How did you decide between counseling and clinical?

[PizzaButt]

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I'm a non-trad applicant, 30, married, and was not a psych major. I'm currently an RA and am taking my pre-reqs to apply to PhD programs. But I can't seem to decide between counseling and clinical. What factors did you consider when making the decision?

Thanks!

 

[JockNerd]

I'm going to a counseling program, but my applications were split pretty evenly among couseling and clinical programs. I honestly didn't factor in counseling/clinical at all when decided. My major considerations were:

1. research match
2. research match prof does a lot of research
3. research match prof available
4. funding is at least full tuition waiver & some sort of stipend

One thing to keep in mind--many counseling psych departments are in the faculty of education. This can be a problem--there's MUCH less teaching experience available, in my experience. Also, the Ed. dept. counseling programs I saw weren't as gung-ho about research as I would have liked.

Interestingly, no one I know of in my counseling psych dept. does vocational research, which seemed to be the "crown jewel" of a lot of the programs.


BTW, I was asked this question ("Why counseling and not clinical?") at EVERY counseling dept. I interviewed at, often more than once. Everyone seemed pleased with my answer (that it wasn't a consideration).

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Back when I was applying...I thought Counseling was a very different area, so it was never a consideration. I didn't know about SDN back then (not sure if they had the psych forum yet).

-t

 

[doctorpsych]

I'm a non-trad applicant, 30, married, and was not a psych major. I'm currently an RA and am taking my pre-reqs to apply to PhD programs. But I can't seem to decide between counseling and clinical. What factors did you consider when making the decision?

Thanks!

I think there is more of a difference in academia regarding the two subfields of psychology; however, in the working world, both subfields have generally converged in many areas. I know many counseling interns apply for hospital spots and clinical psych (less so) apply for college counseling spots. I even know a few counseling folks going into forensics. But stereotypically, counseling folks tend to be more inclined toward a developmental perspective as opposed to a medical/pathological orientation among clinical folks. In the academic route, counseling folks tend to do research in multiculturalism, identity issues, career, etc. Clinical profs tend to be interested in disorders, outcome of tx, etc. As noted in one of the post, research is the key in gradschool, so matching research interest is a good idea. But when you get out (if you want to practice), there are more similarities than differences IMHO.

 

[Neuro-Dr]

Clinical is driven more by assessment and diagnosis that fits less well with many counseling programs. The assessment courses and appraisal of individuals is limited. Alos, if you may be interested in specializing in neuro, forensics, health, and some other areas, you will find less access to these in counseling programs. Before all the counseling folks reply about how their program has some or all of these programs, just know that I'm pointing out generalities about the two areas, they are not mutually exclusive. However, I would considers these issues with ANY program I was interested in whether clinical or counseling.

 

[terrybug]

I applied to both types of programs and let them decide. There were so many similarities and the whole thing is so competitive that I would have been happy to attend any of the programs.

I'm a non-trad applicant, 30, married, and was not a psych major. I'm currently an RA and am taking my pre-reqs to apply to PhD programs. But I can't seem to decide between counseling and clinical. What factors did you consider when making the decision?

Thanks!

 

[Cosmo 23]

Doctorpsych pointed out some good distinctions, most of which are academic and theoretical, few of which will impact your clinical opportunities. Most counseling programs start clinical training earlier than clinical promgrams. This is the best comparative article I've found that contains actual facts and data: http://www.psichi.org/pubs/articles/article_73.asp

Also, I would suggest you search past threads for clincial vs. counseling or something of that nature. I started multiple threads on this topic earlier this year and there was some informed dialogue at the time. Although there was some uninformed dialogue so make sure you take it with a grain of salt and realize many in the clinical camp become very defensive when you suggest counseling and clinical are more or less same disciplines with nuanced differences. One important thing to know is that counseling psychologistis and clinical psycholigists are eligible for the same license in every state.

For me, I applied to both clinical and counseling programs, had a masters in counseling already, am 31 and married, having children soon. I was accepted to both clinical and counseling programs in NYC area and chose a counseling one based on the culture/tone of the program, the flexibility, and the relative maturity of the students and professors. The clinical programs I interviewed at were much more structured and offered significantly less flexibility in terms of accounting for my previous academic, clinical, and professional experiences. (Ie, everyone starts at the same starting line regardless of what you're bringing to the table...vs my counseling program I am getting a signfiicant amount of credit for my masters classes and masters practicum at Bellevue Hospital.)

Good luck!

PS - I agree with Terrybug's approach...if you know where you want to live (as I did), I would apply to both counseling and clinical programs in that area and that make any decisions based on how the application process proceeds, your interviews, where you are accepted, etc. Don't rule out one or the other group of programs at this stage, since the programs are so competitive...