Gather, round, it's a long tale, if you are interested.
My father is a PhD in Physics. My mother is an RN. My sister is a board-certified EM doc, married to an eye surgeon.
After conquering a paralyzing phobia of flying thorough a great class at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo, CA about 5 years ago, I was asked by the doctor who created the program to co-facilitate the class. It's called Phobease.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/12/30/CM99668.DTL
A reporter from the SF Chronicle came to do a story on this class that has been in session for 18 years. The class averages about 70 people per ten-week class at $100 a class. Not bad, considering it's a two hour class for ten weeks. That's 5 bucks an hour. You can't even learn to play guitar for that amount of money.
I'm the one in the Catholic School Girl costume. That day we were asked to dress up as something that was embarrassing and talk to the class about why it was embarrassing for us.
For the first hour of each class, I lead the small group of people with social anxiety. After a year of co-facilitating the adult class and the children's class, I became certified to teach this class on my own. Mind you, this is NOT therapy and does not claim to be. It is simply a class that teaches CBT techniques and desensitization hierarchy techniques to those that are looking to conquer their phobias.
I became passionate about psychology.
Everyone in my family thought I was nuts. At first, my immediate family equated psychology to voodoo or some such nonsense. They did not understand or recognize psychology as a science.
I had dozens of conversations with them as I took the prereq classes to get into a PsyD program. I did not have a BS in psychology, as my conquering fear came almost 6 years after graduation from college with an unrelated degree.
I patiently explained the difference between social work/psychology/MSW/LCSW/PsyD/Phd in Clinical Psych/PhD in Psych to my family over and over.. There can be a lot of overlap, so it was a learning experience for all of us.
After I had taken about 12 prereq classes in psych at an accredited commuter college, Northeastern in Chicago, I applied to several schools in northern CA, where the weather agreed with me. I ended up choosing an Argosy campus, not knowing that almost everyone in the field considers Argosy to be a diploma mill.
I excelled in my classes, but got into a serious car accident two days into finals for the first semester. I made it through finals and got all As. But I was physically and emotionally unable to continue at that time. I needed to go home to where my parents were to heal, physically and emotionally. I exhibited symptoms of PTSD from the accident.
In the time since then, I found SDN and learned about the poor reputation of Argosy programs. Very few fourth years receive APA accredited internships in their fourth years at Argosy campuses.
On SDN, those in their fields told me that there was very little respect for those who attended Argosy, a school that had a campus in every major city.
What a terrible wake up call. I knew that I needed to prepare much more rigorously for a PsyD program at a university.
I am now preparing for the GRE. I'm so glad I googled "Psyd forum" and found this great resource.
Argosy was easy to get into. Looking at more reputable schools, I know I must gain experience in research and volunteer experience. I must take this time to get such experience if I hope to get into a reputable school.
It is so hard to take time off and gain experience instead of going back to an Argosy campus. I know that I need an APA accredited internship, which an education at Argosy rarely provides the opportunity for.
I envy those who knew years ago what they wanted to do as a career as an undergrad and had the resources to choose a competitive and respected program.
After dozens of conversations, my whole family understands the education that I am trying to pursue.
Don't give up. Unbiased information about schools can be hard to come by. I have bought all the appropriate books. Do your research and have data to present to your family.
If they ultimately will not understand and support you, it is okay. They may never understand. It can be irrelevant if you decide that your opinion and knowledge trumps their fears and misconceptions.
You know whats right for you more than anyone else.
"Maddie"
Goodluck
