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Max
Student
New Brunswick, New Jersey
1
Question
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What degrees would I require to pursue a career as a Psychotherapist? ?
How much years of college would i need to do to go for a career as a psychotherapist?
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5 answers
Adrian Santos
Marine Security Guard
161
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Lome, Maritime Region, Togo
Updated
Adrian’s Answer
Psychotherapists often need a master's degree in a mental health-related discipline. Master of Arts (MA) or Master of Science (MS) in Counseling or Clinical Psychology is the most popular degree.
Several states require psychotherapists to have a license in addition to a master's degree. The particular licensure criteria vary by state, but often involve completing a set number of clinical hours under supervision, passing a license test, and fulfilling additional requirements such as ongoing education.
Some psychotherapists seek a Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Psychology, which may lead to teaching and research positions. Nevertheless, a Ph.D. is not usually necessary to function as a psychotherapist.
Noting that being a psychotherapist needs effort and commitment to the profession is essential. In addition to formal schooling and licensure, you will need to acquire excellent interpersonal skills and a caring and empathic attitude to working with clients.
Several states require psychotherapists to have a license in addition to a master's degree. The particular licensure criteria vary by state, but often involve completing a set number of clinical hours under supervision, passing a license test, and fulfilling additional requirements such as ongoing education.
Some psychotherapists seek a Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Psychology, which may lead to teaching and research positions. Nevertheless, a Ph.D. is not usually necessary to function as a psychotherapist.
Noting that being a psychotherapist needs effort and commitment to the profession is essential. In addition to formal schooling and licensure, you will need to acquire excellent interpersonal skills and a caring and empathic attitude to working with clients.
Chris Otieno Ochieng
Data Scientist
6
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Kisumu, Kisumu County, Kenya
Updated
Chris Otieno’s Answer
Psychotherapists are mental health professionals who work with clients to address a range of emotional and psychological issues. What sets psychotherapists apart is their specialized training and expertise in helping people work through difficult emotional and mental health challenges in a safe, confidential, and supportive environment.
One of the unique aspects of psychotherapy is the emphasis on creating a strong therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the client. This relationship provides a foundation of trust and safety that allows clients to explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors without fear of judgment or rejection. Through this relationship, psychotherapists help clients develop greater self-awareness, insight, and coping skills, leading to positive changes in their lives.
Another unique aspect of psychotherapy is the focus on individualized treatment. Psychotherapists work with clients to develop personalized treatment plans that take into account their unique needs, strengths, and goals. This approach recognizes that each person's experience is unique and requires an individualized approach to treatment.
Now, to pursue a career as a psychotherapist, you will typically need to earn a graduate degree in psychology or a related field. In most cases, this will mean obtaining a master's or doctoral degree in psychology or counseling. Some common degrees for those interested in becoming a psychotherapist include:
Master of Arts (MA) in Counseling Psychology
Master of Science (MS) in Mental Health Counseling
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Psychology
In addition to a graduate degree, most states require psychotherapists to be licensed or certified to practice. This typically involves completing a certain number of supervised clinical hours, passing a licensing exam, and completing ongoing continuing education courses.
It's important to note that the requirements for becoming a psychotherapist can vary depending on the state or country you live in, so it's important to research the specific requirements for your area.
One of the unique aspects of psychotherapy is the emphasis on creating a strong therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the client. This relationship provides a foundation of trust and safety that allows clients to explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors without fear of judgment or rejection. Through this relationship, psychotherapists help clients develop greater self-awareness, insight, and coping skills, leading to positive changes in their lives.
Another unique aspect of psychotherapy is the focus on individualized treatment. Psychotherapists work with clients to develop personalized treatment plans that take into account their unique needs, strengths, and goals. This approach recognizes that each person's experience is unique and requires an individualized approach to treatment.
Now, to pursue a career as a psychotherapist, you will typically need to earn a graduate degree in psychology or a related field. In most cases, this will mean obtaining a master's or doctoral degree in psychology or counseling. Some common degrees for those interested in becoming a psychotherapist include:
Master of Arts (MA) in Counseling Psychology
Master of Science (MS) in Mental Health Counseling
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Psychology
In addition to a graduate degree, most states require psychotherapists to be licensed or certified to practice. This typically involves completing a certain number of supervised clinical hours, passing a licensing exam, and completing ongoing continuing education courses.
