I want to study in the best place in the world

[Room19]

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Hi all!

I want to do my masters in psychology (in order to become a therapist), and I want this education to be actually meaningful.

Now, I know that “best” is pretty relative, so I will state here what matters to me.

I have had a disappointing experience during my bachelor studies, where the whole thing felt like a conspiracy between teachers and students to pretend that what we’re doing here makes sense. But then most people just wanted to finish and get their degree, so ignored the elephant in the room.

I don’t want to repeat that, therefore I want to find a school where “How is this relevant?” question is never avoided. I want to be engaged in, not merely tolerating, the study process. I want my teachers to be passionate about their topic and wise. I want the relationship between teachers and students to be honest. I want the content to be focused on understanding myself and learning to help others in the most effective manner. Now, the requests might be utopian, but I want to get as close to them as possible.

I have decided that location and costs are irrelevant to me, when there’s a will, there’s a way. I’m an EU citizen and would need the studies to be in English, though. Do you know of such places?

 

[Fan_of_Meehl]

Hi all!

I want to do my masters in psychology (in order to become a therapist), and I want this education to be actually meaningful.

Now, I know that “best” is pretty relative, so I will state here what matters to me.

I have had a disappointing experience during my bachelor studies, where the whole thing felt like a conspiracy between teachers and students to pretend that what we’re doing here makes sense. But then most people just wanted to finish and get their degree, so ignored the elephant in the room.

I don’t want to repeat that, therefore I want to find a school where “How is this relevant?” question is never avoided. I want to be engaged in, not merely tolerating, the study process. I want my teachers to be passionate about their topic and wise. I want the relationship between teachers and students to be honest. I want the content to be focused on understanding myself and learning to help others in the most effective manner. Now, the requests might be utopian, but I want to get as close to them as possible.

I have decided that location and costs are irrelevant to me, when there’s a will, there’s a way. I’m an EU citizen and would need the studies to be in English, though. Do you know of such places?

"I have had a disappointing experience during my bachelor studies, where the whole thing felt like a conspiracy between teachers and students to pretend that what we’re doing here makes sense. But then most people just wanted to finish and get their degree, so ignored the elephant in the room."

Could you possibly elaborate on this? I find it fascinating. What 'elephants' were in the room? This is an anonymous board and as 'safe' as a 'space' you'll ever encounter in life. What happened?

"I want the relationship between teachers and students to be honest."

Unfortunately, this is no longer safe in an academic environment.

 

[Room19]

Could you possibly elaborate on this? I find it fascinating. What 'elephants' were in the room?

I simply meant that the "education" felt dry and meaningless, but no one spoke about it openly.

 

[Fan_of_Meehl]

I simply meant that the "education" felt dry and meaningless, but no one spoke about it openly.

Which is an unspeakably dire and fundamental problem. Unless, of course, you're talking about a statistics or research methodology course and everyone was simply resentful about having to learn/master the material and had difficulty seeing how it would apply to their future work as therapists. It's still a reasonable question in that sort of class, but the instructor shouldn't have to provide an extensive justification. You're there to learn that specific material. Are you talking about this sort of situation or something else? If you were, ostensibly, in an environment that claimed to be an 'educational' environment and this environment was characterized by 'dry and meaningless discourse' where everyone was ignoring obvious 'elephants in the room' and so terrorized to speak/question freely then what you were in was not an 'educational' environment at all. To the contrary, it sounds like an indoctrination camp. Did other people feel this way too? Did anyone speak up and ask a respectful question about any material being discussed? Why didn't you do so? What were you afraid of?

 

[Ollie123]

We really are going to need more information here about what you want/hope to achieve versus what you want to avoid. Some examples (make up something illustrative if you are worried about anonymity) would be helpful, we can give you a sense of whether your expectations are realistic and where you might want to turn.

It is entirely possible your university was focused on bland, unnecessary details, archaic theory, classic "ivory towers" professors who can't think of any practical application for their work and view it as beneath them to even think of such things.

It is also possible you have an overly rosy view of what an education in psychology should entail. It is not a therapy session focused on "understanding yourself" though certainly a healthy amount of introspection can/should occur as part of the process. You will also learn research methods and statistics. You will learn lots of theory. Not everything will or should be immediately actionable for anyone in the room, let alone you personally. I'd argue any program that didn't involve those is far from the "best place in the world" and might actually be the "worst place in the world" when it comes to getting a psychology education. I mention this not to be accusatory, but just because some students do come in with unrealistic expectations about what university/classes will entail. For instance - I taught a course in "Motivation." It covered everything from Freudian/Jungian theory, to neurobiology (reward processing, sexual response cycle), to contemporary applications in workplace settings and clinical research. Some of my evaluations came back with "I thought this course was going to teach me how to be more motivated in my classes!" If you are this person, you will likely find therapy, coaching or even independent reading/reflection more helpful than school.

 

[Dahresto]

Is the goal to become a LPC?

 

[smalltownpsych]

Undergrad psychology can be an awful experience for someone who is passionate about psychology partially because it is the most popular major. Also, there is a lot of foundational material that needs to be learned before one can really get to the good stuff. My favorite undergrad classes in psychology were in psychobiology and research methods. Statistics was also extremely useful although a bit less enjoyable since I prefer the verbal to the mathematical.

 

[foreverbull]

Going with what others have said, it's hard to get a sense of what you're looking for without understanding your expectations/situation better.

In education, there are disappointing ways to teach material and some faculty have an aversion to open discussion about certain topics and stick to traditional material/examples rather than do real-life, application-based examples. On the flipside, sometimes it's just somewhat dry but necessary foundational material that you can't "dress up" to make super exciting for students. AND students can sometimes feel entitled or become hostile toward teachers because they don't like the material taught, teaching style, level of difficulty, etc. In today's increasingly polarized landscape, some teachers are afraid of student retaliation, which can stifle open discussion.

Not everything I learned in psychology was always interesting and exciting, but I accepted that it was part of the process and the breadth of knowledge I needed to know to be well-rounded in my field.

Not sure if this is far off from the point you're making about "how is this relevant," but relevance isn't always immediately apparent. Students should absolutely should know the psychology basics/history of the field before moving on to the deeper questions. Maybe you're more geared toward philosophy if you want to debate things in class and explore the nature of knowledge, dualism, etc.?

Again, hard to know what you're looking for without much context.

 

[ClinicalABA]

. I want the content to be focused on understanding myself and learning to help others in the most effective manner.

Graduate training should focus on the second clause above, not the first. It’s your professors’ Job to make you a better clinician and scientist. While this may involve some personal growth not related to being a competent clinician/scientist, that’s a side effect. It’s not primary and if you expect it to be you may have difficulties.