Paths to psychotherapy

[Headless Stranger]

Hi,

I am currently planning my career with the final end goal of becoming a licensed psychotherapist. I'm planning to get my ADN and becoming a registered nurse. Then work for a year, get some experience and do travel nursing. I'm interested in majority of the nursing specialties, but mental health nursing seems the most attractive to me (comparing to other nursing specialties), so I'm probably going to pursue that. After that happens I have a couple choices:
ADN -> BSN -> Masters in Mental Health -> Mental Health Psychiatric NP, with eventually their own PP.
ADN -> BSN -> M in Psy -> PHD/PsyD
AND -> B in Psychology -> M in Psy -> PHD/PsyD
AND -> B in Psychology -> -> PHD/PsyD
Or some other way.

My biggest interest is probably clinical psychology.
What I want to do achieve ultimately is to do psychotherapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy. I want to work with people and try and solve their problems in life, not just prescribe and monitor how the drug takes effect.
I know that a MHPNP makes more money, but how much psychotherapy do they give? How much freedom do they have? What kind of patients do they have?
I would like to do research one day, but it is not necessary.
I love the psychoanalytic model by Jung, psycho-somatic therapy model like Somatic Experiencing and IFS. I thought perhaps during my nursing experience I could learn about SE and maybe help patients using that (if allowed).

What do y'all think? What seems like the best and possible path for me to take?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[WisNeuro]

Hi,

I am currently planning my career with the final end goal of becoming a licensed psychotherapist. I'm planning to get my ADN and becoming a registered nurse. Then work for a year, get some experience and do travel nursing. I'm interested in majority of the nursing specialties, but mental health nursing seems the most attractive to me, so I'm probably going to pursue that. After that happens I have a couple choices:
ADN -> BSN -> Masters in Mental Health -> Mental Health Psychiatric NP, with eventually their own PP.
ADN -> BSN -> M in Psy -> PHD/PsyD
AND -> B in Psychology -> M in Psy -> PHD/PsyD
AND -> B in Psychology -> -> PHD/PsyD
Or some other way.

What I want to do achieve ultimately is to do psychotherapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy. I want to work with people and try and solve their problems in life, not just prescribe and monitor how the drug takes effect.
I know that a MHPNP makes more money, but how much psychotherapy do they give? How much freedom do they have? What kind of patients do they have?
I would like to do research one day, but it is not necessary. What do y'all think is the best path.
I love the psychoanalytic model by Jung, psycho-somatic therapy model like Somatic Experiencing and IFS. I thought perhaps during my nursing experience I could learn about SE and maybe help patients using that (if allowed).

What do y'all think? What seems like the best and possible path for me to take?

Research experience would be good, it would help you weed out pseudoscience, like most of the SE stuff.

 

[R. Matey]

A BSN with a psych minor would probably be more useful to you than a psych degree since graduate education to become a therapist doesn't necessarily require a psych degree. I'm pretty sure psych NPs can do therapy, but you'll likely need to heavily supplement with postgraduate training since that's really not the focus of the program--I've heard many patients say they have received 'therapy' from their NPs, which doesn't really amount to more than a supportive relationship. So, I guess I would want to know if you ever see yourself prescribing and, if yes, why not pursue psychiatry?

 

[Headless Stranger]

A BSN with a psych minor would probably be more useful to you than a psych degree since graduate education to become a therapist doesn't necessarily require a psych degree. I'm pretty sure psych NPs can do therapy, but you'll likely need to heavily supplement with postgraduate training since that's really not the focus of the program--I've heard many patients say they have received 'therapy' from their NPs, which doesn't really amount to more than a supportive relationship. So, I guess I would want to know if you ever see yourself prescribing and, if yes, why not pursue psychiatry?

I edited the post because I think I made myself unclear. I am interested in mental health specialty when it comes down to nursing, but the optimal end goal would be clinical psychology or possibly, maybe Psych NP, if I could give psychotherapy and you can also convince me that it's more worth it.

