Counseling Grad Student (and hopefully PhD student) here

[ThatPsyGuy]

Hey you all. I've been looking at this forum for a bit now, mainly learning more information about grad school and the like. Figured I'd drop an introduction and start chatting properly.
As the title says, I'm currently getting my M.A. in Counseling and I'm in my last year doing internships and preparing for the licensing exam. I plan to continue my education into a Counseling Psychology PhD.

I'll be transparent, I don't really know too much about grad school, I think I'm the first in my family to even go past a B.A. I never really grew up around anyone who was involved in either. But I have some goals of what I want in life:
1. Get a PhD in Counseling Psychology. (TRY to do Neuropsychology as a post-doc if it's possible)
2. Have a private practice.
3. Teach at the University level and/or be Speaker at conferences or mental health education seminars.
4. Research on the implementation of Mental health education in underrepresented communities (Normalize therapy and mental health upkeep, reducing stigma, etc.)
5. And finally, to make a comfortable and profitable living while doing all of this.

Anyways, I hope to get to meet you all and continue to learn from everyone.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[SDN]

Greetings ThatPsyGuy, welcome to SDN!

 

[jdawg2017]

Hey you all. I've been looking at this forum for a bit now, mainly learning more information about grad school and the like. Figured I'd drop an introduction and start chatting properly.
As the title says, I'm currently getting my M.A. in Mental Health and Rehabilitation Counseling and I'm in my last year doing internships and preparing for the CRC exam. I plan to continue my education into a Counseling Psychology PhD.

I'll be transparent, I don't really know too much about grad school, I think I'm the first in my family to even go past a B.A. I never really grew up around anyone who was involved in either. But I have some goals of what I want in life:
1. Get a PhD in Counseling Psychology. (TRY to do Neuropsychology as a post-doc if it's possible)
2. Have a private practice.
3. Teach at the University level and/or be Speaker at conferences or mental health education seminars.
4. Research on the implementation of Mental health education in underrepresented communities (Normalize therapy and mental health upkeep, reducing stigma, etc.)
5. And finally, to make a comfortable and profitable living while doing all of this.

Anyways, I hope to get to meet you all and continue to learn from everyone.

Welcome to SDN!

One thought r.e. #1: neuropsychology is increasingly becoming more specialized. I would not be surprised if board certification becomes a requirement to formally call oneself a neuropsychologist. In order to get the type of training where you would be set up to do a post-doc in neuropsychologist (if that's what you are saying, vs. like doing 5-6 eval cases during post-doc year) you need to: a) train in a PhD/PsyD program/ab which has neuropsychology as a strong component, including classes (at least a few), b) do 1+ practica in neuropsychology during your doctoral training, c) match to an internship where neuropsych is at least 50% of your clinical focus, and d) get into post-doc for 2 years where neuropsychology assessment is at least 50% of your focus.

People can learn some skills about it in other paths, but they will not be ready to be a neuropsychologist, and most good neuropsych post-docs want to take candidates who wish to seriously be neuropsychologists.

 

[summerbabe]

5. And finally, to make a comfortable and profitable living while doing all of this.

Getting into a funded PhD program will be pretty crucial, which might mean spending some time building up the research CV needed to be competitive if that hasn’t been an emphasis in your MA.

As a general note, while funded counseling psych PhDs might be a bit more relaxed with previous research expectations compared to the average clinical psych PhD program, experience with a lab, focused interests for doctoral study projects that align with a PhD mentor, and demonstrated research success such as poster presentations and/or peer reviewed articles will be necessary to be competitive. Good luck!

 

[Justanothergrad]

Getting into a funded PhD program will be pretty crucial, which might mean spending some time building up the research CV needed to be competitive if that hasn’t been an emphasis in your MA.

As a general note, while funded counseling psych PhDs might be a bit more relaxed with previous research expectations compared to the average clinical psych PhD program, experience with a lab, focused interests for doctoral study projects that align with a PhD mentor, and demonstrated research success such as poster presentations and/or peer reviewed articles will be necessary to be competitive. Good luck!

this will depend on the program and how the program is housed/mentorship works in the program. my lab isn't less rigorous in requirements or expectations for applicants, for instance. but in general I agree with your points.

OP, to be successful you will need research experience. I'm a little unclear how your interest in a private neuro practice aligns with your research interests and what that would mean for a mentor in grad school.

 

[ThatPsyGuy]

Welcome to SDN!

One thought r.e. #1: neuropsychology is increasingly becoming more specialized. I would not be surprised if board certification becomes a requirement to formally call oneself a neuropsychologist. In order to get the type of training where you would be set up to do a post-doc in neuropsychologist (if that's what you are saying, vs. like doing 5-6 eval cases during post-doc year) you need to: a) train in a PhD/PsyD program/ab which has neuropsychology as a strong component, including classes (at least a few), b) do 1+ practica in neuropsychology during your doctoral training, c) match to an internship where neuropsych is at least 50% of your clinical focus, and d) get into post-doc for 2 years where neuropsychology assessment is at least 50% of your focus.

People can learn some skills about it in other paths, but they will not be ready to be a neuropsychologist, and most good neuropsych post-docs want to take candidates who wish to seriously be neuropsychologists.

Hey I appreciate the feedback. I'll definitely be on the lookout for the programs that have a focus on Neuro-based classes.
In fact, I was researching my top 5 PhD schools that I wanted to apply to and noticed that they have a substantial amount of classes pertaining to neuropsych, so that's good news

Getting into a funded PhD program will be pretty crucial, which might mean spending some time building up the research CV needed to be competitive if that hasn’t been an emphasis in your MA.

As a general note, while funded counseling psych PhDs might be a bit more relaxed with previous research expectations compared to the average clinical psych PhD program, experience with a lab, focused interests for doctoral study projects that align with a PhD mentor, and demonstrated research success such as poster presentations and/or peer reviewed articles will be necessary to be competitive. Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback. I've been trying real hard to do a lot of research in my M.A. I'm, currently an R.A. in two different labs right now. I've also gotten quite a few publications submitted, one being the co-author of a (text?)book one of professors was involved in.

 

[ThatPsyGuy]

this will depend on the program and how the program is housed/mentorship works in the program. my lab isn't less rigorous in requirements or expectations for applicants, for instance. but in general I agree with your points.

OP, to be successful you will need research experience. I'm a little unclear how your interest in a private neuro practice aligns with your research interests and what that would mean for a mentor in grad school.

Honestly, I just forgot to add on my research interests in neruopsych. I'm definitely interested in research pertaining to Cross-Culture Neuropsychology and the efficacy of neuropsych assessments across different socio-cultural populations.

 

[Justanothergrad]

Honestly, I just forgot to add on my research interests in neruopsych. I'm definitely interested in research pertaining to Cross-Culture Neuropsychology and the efficacy of neuropsych assessments across different socio-cultural populations.

excellent. that would fit wonderfully. the one challenge that you'll have is that largely assessment is not an area focused on by most counseling programs/faculty, particularly in neuro. that said, you have a good area of work you are interested in - esp. if you have any research to back up that interest.