Pathway to practicing therapy

[tinyweathers]

Hi all! Thanks for taking the time to help me figure this out. I attended a traditional RA 4-year school from 2008-2011 and... did not thrive.  

GPA: 1.42 

Causes are addressed and I am eager to get back on the degree horse, now that I'm aware of this approach. Thankfully, the subject I originally picked by default is still applicable. 

Your Location: WA, USA
Your Age: 33
What kind of degree do you want?: Psychology BA, Masters in relevant field for practicing therapy
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 62?

School Name Total Credits: Advanced Placement credit transfer, Total Credit 9
ENGL 210 Topics in Literature 3.00
PSYC 201 Intro Psy as a Natural Science 3.00
PSYC 202 Intro Psy as a Social Science 3.00

School Name Total Credits: RA college in Virginia, Total Credit 53
ARTH 251 Survey: Art Hist I 3.00 D-
PSYC 301 Elementary Statistics 3.00 B
PSYC 310 Developmental Psychology 3.00 C+
PSYC 312 Personality Theory 3.00 A-
RELG 201 Introduction to Religion 3.00 B
ENGL 204 British Literature II 3.00 B-
PHIL 201 Introduction to Philosophy 3.00 B
PSYC 302 Research Methods/Psy 4.00 B-
SOCL 313 Globalization & Intl Developmt 3.00 B-
ENGL 369 Creative Writing: Poetry 3.00 A
SOCL 309 Media and Society 3.00 A-
SPCH 201 Public Speaking 3.00 A-
WMST 205 Introduction Women's Studies 4.00 B
PSYC 313 Physiological Psych 3.00 C-
PSYC 314 Social Psychology 3.00 C-
PSYC 317 Sensation and Perception 3.00 B
RELG 221 Religion and Ethics 3.00 A

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:
Provider Total Credits: None yet!

Any certifications or military experience? Project Management Basics certificate haha

Budget: I definitely wasted a lot of money my first go around so I'd like to minimize, especially since grad school and getting supervised hours in WA can get expensive apparently. I'm willing to spend more for convenience and to avoid badly proctored tests and overbearing sales pitches.
Commitments: I work full time in non-profit operations, in-person a few days a week, but pretty flexible schedule overall. I am married and have a tiny dog. A kid may be showing up in the next year or two.
Dedicated time to study: Realistically, 1-2 hours everyday. I pick info up pretty quick though.
Timeline: BA would be great to finish within 12-18 months.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: If only. 

I'd love to get your advice for at least my BA pathway and on my Masters and beyond if you're feeling generous.


Thanks for sharing your thoughts and wisdom!

[rachel83az]

You'll need to check out your local licensing requirements. Master's degrees in Psychology that lead to licensing can tend to have very strict requirements regarding what kind of Bachelor's degree you're "allowed" to have. Those specific Bachelor's programs tend to be kind of expensive.

That said, if you're Christian or are otherwise comfortable completing a Master's from a Christian institution, Kairos offers a Master's in Counseling and a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy: https://kairos.edu/academics/programs/#Masters They say that these degrees are suitable for licensure in Washington.

As far as I'm aware, they'll accept "any" undergrad degree, which means either TESU or UMPI would be suitable options for a Psych degree.

Because of your low GPA and your desire to avoid proctoring, I would suggest UMPI. You need to take at least 30 UMPI credits to get a UMPI degree. This will help with your GPA somewhat (though not as much as going back and retaking the original failed courses). It will also show Kairos that you are now able to handle the coursework. You might want to consider completing a couple extra minors as well, to help boost your cumulative GPA even further, but that will add time and expense to your degree. Not sure if you want to do that.

UMPI's BA Psych is a relatively new program and (I'm guessing) it will probably take most students 6-12 months instead of the 2-6 months that students of the other degree programs have reported. Still extremely cheap at $4500-$9000.

For UMPI, you will (at minimum) need the following from Sophia.org: Spanish I/French I, Human Biology, Human Biology lab, Environmental Science.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Specialized accreditation is important in the graduate therapy space in the US.

If the state licensing boards, hirers, and insurance payers along your future career path all have pathways to credentialing that aren’t onerous that don’t require specialized accreditation, maybe a program without that accreditation would be a good choice for you.

But if I were choosing a graduate therapy program I’d have programs with specialized accreditation in my finalist consideration set, and I’d only choose a program without if it had some highly compelling advantage I couldn’t find in an accredited program.

The widely recognized specialized accreditation agencies at the master’s level are CSWE for social work, CACREP for counseling (includes clinical mental health counseling, rehabilitation counseling, and other branches), and COAMFTE for marriage and family therapy. MPCAC for psychology and counseling is legitimate but I don’t know how widely state licensing boards currently accept it. The American Psychological Association is recognized at the doctoral level for health service psychology. The APA is also currently seeking to accredit master’s programs. That will be legitimate, but a years-long process to establish and it’s yet to be seen when and where state laws and regulations change to recognize it. There are other pathways to practice as a school counselor or school psychologist, with scopes of practice typically restricted to the schools that employ them. Of course there are also pathways via nurse practitioner, physician assistant, and medicine.

[Duneranger]

With clinical-oriented degrees (my realm of work), you need to be very careful with online school. Especially with programs that require clinicals, internships and eventually licensure.

