PhD/PsyD Career switch to Psychology...Help?

[OluwaChris]

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Hey guys,

I want to switch careers to psychology.

I have a background as a Social Worker and want to help women who have been abused or traumatized by an intimate partner. Removing them from the situation is one thing, helping them and their children get better and not see the male figure as a 'problem' is another.

1. I guess I'm just saying, what part of psychology can I study to do that. (Clinical? Trauma Focus?)

2. Also, What schools are the best to study the course in?

3. Finally, what lecturers can I study with?

P.S: I want to start a Ph.D or Psy.D in the United States in 17/18 session.
P.S.S: I'm getting a Psychology (Conversion) degree in the UK soon.

 

[WisNeuro]

Why not get additional training as a social worker in trauma focused therapies?

 

[OluwaChris]

Why not get additional training as a social worker in trauma focused therapies?

I currently live in a country that currently offers no opportunities of that sort. I will be studying in the UK from September and am hoping to get part time experience as a social worker in trauma focused therapies. But seeing as December is a few short months away and I need to get all my applications out by then, I would need some help choosing a school to apply to.

 

[deleted343839]

Are you mainly looking for psychotherapy training or do you have other career goals in mind? Is your goal to live in the US?

 

[WisNeuro]

You're applying this year for programs ?!? What's your GRE scores? How much research experience do you have? Do you know if your background meets all of the equivalencies and pre-reqs for US grad schools? Etc. Applying this year for US reputable programs may be quite a stretch from where it seems that you are.

 

[OluwaChris]

Are you mainly looking for psychotherapy training or do you have other career goals in mind? Is your goal to live in the US?

I'm mainly looking for psychotherapy training but I want to make sure I go specifically for a course that speaks to abuse and recovery and not just Clinical Psychology in general. I would like to live in the US at least for the duration of my training.
Thanks for the quick response.
I appreciate it

 

[WisNeuro]

I'd read through this first, seems like there needs to be some clarification of a few things.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/doctoral-applicants-read-first-helpful-threads.714255/

 

[OluwaChris]

You're applying this year for programs ?!? What's your GRE scores? How much research experience do you have? Do you know if your background meets all of the equivalencies and pre-reqs for US grad schools? Etc. Applying this year for US reputable programs may be quite a stretch from where it seems that you are.

I'm applying for 2017/2018 programs but I'm going to the UK in September for a Conversion Masters.
I have very little 'school' research experience but by virtue of my job, I have been exposed to a lot of Monitoring and Evaluation systems and the use of Statistics in the social sciences,
My background meets some requirements but I still have some work to do to meet all requirements (GRE).
I know applying for a reputable program might be a stretch and most reputable programs are geared towards Ph.D for lecturing purposes and not practice but I want to go to a good school. Reputable or not. Which is why I have asked for a response for specific lecturers I can contact them. I would like to at least try.
So far Northern Illinois University and University of Colorado Springs are taking the lead for me.
I appreciate your responses. They are getting me to think.

 

[WisNeuro]

Honestly, without having already taken the GRE, or having any research experience, the chances of getting interviews, much less an offer, are pretty slim for reputable programs at the moment. Also, the comment "most reputable programs are geared towards Ph.D for lecturing purposes and not practice" is a serious misconception. My advice would be to use this next year to beef up your CV and solidly research programs, and to make sure that you will be able to meet pre- requirements for admissions. Without those, applications don't even make it to reviewers' desks.

 

[OluwaChris]

Honestly, without having already taken the GRE, or having any research experience, the chances of getting interviews, much less an offer, are pretty slim for reputable programs at the moment. Also, the comment "most reputable programs are geared towards Ph.D for lecturing purposes and not practice" is a serious misconception. My advice would be to use this next year to beef up your CV and solidly research programs, and to make sure that you will be able to meet pre- requirements for admissions. Without those, applications don't even make it to reviewers' desks.

I will be taking the GRE near the end of the summer.
To clarify, although I want to end up doing a Ph.D/Psy.D, I won't go into any US programs directly. While the Ph.D is the end result, I would ideally want to go in through a masters program in the US thus enabling me to get a clinical background and perhaps be a Research Assistant to gain some experience.

