you had one year before applying, not that you had already had a year of experience. Sorry about that.

Here is a list of counselor licensing boards listed by state: http://www.counseling.org/docs/licensure/72903_excerpt_for_web.pdf

A quick skim shows that licensed professional counselors (LPCs) can practice in most, if not all 50, states with a master's degree. I don't know what the climate is like in Louisiana, but hopefully someone on the board can chime in.

For what it's worth (and now that I remember), a classmate I knew had a master's in counseling psychology from India and clinical experience there, but she attended a master's program in clinical psychology in the US anyway. I don't know if that means that you'll have to do the same. She's now working as a behavioral therapist.

PhD/PsyD programs tend to come with a master's component, so there isn't a separate integrated program. There are many master's programs out there designed to help students go to a PhD program, though. Do you have a specific research or clinical interest? If you know what you want to study (or treat as a clinician), it would narrow down some programs that would be a good fit for you.

 

[psych1391]

thanks a lot for that list.now i understand what the requirements for a license exactly are.
your friend would have re-done her masters probably because our masters typically involves only 250 to 300 hours of counselling practicum .Also you cannot work in the US with any other country's masters I believe.
so i have started working in 2 schools in India and I'm trying to explore what i would like to specialize in or rather find my specific area of interest under the broad umbrella of counselling.It could be child but i don't want to say anything as yet.BUT I love the behavioral school (skinner's,pavlov) in particular.could i do something with that interest of mine?In reference to studying further and not just applying it in therapy.
Also,can you clarify this for me?from whatever I have researched online i understand that this could be the hierarchy of preferred candidates.correct me if I'm wrong.
clinical PhD>clinical psyD>counselling phD>counselling PsyD.
based on factors like APA accredited internship opportunities,job opportunities and pay scale.

 

[eremitestar]

Also,can you clarify this for me?from whatever I have researched online i understand that this could be the hierarchy of preferred candidates.correct me if I'm wrong.
clinical PhD>clinical psyD>counselling phD>counselling PsyD.
based on factors like APA accredited internship opportunities,job opportunities and pay scale.

Counseling PhDs actually have higher (slightly) match rates than clinical PhDs, and accredited internship match rates are basically the same for both PhD types, for what it's worth. Match rates tend to be lower for PsyDs, especially when it comes to accredited sites. As for job opportunity, I think that depends more on your field (e.g., health psych, trauma, addictions, neuro) than your degree type. I also don't see much difference in pay scale, but that could be because I work for the VA with their nifty government pay scale. Anyway, what I generally see is jobs posted for licensed psychologists, not jobs for people with PhDs in clinical psychology. Then once you have the job, you make the psychologist salary regardless of what your degree is. I think insurance reimbursement for private practice is the same (that is, what you make depends on your license, not your degree). That said, you want a program that will set you up to be license-eligible, which means looking at APA match rate and EPPP pass rate. The big caveat here is if you want to do primarily research, in which case you would likely want the research degree (PhD), but it doesn't sound like that's what you're looking for.

[URL='http://appic.org/Match/MatchStatistics/MatchStatistics2015Combined.aspx']http://appic.org/Match/MatchStatistics/MatchStatistics2015Combined.aspx[/URL]

 

[smalltownpsych]

University PhD programs are highly competitive and are usually fully-funded whether they are counseling or clinical. So the cream of the crop goes there, for obvious reasons, and they tend to have the highest match rates for APA internships. These also will set you up best for an academic career. Then there are University PsyD programs that are partially funded or expensive, some of us go there for a variety of reasons and they tend to have slightly lower match rates, but usually acceptable. We tend to be competitive in most settings, but would have to make an effort to switch to a more academic/research track as for many of those students the research production is much lower than students from a PhD program. Then there are the free-standing professional schools (not part of a major university) that usually offer PsyD degrees and sometimes PhD degrees and take in 100s of students and often have lower than 50% match rates and low licensure rates and often have no actual research experience.