The career options that are offered to a student who has taken up a course in psychology are plenty. It is often assumed that a person studying psychology will only end up counseling. Counseling isn’t the only aspect of psychology, but it’s a big department in the field. There are many different careers you can pursue after studying psychology as an undergraduate, since psychology applies to so many different things: medicine, business, law, science, etc. Many people choose to take the counseling psychology route and go on to practice therapy in various settings.

If you’re going to work in the field of counseling psychology, an advanced counseling psychology degree is essential. It’s very difficult, if not practically impossible, to find a position in counseling psychology with only a Bachelor’s Degree. Apart from being difficult to secure a career option just with a bachelors degree it also restricts the options where you can apply. Mostly every position requires a person to be licensed, which involves going to graduate school. In graduate school, there are different paths you can take and different counseling psychology degrees you can earn.

Some people go for a Master’s Degree, which generally allows you to practice counseling. Others go further to obtain a doctoral degree, and the two big options are either a Ph.D. or a Psy.D. People with a doctoral degree usually work in a clinical setting. The Ph.D. is the more well-known and prestigious of the two. It emphasizes psychology research as well as clinical psychology. The Psy.D. is less known and relatively new, and it places an emphasis on actual practice of therapy. The downside to the Psy.D. is that it doesn’t get much respect and it can be expensive to earn, since you can’t get a scholarship. On the other hand, Ph.D. students can receive funding for their tuition.

You can find counseling psychologists at various places. Some counseling psychologists start up a private practice, which has a business aspect to it as well, since they have to market themselves and build a clientele. Others work in hospitals and schools, dealing with medical patients and students. Some work with individual clients, while others work with groups, such as in marriage and family therapy (MFT). There are also different emphases you can choose, such as working with adolescents, or people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or minority clients. All of these conditions have been found to have been emmensly benefitted by taking aid from a psychologist.

Jobs that require a counseling psychology degree can be fulfilling. Many enter the field of counseling psychology because they want to make a difference in people’s lives, and counseling allows them to interact with clients and help them directly. However, there is also a high risk of burnout when working in counseling psychology. The stress of repeated exposure to psychological problems or difficult clients can wear down a counseling psychologist.

It’s up to you to decide whether pursing a counseling psychology degree is worth it. People who are thinking about earning a counseling psychology degree should consider the pros and cons of being a counseling psychologist: the cost and time a graduate program takes, the difficult of working in such a field, and the reward of helping others.

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