Deciding on a masters for therapy - help?

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treesinaforest

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Hi!

So I've been having trouble getting feedback elsewhere, so I was hoping you lovely folks might be able to help.

I'm basically wondering what kind of Master's degree I should pursue to practice therapy.

My interests include:
  • Relationship/family therapy
  • "Positive Psychology"—basically, I'm interested in helping people thrive and find meaning (spiritual counseling?)
  • Career counseling and personality testing
  • I'd like to pursue a degree that would allow me to eventually gain my BCBA credential (with some additional schooling)
To my knowledge, the only degree that could meet all the above criteria would be some type of clinical psych masters with a relationship/family concentration. If I were to forego the BCBA credential, I could probably go with either an MSW or an MFT degree, as well.

Is there anything I'm missing? Thoughts, reflections?

Thank you!

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Honestly, I have some significant doubts about becoming a therapist, but I also often find myself steered in this direction. The role that appeals to me, in a therapeutic setting or otherwise, is that of teacher/mentor/coach/consultant. There's a degree of ego involved; I fear the part of me that wants to "have the answers" may at times be warring with the part of me that wants to help to the extent that the two are mutually exclusive in a therapeutic setting. Secondly, I do most certainly possess the skillset to empathize and help people realize/validate their feelings, and I have no problem doing so, but that's about the extent of my interest in terms of helping with everyday psychological/emotional issues. Generally speaking, I am far more interested in helping people realize and actualize their ideal life, as I think is reflected fairly well in the above interests.
 
Well first you want to find out what Master's degrees are licensed to practice therapy in the state you want to work in. Not all states will license a Master's in Clinical Psychology for example, so you want to make sure you aren't wasting your time on a degree that limits your options. Then once you find out what degrees those are you can start comparing programs to find out which would best fit your interests. I imagine at a minimum you'd want to consider Master's programs in Counseling, Social Work, and Marriage and Family Therapy and see if any of those programs have a BCBA specialization or at least would support your interest in pursuing that as well.

If you see yourself more in a teacher/mentor/coach/consultant role then it might be better to consider a PhD. Yes there are some opportunities to do those things at the Master's level, but there would be even more opportunities (and perhaps additional financial incentives) at the PhD level.
 
TBH if you go the BCBA route you probably won't be doing a lot of spiritual/employment/family therapy or personality testing. I mean those skills are good to have but going to be pretty ancillary if you're doing BCBA focused work. I'd suggest either narrowing down your interests, or get into a program with a fairly open mind and see what you naturally gravitate towards. Or you could focus more on the employment side of things. Look into working for vocational rehabilitation or supported employment. I worked in SE for a while and it is still my most favorite job I have ever had. Rehabilitation Counseling programs tend to focus on the types of "achieve your potential" type work. Have to make sure you can get out with a licenseable degree (license is different than certification) or work for a program where that's not necessary (might be able to work with state VR in various roles without a license, not sure. Would require more digging).
 
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