Major Career Change, NONtrad — Where to begin?

[36-switch]

Hi there! I'm a 36-year-old professional without a conventional psychology background, evaluating pathways to clinical practice.

Background:

• 2004/5 undergrad in Spanish and International Business, 3.79 GPA, honors
• Tested out of statistics, took intro psych
• Some math/science — calculus (A), physics (B), astronomy (A)
• Worked for 13 years in design / branding / sustainability / consumer research
• Started a small agency
• PT faculty at university
• Studied and taught meditation for 10+ years, about 7 months in solo retreat

Researching programs, reading journals, taking open courses, I believe my goal is to work toward making myself a viable candidate for a PhD program in Clinical Psychology. There are some compelling Counseling Psychology programs housed in Education as well. Friends have suggested MSW, however for me the coursework and focus on external factors don't hold the same interest as psychology. Perhaps a program with a clinical focus could be comparable...? If my goal is to practice, I can do that as an LCSW with a MSW — but again, the coursework looks very different (and naturally, lighter). But it is a faster path to practice...

My question — Where to begin? Where to get foundational coursework, research experience, opportunity to get LORs, and perhaps most importantly to clarify my goals? Which first step will provide the most opportunities? Which is the most time efficient? Resource efficient?

• Postbac programs (APA accredited)
• Masters in General Psychology
• Research assistant job at a university
• Something else?? (Please don't say going back to undergrad... unless you really think so but I hope you don't

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME AND ANY ADVICE

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[psych.meout]

Hi there! I'm a 36-year-old professional without a conventional psychology background, evaluating pathways to clinical practice.

Background:

• 2004/5 undergrad in Spanish and International Business, 3.79 GPA, honors
• Tested out of statistics, took intro psych
• Some math/science — calculus (A), physics (B), astronomy (A)
• Worked for 13 years in design / branding / sustainability / consumer research
• Started a small agency
• PT faculty at university
• Studied and taught meditation for 10+ years, about 7 months in solo retreat

Researching programs, reading journals, taking open courses, I believe my goal is to work toward making myself a viable candidate for a PhD program in Clinical Psychology. There are some compelling Counseling Psychology programs housed in Education as well. Friends have suggested MSW, however for me the coursework and focus on external factors don't hold the same interest as psychology. Perhaps a program with a clinical focus could be comparable...? If my goal is to practice, I can do that as an LCSW with a MSW — but again, the coursework looks very different (and naturally, lighter). But it is a faster path to practice...

My question — Where to begin? Where to get foundational coursework, research experience, opportunity to get LORs, and perhaps most importantly to clarify my goals? Which first step will provide the most opportunities? Which is the most time efficient? Resource efficient?

• Postbac programs (APA accredited)
• Masters in General Psychology
• Research assistant job at a university
• Something else?? (Please don't say going back to undergrad... unless you really think so but I hope you don't

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME AND ANY ADVICE

It's not entirely clear from your post, what do you want to do for a living? As in, what do you want to be doing on a daily basis? Clinical work? Research? Teaching? Administration and management of other healthcare provider (e.g., department head)?

 

[36-switch]

It's not entirely clear from your post, what do you want to do for a living? As in, what do you want to be doing on a daily basis? Clinical work? Research? Teaching? Administration and management of other healthcare provider (e.g., department head)?

Hi there and thank you for responding!

Clinical work. However, teaching is also a strength and passion. I don't have enough experience with psychological research to know if I'd like that to be my day-to-day.

I'd love to find the best next step that will give me enough experience to clarify my goals.

Thank you again.

 

[post-bacc]

Obviously, changing careers is a thought on your mind, though, before jumping in fully, make sure this change makes sense. The easiest way to explore clinical work without sacrificing your career is by volunteering with patients on the side (night shifts, early morning shifts, and/or weekends) while still in your current career. This will help you see first hand if this is something that is actually worth your while. If this is something you are interested in learning more about, let me know, and I can send you more steps on this.

 

[36-switch]

Obviously, changing careers is a thought on your mind, though, before jumping in fully, make sure this change makes sense. The easiest way to explore clinical work without sacrificing your career is by volunteering with patients on the side (night shifts, early morning shifts, and/or weekends) while still in your current career. This will help you see first hand if this is something that is actually worth your while. If this is something you are interested in learning more about, let me know, and I can send you more steps on this.

