Hey all! I’ve wanted to go into clinical or counseling psychology for years, but have not been able to make it work due to personal restraints. My husband is in his masters program, so there are limitations to moving, and I am the breadwinner for our family. So financial restraints/fears have a huge impact. I’ve ended up in corporate America and am just not very happy with it so trying to figure out if there is a way to make it all work. I have been thinking about doing a counseling masters (with licensure at the end) part time over the next few years so I can get into counseling with a MA or MS. Then one day for for a doctorate. Do you all have any advice if that is a good idea? Or unrealistic? Or really any advice. Thank you!
Masters then doctorate track
- Thread starter bbwinks
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Additionally, I have concerns about the salary opportunity for just a masters if anyone would mind shedding light on that issue! I’m in the corporate track so I am making decent money, but unhappy. So it is a difficult balance between providing for my family and families future, and trying to feel a bit of satisfaction from my career.
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Great questions. While that might seem like an intuitive plan, the mental health professions landscape is unfortunately a bit more complicated. A master's degree in counseling does not usually prepare you for doctoral coursework unless you seek out a counseling psychology doctorate. However, there are fewer and fewer programs designed this way due to weird politics in the counseling field so you would probably have to move for one of these programs in addition to moving for your final internship year of doctoral training. Many clinical programs may waive minimal coursework, but not enough to justify a master's degree.
If you wanted to stay put and do psychotherapy, a master's degree is always an option. There are threads on this, but a person with a master's degree can earn a good salary if you work towards speciality and market yourself effectively. Those who do the best are usually in private practice and have a well-developed niche. It's probably not your corporate salary, so that would be a trade-off to consider.
If you wanted to stay put and do psychotherapy, a master's degree is always an option. There are threads on this, but a person with a master's degree can earn a good salary if you work towards speciality and market yourself effectively. Those who do the best are usually in private practice and have a well-developed niche. It's probably not your corporate salary, so that would be a trade-off to consider.
Thank you for your response and insight! That is kinda what I feared about the masters to doctorate path. I think I just need to find a way to enjoy the road I am on, I always wanted to be in the health sciences and earn the doctorate title but my husband is chasing his careers dreams which kind of leaves me to support us financially, just too much pressure to risk our future on chasing careers that interest me. Sorry for the rant, cathartic to rant to strangers lol. Thank you again.
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Have you had any experiences or hypotheses to suggest you’d enjoy a clinical job?
The day to day routine can be a major grind and draining, just in different ways (interpersonal burnout, ethics concerns, managing patient crises, admin/documentation/insurance reimbursement burdens, etc).
If you work for a hospital/agency as a full-time MS or PhD therapy provider, you might be booked for ~25 hr long apts week in, week out. That’s a lot of your life spent being ‘on’, especially when you have apts back to back to back (think ~5 apts/day in a 8 hr work day every week of year minus some vacation/holiday).
Some settings may have you seeing more pts but for shorter durations (~30 mins). Running your own private practice includes more flexibility (but no benefits).
I enjoy my therapy-based job and get a lot of intrinsic satisfaction but it’s still quite draining and there are times when I am super stressed out, frustrated, or feel very incompetent.
Overall, this kind of work can be very rewarding but it’s also definitely not for everybody. Good luck!
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I did a counseling master’s degree and then immediately entered a doctoral program after that (I applied and interviewed during my master’s degree). Keep in mind this will take 7-9 years full-time (part-time in a master’s will be much longer) before you are licensed at the doctoral level should you get into a doctoral program. That is A LOT of years of making no income and I left grad school entering my career far later than peers who established their careers long before I was able to, and early career psychologists don’t make peak income for awhile.
Should you get licensed at the master’s level first, expect it to take 9-11 years at least, assuming you do get into a doctoral program as planned. Licensure will require an extra year or so after graduation of supervised practice before you are fully license-ready. You will not have time to practice much at all while in a doctoral program, and those hours practiced will not count towards your doctorate. Doctorates also usually require a postdoc year before licensure to get more supervised practice.
None of this addresses how difficult it is to get into PhD programs in the first place. The competition is pretty fierce these days, and you will need research experience that you won’t get with a counseling master’s degree. You’d have to volunteer for research on the side during your master’s in a psychology department or elsewhere to make sure you can show that you can do the research required at the doctoral level.
Not to say this is impossible, because it’s not. It will just take a lot of time and sacrifices financially. My advice is to make sure you know 100% this is the path you want to take. Find some folks at the master’s level who practice day to day and ask them what it’s like. Really think about why you believe you need both degrees and not just one.
