Is there a path from the Walden Tempo General Psych masters to a licensable degree?

[sanantone]

You may in face be able in that case to earn a Walden psych masters there (presuming you have another masters degree to qualify for admission) and transfer several courses, if not most of them, into CalSouthern's licensure eligible PsyD and straight up become a licensed psychologist.

CalSouthern requires you to have a psych masters to enter their PsyD program, so it will help you there. But they won't accept your Masters level courses for transfer into that program, they will only accept doctorate level courses for transfer, done on top of the required psy masters for eligibility.

That's not true. I was able to transfer 30 credits into their program because I had a 60 credit hour MA in counseling AND another master's degree which was used as the qualifying degree for entrance into doctoral study. They used a couple of my 60 hours plus my MA in religion to satisfy that, and still transferred 30 hours.

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I'm in CA.

And as far as LPC, I had never seen Licensed Pastoral Counselor until this thread.  I frequently hear a lot of folks getting dual licensed as an MFT and a Licensed Professional Counselor (sometimes also called a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor). Ya learn something new every day.

California is unique in many facets with certain licensed professions, and uniquely they dont require an APA accredited doctorate. You may in face be able in that case to earn a Walden psych masters there (presuming you have another masters degree to qualify for admission) and transfer several courses, if not most of them, into CalSouthern's licensure eligible PsyD and straight up become a licensed psychologist.

Most states don't require APA accreditation. They require APA alignment.

That is increasingly untrue (but relatively true form MA counselors with CACREP accreditation). There are only a handful of states that CalSouthern students (for instance) seek licensure in, California, Texas, and Illinois (I believe), and even then outside of California its very difficult to find clinical internship placements that accept students from non-APA accredited programs. Its functionally only possible in a handful of states.

There's a difference between whether CalSouthern's program will be qualifying in most states and whether an APA-aligned program will be qualifying in most states. As of now, most states either require an APA-accredited doctorate or an equivalent doctorate. Some programs may not be able to meet certain APA requirements, but they can develop the same curriculum that will be acceptable to licensing boards. 

Whether you can land an APA-accredited internship with ease is a separate issue and has little to do with state requirements. APA and APPIC internships prefer APA or CPA-accredited degrees, but an APA-accredited internship isn't required for licensure either.

[jsd]

You may in face be able in that case to earn a Walden psych masters there (presuming you have another masters degree to qualify for admission) and transfer several courses, if not most of them, into CalSouthern's licensure eligible PsyD and straight up become a licensed psychologist.

CalSouthern requires you to have a psych masters to enter their PsyD program, so it will help you there. But they won't accept your Masters level courses for transfer into that program, they will only accept doctorate level courses for transfer, done on top of the required psy masters for eligibility.

That's not true. I was able to transfer 30 credits into their program because I had a 60 credit hour MA in counseling AND another master's degree which was used as the qualifying degree for entrance into doctoral study. They used a couple of my 60 hours plus my MA in religion to satisfy that, and still transferred 30 hours.

Interesting. Thanks for the clarification. This goes against a response I received from the school previously.

[eLearner]

I'm in CA.

And as far as LPC, I had never seen Licensed Pastoral Counselor until this thread.  I frequently hear a lot of folks getting dual licensed as an MFT and a Licensed Professional Counselor (sometimes also called a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor). Ya learn something new every day.

As Dean accurately pointed out, it's not something that's done across the country. According to BestCounselingDegrees.Net:

"There are only six states in the United States that actually license individuals with the title of Licensed Pastoral Counselor (LPC), which are Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Since the other states still require pastoral counselors to possess a valid license to practice in their borders, it is common for pastoral counselors to gain licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) or a Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC)."


Here is some legal information on it from Cornell Law. It pertains to being a Licensed Pastoral Counselor in Maine which is totally not directly helpful since you live in California, lol, but it immediately showed as one of the six states mentioned above that license the field:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/...-Chapter-5

[sanantone]

If you were to attempt this, I'd recommend Capella Flexpath over Walden Tempo. This might sound strange, but I'd recommend Capella's sports psychology program over all of the others at Walden or Capella. It has the most credits, and it covers tests and measurements, learning theories, biological basis of behavior, applied psychology, research and statistics, and ethics and multicultural issues. It's just missing courses like counseling, cognitive psychology, abnormal psychology or psychopathology, psychopharmacology, social psychology, and developmental psychology. The Flexpath MS in Psychology would be the next best program, and it covers social psychology, lifespan developmental psychology, tests and measurements, research and statistics, learning theories, ethics and multicultural psychology. These are course requirements you might come across from various licensing boards.

[eLearner]

Because each state has an effect on how these bridge programs can operate, and because in-person practicum hours will be a part of it if your incoming mental health degree lacked them, the tough part may be finding a program in the same area you live that will accept your Master's. In some situations, you may end up only being accepted as a Master's holder but not able to transfer much, essentially starting from scratch only because the programs in your area have stricter transfer policies.