It's important to note that the requirements for becoming a psychotherapist can vary depending on the state or country you live in, so it's important to research the specific requirements for your area.
Nathaniel Wander
anthropology/psychotherapy/writing
35
Answers
Portland, Oregon
Updated
Nathaniel’s Answer
Psychotherapist per se, is not usually a licensable professional title and to do almost any kind of work that connects with institutions—e.g. county mental health departments, hospitals, schools, insurance companies (both to bill a client's insurance, and to purchase your own malpractice insurance)—you'll need to hold a license or at least, be working towards one. Licenses are a state-by-state matter and include titles like licensed professional counselor (LPC), marriage and family therapist (MFT), licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), licensed clinical psychologist (LCP) and psychiatrist (MD). The real question is, how much education and training does one need to practice psychotherapy under a licensable title? The answer is: it varies substantially.
LPC, MFT, and LCSW generally require master’s degrees, which typically involve three years further education beyond a bachelor’s degree. They generally require an internship in the range of 600 supervised practice hours as part of the master’s degree program, passing a state approved exam around the time of graduation, and a further post-graduation supervised residency practice of 2400 hours. The numbers are approximations and are all-but guaranteed to vary from state to state and between titles. Some practitioners in these titles go on to acquire doctorates, which take at least 3-4 additional years of education.
Clinical psychologists are trained to the doctorate level, which are either post-master’s degree programs or fold master’s degree within themselves. Doctorates in clinical psychology come in two ‘flavors,’: Doctor of Psychology (PsyD), or the more traditional Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD-Psych). The former generally involve five years of post-bachelor’s degree education and training, while the latter take up to seven years and require the writing of a doctoral dissertation. I believe that counseling may also be a specialty in some education Ph.D. programs as well. That is to say some EDs also practice as licensable therapists, but I’m not sure under what conditions or titles.
Psychiatrists, depending on their specialties and training, may practice as psychotherapists. Their education and training includes four years of post-bachelor’s degree Medical School and four years of supervised residency after that.
Finally, there is the very specialized practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Until relatively recently only MD psychiatrists were eligible to train in this profession, but today programs in psychoanalysis generally admit students with post-graduate degrees in most mental health professions. Psychoanalytic training takes about five years, and requires the candidate to undergo their own psychoanalysis during that training at their own not inconsiderable expense.
That raises the additional matter of costs to gain the qualifications in one of the licensable professions. The variations are significant and include such factors as number of training hours involved, cost per hour, prestige of the training institution, expectations about earnings under the various titles. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, say, that licensed psychologists can be expected to charge more than counselors or if salaried, receive larger salaries, or that psychiatrists can expect to earn more than psychologists.
What course should a person travel through these levels of complexity? Seek out a bachelor’s degree in psychology in a quality university. Generally speaking, the more prestigious the undergraduate program, the better class of students it will attract—and the quality of your peers will be as important if not more so than that of your professors—and a prestigious undergraduate degree will open doors when it comes time to apply to graduate schools. Learn as much about as many different types of counseling and psychotherapy as you can manage, and meet and learn about as many different types of practitioners and titles. Possibly some of your teachers will be practitioners or have practitioner colleagues and/or friends they can introduce you to. Especially if you take your undergraduate training in a large metropolitan center like LA, NYC, or Boston, there will be likely be internship programs that accept advanced undergraduates. If your college is part of a university with a graduate clinical psych program, that would be a good place to begin seeking out extracurricular involvement.
If you expose yourself as broadly and deeply to various therapy/counseling bodies of knowledge and practices and to practitioners as an undergraduate, you should develop a pretty good idea of the direction you want your life to take, enough, at least, to make some informed guesses about which profession and what university or training centers will suit you best, and about how much time and money you are willing to invest in the process. It needn’t be all or nothing: people often begin working in master’s level titles while they acquire the money and/or the training to practice at the doctoral level.