To answer, sure, I could prescribe, but I don't really want to.
The psych minor seems like a good idea.

I think what I am looking for is a path that opens up the door to potentially going into clinical psychology PHD, but simultaneously gives me a good paying job were I could support myself and pay for college.

Now that I think about it: What are the chances of me getting into a clinical psychology PHD with a BSN and a minor in psychology?

 

[Headless Stranger]

Research experience would be good, it would help you weed out pseudoscience, like most of the SE stuff.

Maybe. Who knows maybe I'll learn about something else. I'm pretty open.
I've read some of your posts on other forums. I'm curious.
What do you do for a living and what do you specialize in?
Could you describe your journey to becoming a clinical neuropsychologist?

 

[R. Matey]

Now that I think about it: What are the chances of me getting into a clinical psychology PHD with a BSN and a minor in psychology?

Assuming you met the basic academic requirements and you had appropriate research experience, as Wis suggested, I think your chances would be pretty good. You should know though that it is difficult to work, even part time, during many Ph.D. programs because the academic demands can be quite a lot.

 

[The Cinnabon]

Hi,

I am currently planning my career with the final end goal of becoming a licensed psychotherapist. I'm planning to get my ADN and becoming a registered nurse. Then work for a year, get some experience and do travel nursing. I'm interested in majority of the nursing specialties, but mental health nursing seems the most attractive to me (comparing to other nursing specialties), so I'm probably going to pursue that. After that happens I have a couple choices:
ADN -> BSN -> Masters in Mental Health -> Mental Health Psychiatric NP, with eventually their own PP.
ADN -> BSN -> M in Psy -> PHD/PsyD
AND -> B in Psychology -> M in Psy -> PHD/PsyD
AND -> B in Psychology -> -> PHD/PsyD
Or some other way.

My biggest interest is probably clinical psychology.
What I want to do achieve ultimately is to do psychotherapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy. I want to work with people and try and solve their problems in life, not just prescribe and monitor how the drug takes effect.
I know that a MHPNP makes more money, but how much psychotherapy do they give? How much freedom do they have? What kind of patients do they have?
I would like to do research one day, but it is not necessary.
I love the psychoanalytic model by Jung, psycho-somatic therapy model like Somatic Experiencing and IFS. I thought perhaps during my nursing experience I could learn about SE and maybe help patients using that (if allowed).

What do y'all think? What seems like the best and possible path for me to take?

Lowly post-bacc RA here, but I've been interested in psychedelic-assisted therapy for quite a bit although I'm far more interested in the research end of things. Just wanted to chime in that it's probably going to be a few years (or a lot) before it becomes remotely commonplace in standard practices of care, for the immediate future it'll remain mostly in the realm of research (although I know those PNW hippies legalized it to be used in clinical settings).

If you're just interested in becoming a facilitator you don't need a Ph.D. to get into that, I've seen all types of weird titles as the role of facilitator. Nothing is stopping you from applying to centers that do that research and perform psychedelic-assisted therapy in clinical trials. I would still strongly recommend if you wanted to skip the doctorate that you'd go for an LCSW. If psychedelics become commonplace in standards of care within the next decade or two I could also see added regulations on who can be a facilitator for what should be obvious reasons.

 

[Mama Bear]

I suspect there’s a way to pursue additional training to provide therapy as a NP, but you ask if it’s worth it. Here’s the thing: med management pays more. You can often see more patients in a period of time. Psychotherapy pays less, and you see less people in a day (b/c one hour sessions). It can be difficult to offer the time suck service if you have a skill set that pays more and is in demand.

So what do you want to do on the day to day? That may help guide what is worth it to you.

 

[smalltownpsych]

A Psych NP is not a path to becoming skilled at providing psychotherapy. To even reach a baseline level of competence, one would have to pursue the equivalent of another Masters and a couple of thousand hours of supervision from a skilled psychotherapist. Most Psych NPs that I have worked with seem to think they know how to do therapy and they have almost zero experience, education, or training.