Getting the right experiences. (Pre-PsyD / LPC)

[sjLando]

Thanks to everyone who helped me in my first post Considering washing out of doctoral races, but 65k in debt t;dr i'm mid 30s transferring to university and have been a pre-psychiatry student for a long time (very non trad).


I still haven't started the psych-tech job yet so I may still end up desperately wanting to repursue medicine again. But,

Every day now I find myself on one of the crisis lines (as a counselor) or on reddit / other peer groups with acutely suicidal / imminent risk people and being in the weeds with them severely over my head.

I'm spending all of my free time reading journals, handbooks, online courses and articles, and making my own database / notebooks of resources and notes of how to be better suicide counselor / interventionalist / xyz. (I have no delusions of teaching myself how to be a therapist, but the resources do greatly help my knowledge and communication skills. I do receive some mentoring / feedback from the supervisors).

I have some good research opportunities given to me (first author potential), but I'm not passionate about them. I am overwhelmed at the thought of trying to switch universities to find a lab that is doing what I love, and I haven't even found one in my state (finances are a big issue). Trying to build a CV for PhD programs seems daunting, and ultimately, I would rather spend that time honing my own clinical skills and being on the hotlines over the next few years.

This is why I'm thinking of building my application to PsyD or LPC schools. I know MSW is vastly more recommended, but with the ACA changes it seems like it will be much promising in the future, and even still, at this point, I really do just want to spend the time doing things that interest me the most. I'm getting older, and priorities change. My willingness for hoop jumping is diminishing.



But really, I know I will be successful at what I'm passionate about. The issue now is finding people who are passionate about me and want to train me. My biggest fear of doing LPC is trying to find good supervision post-graduation. PsyD programs I know have a laundry list of issues, but at least everything feels like it is lined up for you, so you don't have to hunt for more things (outside of residency etc). (Talking about mid range and up programs, not the bottom barrel degree mills.)


I know this is the work I want to do, and I want to keep doing it over the years before grad school. I will have a lot of clinical experience (hospital, hospice, hotlines, etc), so I'm hoping that will help me in making my application. I'm still going to be involved in research and maybe have a publication. I already have posters from my previous institution but in microbiology.

I just need any help that I can get. I have nobody to talk to or ask advice about outside of here.

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[summerbabe]

My biggest fear of doing LPC is trying to find good supervision post-graduation.

There is doing what is needed to pass practicums and get post graduation licensure hours and then there’s intentionally seeking out supervision to specifically better some element of our clinical abilities.

Regardless, supervision will range from amazing to largely a waste of time and a higher degree probably won’t make you any more immune from poor supervision.

Sometimes we get lucky with amazing supervisors and sometimes we have to endure people who are checking boxes, don’t want to supervise but are forced to by their work, poor clinicians overall, have personality pathology, or are so taxed in other areas that they have very little to give. Hopefully, we still get enough foundational stuff to build upon once we venture into independent careers, including learning what not to do/be.

When it comes to genuinely improving our clinical skills, I think your options actually dramatically increase following graduation. Partly because pre-grad supervision is supposed to be focused on the foundations, rather than specifics.

Like any other trade or craft, it wouldn’t make a ton of sense to spend all of supervision diving into the advanced nuts and bolts of a specific treatment when the supervisee is just trying to be comfortable being in a therapy room, navigating basic ethical concerns, learning to conceptualize/diagnose, etc.

Once you’re passed that point, you can: pay/seek out supervision/consultation from an expert, attend advanced workshops, join or create a formal journal/peer supervision group, pick the brains of your peers informally with specific questions/cases, be a supervisor yourself and hone your craft in that way, and more.

If you were in a Masters program, you likely would do 1 year of coursework only, 1 year of coursework plus clinical pracs and then postgrad supervision. In a PsyD, that 1 year of coursework + prac likely extends to 3 years (or more) plus 1 year of full clinical internship and then postgrad licensure per your state.

So yes, there is more quantity on the front end but that can always be made up for on the backend. And IMO and from my personal experience, people who are dedicated to learning and intrinsically motivated will get more out of post-licensure opportunities than pre-licensure ones. Good luck!

 

[R. Matey]

Once you’re passed that point, you can: pay/seek out supervision/consultation from an expert, attend advanced workshops, join or create a formal journal/peer supervision group, pick the brains of your peers informally with specific questions/cases, be a supervisor yourself and hone your craft in that way, and more.

Agree here. Some supervisors will phone it in, others will take it seriously, but in all cases, you have agency in developing yourself as a clinician.

 

[chicandtoughness]

The LPC and PsyD (as in, a proper PsyD, not a diploma-mill for-profit FSPP) routes are really different. I'm an LPC/LMHC who is returning to school for psychiatry (also got into a few PsyD programs but ultimately turned them down to go pre-med). You mention wanting to be an interventionist but I'm curious what your end goal is. Do you want to have a career where you're engaged in research and therapy? Or only therapy?