One final thing to consider is where you might want to live and practice as a psychotherapist. Since licensing is done at a state-by-state level, and most programs teach to the license requirements of the state they are in, it may be easiest in at least the short run to seek training in the state in which you’d like to practice.
LPC, MFT, and LCSW generally require master’s degrees, which typically involve three years further education beyond a bachelor’s degree. They generally require an internship in the range of 600 supervised practice hours as part of the master’s degree program, passing a state approved exam around the time of graduation, and a further post-graduation supervised residency practice of 2400 hours. The numbers are approximations and are all-but guaranteed to vary from state to state and between titles. Some practitioners in these titles go on to acquire doctorates, which take at least 3-4 additional years of education.
Clinical psychologists are trained to the doctorate level, which are either post-master’s degree programs or fold master’s degree within themselves. Doctorates in clinical psychology come in two ‘flavors,’: Doctor of Psychology (PsyD), or the more traditional Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD-Psych). The former generally involve five years of post-bachelor’s degree education and training, while the latter take up to seven years and require the writing of a doctoral dissertation. I believe that counseling may also be a specialty in some education Ph.D. programs as well. That is to say some EDs also practice as licensable therapists, but I’m not sure under what conditions or titles.
Psychiatrists, depending on their specialties and training, may practice as psychotherapists. Their education and training includes four years of post-bachelor’s degree Medical School and four years of supervised residency after that.
Finally, there is the very specialized practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Until relatively recently only MD psychiatrists were eligible to train in this profession, but today programs in psychoanalysis generally admit students with post-graduate degrees in most mental health professions. Psychoanalytic training takes about five years, and requires the candidate to undergo their own psychoanalysis during that training at their own not inconsiderable expense.
That raises the additional matter of costs to gain the qualifications in one of the licensable professions. The variations are significant and include such factors as number of training hours involved, cost per hour, prestige of the training institution, expectations about earnings under the various titles. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, say, that licensed psychologists can be expected to charge more than counselors or if salaried, receive larger salaries, or that psychiatrists can expect to earn more than psychologists.
What course should a person travel through these levels of complexity? Seek out a bachelor’s degree in psychology in a quality university. Generally speaking, the more prestigious the undergraduate program, the better class of students it will attract—and the quality of your peers will be as important if not more so than that of your professors—and a prestigious undergraduate degree will open doors when it comes time to apply to graduate schools. Learn as much about as many different types of counseling and psychotherapy as you can manage, and meet and learn about as many different types of practitioners and titles. Possibly some of your teachers will be practitioners or have practitioner colleagues and/or friends they can introduce you to. Especially if you take your undergraduate training in a large metropolitan center like LA, NYC, or Boston, there will be likely be internship programs that accept advanced undergraduates. If your college is part of a university with a graduate clinical psych program, that would be a good place to begin seeking out extracurricular involvement.
If you expose yourself as broadly and deeply to various therapy/counseling bodies of knowledge and practices and to practitioners as an undergraduate, you should develop a pretty good idea of the direction you want your life to take, enough, at least, to make some informed guesses about which profession and what university or training centers will suit you best, and about how much time and money you are willing to invest in the process. It needn’t be all or nothing: people often begin working in master’s level titles while they acquire the money and/or the training to practice at the doctoral level.
One final thing to consider is where you might want to live and practice as a psychotherapist. Since licensing is done at a state-by-state level, and most programs teach to the license requirements of the state they are in, it may be easiest in at least the short run to seek training in the state in which you’d like to practice.
shontaa daniels
Technical Support
12
Answers
Naperville, Illinois
Updated
shontaa’s Answer
Hi Max. Psychotherapy seems to be a very interesting field. It does take a good amount of schooling . Visit this link about Psychotherapy: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-become-psychotherapist . It gives you a good look at what the position does and the schooling that s needed.
elliott k
Public School and College counselor
3
Answers
Brunswick, Maine
Updated
elliott’s Answer
Shortest amount of time is to get an MSW. Master in Social Work which allows you to do counseling and collect third party insurance from clients.