I never had a real chance to go to college. So now that I’m 31 I am going to go for it. The problem is what to major in. I have thought about this for years and while I am interested in many careers, I feel a real need to serve or give back to the community. That leads me to psychology. I have taken psych 101 and loved it, have participated in marriage enrichment seminars and workshops and found myself wanting to learn to facilitate them. Marriage counseling really appeals to me as well as general family relationship counseling. I see a need specifically for divorce couseling and blended family counseling.
My anxienty, however, is that I don’t know any psychologists personally and am not familiar with the actual day-to-day workings of being one. I wanted to be an engineer at one time and while I would have been good at it, I would have hated it. I have seen exactly what their job is like with deadlines, paperwork and long hours.
Also, what does the education involve? I am going to speak with a department head at my local college soon but I have no idea what to ask him about. I mean, is there internship? If so, what is it like? What areas of psychology do I have to choose from? Do I have to get a doctorate before I can practice or is there employment opportunies at a lower level?
Another anxiety I have is how personality plays into it. I am an ENTJ on the Myers/Briggs personality test. Is that conducive to a job in counseling? Or would it hinder me because I am not a sympathetic or emotional person?
I would just like some support and feedback from practicing psychologists to know if it would be something I would like to do before I spend lot of time and energy on it.
Thanks.
To practice as a councilor, IIRC, you’ll need at least a Master’s degree–i.e. graduate school. I’m not sure if you need a Ph.D. For example you can get a MSW, a Masters of Social Work, and become a social worker. For something like being a therapist, I suspect a Ph.D., but you’ll have to wait for a more qualified answer.
The vast majority of psychology is experimental, which means that most your classes will involve learning about experiments, their results, and their methods. As an undergraduate, you may have the opportunity to take one or two classes in counciling methods. IIRC, I took one (I had two undergrad majors: psych. & econ.) Don’t let that dissuade you, however, you may find the experimental aspect very interesting.
Your courese will involve reading, lectures, and papers. I didn’t consider the material difficult, others did.
The areas of psychology are very diverse. Broadly there is counciling type stuff, then there is experimental type stuff. There are also applied areas like school counciling or counciling for a prison.
There are many schools of thought and/or research. I would suggest visiting the about.com site on psychology. There you will find lots of links. Additionally, about.com has a bulletin board for each subset, IIRC, so you can actuall target psychology people with your questions. I think that would be your best bet for what you want to know.
As a psychologist and college instructor I’ll answer you as succinctly as I can. First of all 31 is not too late to do anything.
I do not know if you are working right now, but assuming you want to go full time, here is a good plan of action.
You will be able to apply for Returning student status. Which is a status of admission specifically given to adults. Don’t forget you are going to have to get all of your prerequisite classes out of the way while at the same time taking your intoductory psych classes. Like Psych 202 Stats, personality, interviewing and counseling, marriage and family, death and dying, abnormal, psych lit, and any specialty psych classes. Specialty classes include my field of study Environmental Psychology, or it could be industrial, organizational, there is a plethora of specializations.
My advice for you if you want to be a councilor would be to go into a human services, or social work field. And eventually get your LCSW (licensed clinical social worker) status. This will enable you to be a therapist and have the ability to throw a shingle up outside your door and accept third party reimbersement.
If you are an ENTJ you will be fine practicing psychology, you will be a good sensitive listener.
Don’t forget you will have to start taking those english, math, foreign language requirements. You can’t just jump into a pure psychology study. Stick with it and you’ll be fine.
Tell your academic advisor that you are a returning student, and work out your financial aide if needed, and you iwll be on the road in no time. Email me if you have any further questions I’d be happy to help.
Thanks so much **js_africanus[b/] and **Phlosphr[b/] for your information. I’m taking you up on your offer of email **Phlosphr.[b/] You’ll be hearing from me soon.
Posting the same question in two different forums is called cross-posting and is not permitted here. Please don’t do it again. I’ll close this thread and direct further comment to the IMHO thread http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3167764#post3167764
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