 

[deleted343839]

I'm mainly looking for psychotherapy training but I want to make sure I go specifically for a course that speaks to abuse and recovery and not just Clinical Psychology in general. I would like to live in the US at least for the duration of my training.
Thanks for the quick response.
I appreciate it

The reason I ask about location is that you should probably train where you would eventually like to live. It's not easy to train in one country and become licensed or credentialed in another. The exception is the US and Canada where standards for clinical psychology training are very similar.

As clinical psychologists, we first learn general principles of behavior and psychotherapy, and then we go on to apply those to specific problems. We'd use the mostly the same basic vocabulary to conceptualize the difficulties facing survivors or intimate partner violence as we would to describe other kinds of learned, maladaptive thought patterns and behaviors. So while you might want to specialize in trauma, you'd also need to become a competent generalist. A Ph.D. program is usually 5-6 years of training and that does not typically include time spent in a master's program.

The alternative, depending on your scope of practice as a social worker, is to invest in intensive continuing education and find a competent supervisor to develop your skills in trauma and intimate partner violence. It won't be the same training but if direct service provision is your career goal, it might be a more direct path.

 

[OluwaChris]

The reason I ask about location is that you should probably train where you would eventually like to live. It's not easy to train in one country and become licensed or credentialed in another. The exception is the US and Canada where standards for clinical psychology training are very similar.

As clinical psychologists, we first learn general principles of behavior and psychotherapy, and then we go on to apply those to specific problems. We'd use the mostly the same basic vocabulary to conceptualize the difficulties facing survivors or intimate partner violence as we would to describe other kinds of learned, maladaptive thought patterns and behaviors. So while you might want to specialize in trauma, you'd also need to become a competent generalist. A Ph.D. program is usually 5-6 years of training and that does not typically include time spent in a master's program.

The alternative, depending on your scope of practice as a social worker, is to invest in intensive continuing education and find a competent supervisor to develop your skills in trauma and intimate partner violence. It won't be the same training but if direct service provision is your career goal, it might be a more direct path.

Thanks.
Can you recommend a few programs?

 

[smalltownpsych]

Yeah. It might not be feasible to pull off something like that this year. I was reading up on the British educational path for psychologists not too long ago and it is completely different so it will be an uphill battle as you need to learn so much about just what the steps you need to take are. In addition to the thread Wisneuro mentioned you might also read some of the WAMC thread to get a feel for the qualifications that US undergrads who are applying for doctoral programs have. Be careful of diploma mill programs.

 

[PsychMajorUndergrad18]

Hmm maybe a good idea for you would be to get a Masters in Social Work, get your LCSW (while making a feasible income) and then apply to psychotherapy training at a institute. A MSW program may be a little more likely to accept you as a foreign students especially with your experience in Social Work. If ya have ant questions, please pm me and I'd try to help ya out

 

[singasongofjoy]

I agree it sounds like starting with LCSW or maybe a master's in clinical psych might be a good way to go. The good doctoral programs that would allow you to get licensed/do the type of work you want (e.g., clinical psych) are extremely competitive- generally more competitive than medical school- and based on the level of your knowledge of the programs I think you might benefit from some additional time and experience. Applying to doctoral programs, taking the GRE, and traveling for interviews etc (if required) can get very expensive and is therefore worth plenty of research ahead of time. I live in the US and majored in psych and still took a full year after a Master's program to research which programs would be the best fit (and therefore offer me the best chance of getting in and best chance of doing what I wanted to do afterwards) and take the GRE. If you want to find programs where you might like to study, do some research by looking up published papers in your interest area. Then look to see where the authors' affiliations are. If you do this with enough papers you will notice some trends. Then look into those schools. If you're dead set on pursuing a doctoral program at this time, I suggest you purchase one of the books that lists all of the APA-approved (American Psychological Association) programs. That will also provide information regarding the necessary GRE scores and GPA. They also give you information about acceptance rates. That would be a good place to start for you. Also check out the thread that WisNeuro posted above. Most professors at doctoral programs would probably expect you to be relatively knowledgeable about the application process as well as what their program offers (all the info you can glean from their departmental websites) before you contact them for more info. Otherwise they may just email you back and tell you to look at the websites. You should have specific questions that cannot be answered via information readily available on the web before you email profs I think.