What should I do? I am interested in becoming a therapist but also topics of psychology.

[Jwan622]

Hello message board!

My name is Jeffrey Wan and I came across your site while browsing various Psychology PHD programs and MSW programs with a strong clinical focus. I have recently been thinking about making a career transition and the idea of returning back to school to obtain either a PHD, MSW, or Psy.D in Psychology has become a more appealing idea to me. When I think back to my time at college as an undergrad, I really enjoyed my coursework in social psychology and intro to psychology. After graduation, I competed and worked as a professional poker player and derivatives trader, where human heuristics (mostly arrogance) were on full-display, and this further piqued my interest in the field. Since graduating, I have read as much as I could about behavioral psychology (Kahneman, Gilovich, McRaney among others) and the numerous heuristics that affect our decision-making and I believe I would like to spend some time further investigating these topics, and even dedicating my career to them. I also want to practice as a therapist and help people improve their mental health. Some other topics that I would like to explore further are Prospect theory, availability heuristic, familiarity heuristic, short-term vs long-term motivation and delayed-grat issues, the short-comings and excellence of intuition in making decisions involving risk, especially tail-risk.


I want to know if someone with my background would do well in a PHD program for psychology or a MSW program with a strong clinical focus. Here is a quick summary of my academic and work background:

-Graduate of Amherst College, cum laude in Philosophy. Honors thesis. 3.45 GPA, 3.6 Major GPA.
-Coursework in Intro to Psych and Social psych.
-710 GMAT, not GRE.
-3 years competing as a professional poker player
-3 years as a derivatives trader.
-I am currently 28 years old.
-I am about to attend programming school for a short period of time to learn some software development skills. I am also enjoy learning things that exhibit linear return on effort and I feel it makes me happier in some way.

I have some questions for you all:

1) Do you recommend that someone of my background and interests apply to a MSW or a PHD or a Psy.D? After years of working, I very much miss the rigor and experience of the classroom and I want to develop into a consummate professional. I am still looking for a discipline that holds my passion and interest, and I think an MSW with a strong clinical focus has good potential for me. But I am not sure. What might I not like about an MSW? I feel like a lot of the topics in psychology and statistics aren't well explored in MSW curriculums. Is this correct?


2) I have enjoyed therapy in my past and believe it is something that I’d like to pursue as a profession. I enjoy helping others and I enjoy learning about the topics. Is a MSW sufficient to pursue this path? Also, if I pursue an MSW and want to pursue a PHD in psychology, is there overlap? How much psychology content will I be learning in your MSW program?

3) Do I need research experience?

4) For whom would you recommend a MSW and for whom would you recommend a PHD?


5) What are the top programs?


I would very much appreciate your answers and your insight. I am currently just looking for some guidance in my career path and I would appreciate whatever words you may have. Thanks in advance guys

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[nessa34]

I would focus on getting some research experience to figure out if it's something you would enjoy before deciding on a phd vs msw. It's hard to really get therapy experience before school but it sounds like you already know you have an interest in that. Careful, though, research tends to not have a linear return on investment
You will not see much behavioral econ in therapy (at least as called such) but if you go into research you should check out neuroeconomics/computational psychiatry, which looks at these concepts in mental illness.