Getting a BA may be no big deal but for masters and beyond (counseling), this can be problematic. Keep in mind that all of these degrees (LCSW, counseling MFT etc.), will require hundreds of clinical hours (as you sort of alluded to). In my clinical practice, I have not been impressed with a lot of grads coming from these online programs. When picking a program for your master's, I highly recommend doing an in-person program, especially when you are delving into the realm of mental health. Some programs and degree fields (healthcare especially) just aren't optimized for online learning. I say this as a healthcare professional who has done both online and in-person healthcare-related degrees.

Where in WA are you? I am from the PNW and there are a number of local programs for your masters.

Are you going to be able to do this with your full-time job?

UMPI seems like a good fit for your BA, check out the new BA in Psych (given your grades, age of classes and desired field of work I would just retake those psych classes and not transfer them). FYI, UMPI has contractors for admissions that definitely do the sales pitch. Proctoring is avoided with UMPI but that and simulation evaluations aren't something that can be avoided when you complete your masters obviously.

[allvia]

If you go the LCSW route here is a good post on the topic from someone here who has taken that path  - https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid374463

[bjcheung77]

@tinyweathers, Welcome to the board, there are so many ways to look into this, it all depends on which 'certification, licenses, or professional titles' you're looking at and if you really need them to have the programmatic or secondary accreditation. Here's a sample pathway, you can do something similar: TESU BA Psych, Walden MS Psych, Kairos Doctoral Degree. And here's a quick post or thread, you want to review the links on post #2, especially the licensure post. https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...rad-school

[Jonathan Whatley]

Here's a sample pathway, you can do something similar:  TESU BA Psych, Walden MS Psych, Kairos Doctoral Degree.

Neither of those graduate degrees are suited to the goal of a license to practice therapy.

Walden states about their MS in Psychology: "Note on licensure: The MS in Psychology is not a licensure programme and does not prepare an individual to become a licensed psychology or counseling professional."

Walden does have programs designed towards licensure preparation in social work and clinical mental health counseling. But those programs are not available through the subscription-priced Tempo competency-based model favored on DegreeForum. When you compare their tuition rates to other schools they're nothing special.

Kairos doesn't have any doctorate designed to take someone from non-licensure to licensure in a mental health field. Kairos does have a Doctor of Professional Counseling (DPC), but admission is restricted to students who already hold a master's-level mental health license.

[Duneranger]

Here's a sample pathway, you can do something similar:  TESU BA Psych, Walden MS Psych, Kairos Doctoral Degree.

Neither of those graduate degrees are suited to the goal of a license to practice therapy.

Walden states about their MS in Psychology: "Note on licensure: The MS in Psychology is not a licensure programme and does not prepare an individual to become a licensed psychology or counseling professional."

Walden does have programs designed towards licensure preparation in social work and clinical mental health counseling. But those programs are not available through the subscription-priced Tempo competency-based model favored on DegreeForum. When you compare their tuition rates to other schools they're nothing special.

Kairos doesn't have any doctorate designed to take someone from non-licensure to licensure in a mental health field. Kairos does have a Doctor of Professional Counseling (DPC), but admission is restricted to students who already hold a master's-level mental health license.

I'd also avoid Walden for clinical based degrees. They do not have a good rep in the healthcare realm. I can't speak on their other programs, but my previous facility specifically would not hire providers from for-profit online schools producing clinicians.

[tinyweathers]

Thanks for all your insights! @allvia @bjcheung77 Those shared threads were great. I had tried to search for similar questions but I'm not the best at navigating the forum yet.

My tentative overall goal is to become a LICSW, I will look into CSWE-accredited programs. I believe WA currently requires 4,000 supervised experiences to reach this level. I currently work with a couple of LCSWs and interact regularly with our nonprofit's underserved clients. I haven't done a deep dive into the supervisory requirements, but I believe my current workplace would be helpful with accumulating hours.

When I am overwhelmed by the thought of grad school + 4000 hours of supervision though, I have also considered the School Counseling route. I have experience with community programs serving children and the certification process seems more doable.

For getting the BA completed, it sounds like UMPI and TESU are good options to focus on for either of these routes. I saw the Wiki had Psych degree plans for both so I'll take a look at that too. Thanks for sharing those Sophia.org requirements, @rachel83az.

---

With clinical-oriented degrees (my realm of work), you need to be very careful with online school. Especially with programs that require clinicals, internships and eventually licensure.

Getting a BA may be no big deal but for masters and beyond (counseling), this can be problematic. Keep in mind that all of these degrees (LCSW, counseling MFT etc.), will require hundreds of clinical hours (as you sort of alluded to). In my clinical practice, I have not been impressed with a lot of grads coming from these online programs. When picking a program for your master's, I highly recommend doing an in-person program, especially when you are delving into the realm of mental health. Some programs and degree fields (healthcare especially) just aren't optimized for online learning. I say this as a healthcare professional who has done both online and in-person healthcare-related degrees.

Where in WA are you? I am from the PNW and there are a number of local programs for your masters.

Are you going to be able to do this with your full-time job?

UMPI seems like a good fit for your BA, check out the new BA in Psych (given your grades, age of classes and desired field of work I would just retake those psych classes and not transfer them). FYI, UMPI has contractors for admissions that definitely do the sales pitch. Proctoring is avoided with UMPI but that and simulation evaluations aren't something that can be avoided when you complete your masters obviously.

Great points, thank you! I am in Seattle and part of an org that allows an unusual amount of flexibility for scheduling if I pursued an in-person program, but online or asynchronous options do suit my learning style. 

I am leaning towards more traditional master's programs though since there are such subtleties to the work.