Seeking advice

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Psych_D

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Hello, all!



I am a psyhology graduate (4-year bachelors programme) and currently working on my MSc thesis. Up until April, my heart was set on working in the field of Health Psychology, so I pursued an MSc on Stress and Health Promotion. My thesis should be finished by October, and the Head of my MSc has approached me with an offer to hire me in one of the EU-funded programmes he is in charge of, once I graduate. Ironically, a little before receiving this offer, I had a complete change of heart regarding my career. I realised that I have always had a strong interest in sexuality (sexual orientation, gender, paraphilias) but I had never before considered it in terms of career options. Perhaps my perception was limited by the way sexuality is approached in my side of Europe -there is a distinct lack of classes, research programmes, or conferences, on the subject over here. So this is the data I am working with at the moment:



-Location is not a problem -I'm willing to relocate to another country or continent once I find a programme that fits my needs, though I have a strong preference for the UK (I just happen to love England).



-I have figured out that my interests are:

On a clinical level, offering counseling and/ or therapy services to people across the LGBTQI spectrum, regarding issues that touch upon sexual orientation and gender identity, offering support to Trans people pre- and post- transition, and offering support to people suffering from pedophilia, and other paraphilias.

In terms of research, I would like to work on developing behavioral interventions for people at risk of commiting violent sexual crimes against adults or minors, with a focus on pedophilia.



I am at a loss regarding my next step. Should I go for a PhD on the subject of pedophilia and look into developing interventions to prevent offending? Would I approach such a subject in a Forensic Psychology or Clinical Psychology PhD? And what possible career paths are there after I have completed such a PhD?

Or should I first pursue a (more generic) degree in counseling/ psychotherapy, with a focus on LGBTQI, and postpone working with paraphilias in research? (Keeping in mind that I have been told by members of the staff at my University that I am too young to apply for a PhD at the age of 25, and that I have no relevant work experience for the PhD I'm interested in).



At any case, I know that I am coming from a very different field, and I am thinking of taking a gap year before my next round in Academia, to read up on the subjects that I want to focus on. Any advice you have to offer would be apprecciated, because, as you can see, my thoughts are a bit tangled at the moment.

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On a clinical level, offering counseling and/ or therapy services to people across the LGBTQI spectrum, regarding issues that touch upon sexual orientation and gender identity, offering support to Trans people pre- and post- transition, and offering support to people suffering from pedophilia, and other paraphilias.

In terms of research, I would like to work on developing behavioral interventions for people at risk of commiting violent sexual crimes against adults or minors, with a focus on pedophilia.

I can only speak to the system in the US and Canada, but before proceeding with further training you should decide whether you want to be primarily engaged in research or clinical practice in your career. Your interests are fairly broad, so you should also give some thought to where you would really like to develop your expertise. The topics you have mentioned tend to "cluster" in two areas: sexual orientation/gender identity and paraphilias/sexual offending (the latter falling under the umbrella of forensic psychology). You're unlikely to be able to get sufficient training to make you a true expert in all of these topics.

There aren't many people actively conducting research on interventions for sexual offending, which is a shame because this is an area where interventions are still underdeveloped. It's a tricky area of research for a number of reasons, as you might expect. However, there are career opportunities in academia and practice for people with this expertise. There will always be demand for court-mandated services for convicted sex offenders.
 
Similar to what was already said, this is from a US and Canada perspective. I'm not too familiar with the trainings and education in Europe.

Your interest seems to lie in both research and clinical interactions. You want to create interventions, as well as interact with the LGBTQI population. What you should think about is what you want to do in as a career or after schooling.

The big question ultimately is, do you want to do research and create interventions as your job/career, or do you want to work one-on-one with the LGBTQI population? It seems that you want to eventually clinically work with LGBTQI population.

I think a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology it can give you the best option. With clinical psychology, you will get the training to be able to treat people one-on-one, but you also will have the research training. With this, you can take your degree and do what you decide. Since you have a research degree, you can work in academia continuing your research on developing interventions, and working with other clinical psychologists to test and implement these interventions that you create. You can also go the traditional route and after your Ph.D. studies, become a clinical psychologist and work with the LGBTQI population.

A Ph.D. in any other fields won't allow you to work on a clinical one-on-one basis because you don't have the training. You will only know how to conduct research, not psychotherapy. You won't be taught CBT, etc.

Since you like both creating interventions, and clinical interactions, a clinical psychology Ph.D. would give you a taste and background of both sides (research & clinical exposure). A Ph.D. in Forensic Psychology, or any other Ph.D.'s that isn't Clinical, will give you the research training, but you won't get the clinical background. You can create interventions, but you'll most likely have to work/collaborate with clinical psychologists to be able to implement and test them out.

With a clinical psychology Ph.D. program, you can work on your research interest while in the program, and then once you graduate you can work on a clinical level with your population of interest. I don't know any other route or degree you can take, besides Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, where you can both be involved in research and work on a clinical level.

With regards to what was said to you about being too young at 25, and having little work experience. With Ph.D. clinical psychology programs, they understand that it's hard to get experience in the field. You need to have a license to work with certain populations. Having any form of experience with your population of interest is great, but graduate programs won't weigh it heavily since it is understood that it's hard to get experience. Research experience is more valued, since you are going for a research degree.

If a more generic degree in counseling or psychotherapy, which I'm guessing will be a Master's degree, will give you experience, then maybe go for it. However, if you go with a Ph.D. clinical psychology program you'll most likely learn these forms of therapy while in the program.
 
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