First, thank you for your reply.

Yes, changing careers has been on my mind for many years.

Yes, I'm very interested in learning more about how to volunteer with patients. I have not come across this yet in my research.

Thank you!

 

[EmotRegulation]

You might start by volunteering at a crisis phone or text line. They do a lot of training and you'll get exposure to people in significant psychological turmoil to see if that is appealing to you.

 

[post-bacc]

There are two ways that I know of for finding volunteer opportunities:

1) Go to the website of your local hospital, search for "Volunteer Coordinator", then call or email a volunteer coordinator to learn of hospital opportunities

AND/OR

2) Contact the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) globally to see if their services are offered near you, and whom to contact at your local hospital. If you google "Hospital Elder Life Program", that will take you to their main site and you can go from there!

 

[quickpsych]

Hate to say it but you'll likely need some basic psych coursework (although not always required) depending on your goals and programs being applied to. I imagine PhDs being more heavily focused on academia and research versus practice would likely require more than a stats and intro course.

In terms of Masters vs Doctorate a huge difference is in what you might want to do with it. A masters with a license is more than sufficient for counseling work; I have many colleagues who not only enjoy the work but some have even opened their own practices.

However if you want to do assessments/testing/evals along with potential to shift into administrative positions and likely almost any teaching position a doctorate (either a Psy.D. or PhD) will be the way to go. And in that case I'd say it might be easier to try to get into a Masters then go into a doctorate (some PsyD programs allow you to skip the first year with a Masters). The only downside here is that PhDs are often fully funded while Masters and PsyD programs cost money out of pocket. Also keep in mind many PhDs are in subsets of psych that aren't license eligible (social psych comes to mind). But without a strong background in the field I can't imagine an easy path to a PhD without some type of relevant research, more psych coursework, and a keen interest in research.

I like the tip about volunteering for a crisis line or something like that. It'll give you a taste of the challenges of direct service work like counseling and adds something relevant to your CV of experiences.

Overall I'd say research some masters programs in social work, counseling psych, or clinical psych. Unless you REALLY want to teach, be in management/administrative roles, or want to do assessments/testing.

 

[WisNeuro]

I imagine PhDs being more heavily focused on academia and research versus practice would likely require more than a stats and intro course.

This is very inaccurate for many, if not most PhD programs.

 

[ClinicalABA]

How "portable" is your current life/lifestyle? Doctoral training (Ph.D. or Psy.D.) will most likely involve 2 substantial moves- 1 for graduate school, 1 for internship. The time requirements will get in the way of family/personal life. It will be very difficult-impossible with young (pre-school age or younger) children. Even in a fully funded Ph.D. program, you are likely to be looking at a substantial cut in income. You will not be able to get adequate training and keep your day job- grad school is a full-time + endeavor. Any school or training model that tells you otherwise is being deceitful and likely more interesting info getting your tuition money (which could be 100-200k for a Psy.D. or non-uni based Ph.D.). Even in a fully funded Ph.D. program, you'll likely take a financial hit for at lease 7 years (5 years in school, 1 year pre-doc internship, 1 year post-doc supervised position- add in a few more years to get the career- and salary- up and running). You'll get a stipend, but it may not compare with income from your current job. If others rely on your current income, doctoral training is likely to lower their standards of living for many years. If everything went perfectly (i.e., accepted for fall 2019 start; get internship on first year of eligibility; complete required post-doc hours in a year), you are looking at a SUBSTANTIAL change to your living standards and quality of life until your mid- to late-forties. This includes things like not knowing where you will geographically end up for you career. If you go to a non-funded doctoral program and have to finance it with loans (which you should not even consider), you might be looking at 10-20 years of HUUUGGGGE loan payments (1000+ per month).

It can be done (heck, most of us around here did it, and there's got to be at least a few of us who are a bit questionable as humans), but you really need to prepare yourself and those close to you for some big changes should you choose the doctoral training route. If you are looking to primarily do direct counseling work, a masters degree and certification may be a much better/only reasonable option.