Your Questions About Marriage And Family Counseling Programs

How Can I Discern if I Would be a Good Psychotherapist?

After several years of working as a home visiting special educator for a state program that serves children with disabilities and their families, I am thinking about making the jump to psychotherapy. I have a master’s degree in a human services field / helping profession, but the degree does not lead to licensure as a mental health professional; it is an advanced degree in education, but the coursework was heavily informed by psychoanalytic theory, developmental theories, family system theory, etc. I have looked into licensing requirements in my state, and I compared my transcript with the course requriements and I discovered that the only classes I need are Counseling Theories, Group Process, a class on diagnosing (I don’t remember what it was called), an ethics class, and a class about running a private practice. I would of course have to complete an internship and clock 8000 of actually doing supervised therapy. Then I could be licensed. I have actually had all of the other classes- as a matter of fact there were master’s level counseling / Marriage and Family Therap students in most of my classes. The state licensing agency states on their website that people can send in their transcripts to be evaluated and then can make up classes that are lacking without obtaining an additional graduate degree.

The problem is that I am not sure that I have the interpersonal skills to be a psychotherapist. I wonder if I am too gullible- if clients could pull the wool over my eyes. I wonder if I don’t read some people accurately enough. I also worry that I couldn’t handle intense transference / countertransference, considering that I felt so uncomfortable when clients expressed feeling dependent on me, and tried to insist on a friendship (which I never allowed). I worry that I might be tempted to abandon needy clients. I wonder if I would not be strong enough to handle that kind of intensity from clients—- because I am sure I only had a small taste of what psychotherapists go through.

How can I evaluate myself to know if this is a move I should make? Would a psychotherapist be able to help me discern this? How do people know ahead of time if they would be good psychotherapists? I only want to do this if I would be really competent and would serve my clients well, and if I could stand up to the pressures of it for the rest of my career- I would have about 20 years left.

Is there a process for discerning this? Are there red flags that I should look for in myself that would indicate that this is not something that I should do?

MA in MFT vs Counseling Psychology?

I am looking at graduate school to become a therapist. My career goal is to work mostly with adolescences dealing with trauma (abuse), loss/divorce, depression, etc. I know a lot of teenagers can greatly benefit from better communication within the family, so I was thinking Marriage and Family therapy. However, only a few schools in my area offer the program, and only two that I’d actually want to go to. One is extremely difficult to get into.

So, I was curious if a masters in counseling psychology would work just as well. I haven’t looked at too many schools for that, but know I could find a few options.

With my career goals in mind, what would you suggest?

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with my life lately.?

I am 19 years old, and my true love has always been for the arts (writing creatively , photography). However, I decided at the beginning of the year I’d do an Associate Degree in something I wasn’t exactly passionate about (Physical Therapy Assisting) so I could get out of college quickly, earn a decent income, and have many job opportunities. I’ve been re-thinking all of this lately as I am NOT happy. I want to do something I enjoy with my life, but I feel that it is impossible. I found out a few days ago that I could complete a Bachelor’s degree in English at my current college, and then apply to a Master’s program as a Marriage and Family Counselor. I would enjoy that, however, my GPA is 3.1 and I am scared I am not a good enough writer to REALLY excel in English. Even if I did, what if I couldn’t get into the Master’s program in counseling because of my GPA? How would I ever find a job with a Bachelor’s in English? I’d be screwed. I don’t know what to do. I just want to be happy.

Which Master’s degree do I need?

I am researching MS programs in the state of Alabama (to avoid paying out of state tuition). My ultimate goal is to become a therapist. I do not want to work only with children, only with marriage/families, and not at all with severe cases (ex. schizophrenia). What do I need to seek a degree in? I have found few programs labeled simply “Counseling Psychology.” I have, however, found a program in “Clinical Mental Health Counseling” and another in “Community Counseling” at colleges that interest me. Do I really need to enter a “Counseling Psychology” program specifically? Or will one the other two be sufficient? What is the difference between “Clinical Mental Health Counseling” and “Community Counseling” programs? All programs I have looked at are CACREP accredited, also.