Therapist here... questions about further education

[IHateEducation]

Hey everyone,

To keep this as brief as possible, I am a seminary graduate with a dual degree, one in Theology and one in Counseling. I'm currently getting licensed in CA as a therapist and am about halfway through my 3000 required hours for full licensure. 

Here's my dilemma: The hospital I work for pays for continued education. This has got me thinking about a doctoral degree that would 1) help with marketing myself with the "Dr." title in the future. 2) Will obviously give me extra education and 3) It'll be free or extremely close to that, so why not?

The problem is there are various options out there... too many to even begin to list. I can say that I don't care too much about the "traditional" route of going to an APA accredited school and getting a PhD or a PsyD in Clinical Psychology so I am looking for an alternative path that doesn't require a doctoral thesis and everything that comes with that (years of work and sleepless nights, an oral defense before a board, etc.) I'm looking for something quick and relatively painless. 5 years in Grad school + 2 residency programs at two major hospitals has already kicked my butt. I'm still recovering from that.

Since my budget is around $5,500 a year, what are my options? I've done a lot of research and I know schools like Kairos University and Mississippi College have a DPC program which looks tempting, but no one has heard of these degrees. I guess you can say I want my cake and I want to eat it too, but I wouldn't want to get a degree that would "limit" me where I go to apply to teaching positions 10 years from now and they look at me strange, wondering what a "Doctor of Professional Counseling" degree is from a small school in the middle of nowhere. 


An alternative I have thought of is getting something like a DMin which is a practical degree for ministers where I can focus on "Biblical or Pastoral" Counseling. The limitation here I feel like is non-religious people might see this and get turned off by it, and not want to see me as their therapist. 

Thoughts? I can expand further if needed.

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board! That's a good introduction post and write up! There are so many options and variables in play... I pretty much was going to recommend you the Kairos option over the DMin choice. You can further explain, I think it's a good idea to do a compact and concise version of the addendum and template, this will provide us a bigger overall picture of your situation, please review the info here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

[IHateEducation]

Location: Los Angeles
Age: 33
Degree: Something in the realm of Counseling/ Psychology
Reg accreditation: My school was accredited by the ATS and the Southern Commission for Graduate Schools

Dual MA Degree, 3.74 GPA

120+ Grad school credits

I'm a reserve Chaplain for the Navy

Budget: $5,500 a year, even up to 6k, I can add some on top if need be.
Commitments: Spouse and we are going to start planning for kids soon, hence why I don't want to go a super intensive route.
Dedicated time to study: Maybe 12 hours a week
Timeline: As fast as humanly possible
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: My hospital works through Guild and is giving a bit over $5,000 a year.

[bjcheung77]

Guild plus the 5K, you've got a bit more than most people! You can look up any Guild school partners and see which one suits you more! I mean, wow, you can get that entirely cheap/free almost! Here's their school list, you can get an extra Bachelors or Masters *IF* it's something you want and they can provide. https://schools.guildeducation.com/

[Jonathan Whatley]

The Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) from Arizona State University exceeds your budget and uses a non-standard degree title.

But it hits goals important to you: It's from a large R1 public research university well known in California, it could readily be achieved in under 5 years – a 17-year-old recently graduated with a DBH in the management track (you're eligible for and would likely better fit the clinical track) – and in lieu of a dissertation it uses an applied research project in which "students address a primary care clinic's clinical, operational or financial challenge using the quality improvement model to solve key problems."

[IHateEducation]

Sorry, maybe I wasn't as clear as I should have been. Guild is giving me $5,250 a year. I can add some money on top of that if I need to so maybe $6k a year total.

As far as the DBH program goes, I looked into it when I was doing research around this forum but it seems to be a long program. IDK if I have it in me to do another 80 units.

[bjcheung77]

Actually, I think it was me who wasn't too clear... What I meant to say is, Guild participates with a few alternative education providers and institutions, you may get the Sophia.org, Study.com, Outlier.org and a few 'free', in addition to the $5K+ Guild provides you... If you get those free, you can get an additional Bachelors or Masters on route to the Doctoral degree.

Having said that, your main goal is to search the Guild institutions that they partner with, they may have a doctoral program that can be done affordably, also in a shorter period of time, but most importantly, you may be able to use all the tuition reimbursement on that in say 3-4 years, if it's like $5K/year, that's just $20K total! Your Homework = Research the partner schools in the list...

[Jonathan Whatley]

Numbers can misdirect: The DBH isn't a long program.

I should step back for something important. You mentioned that you don't want a degree that limits you when you apply for teaching positions in the future. CACREP has instituted requirements in recent years that newly hired core faculty at programs it accredits must "have an earned doctoral degree in counselor education, preferably from a CACREP-accredited program." In MFT you might also review COAMFTE faculty standards. Of course if your goal is teaching at a different level or as non-core faculty, these won't apply, though then you'd also be competing with a larger pool.

[sanantone]

Eastern University offers a Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy. It does require an internship, but so does ASU's DBH and some of the other programs you're looking at. The DBH at ASU, if I remember correctly, transfers in 30 credits from your master's degree. The program is designed to be completed in 18 to 24 months of full-time attendance.

https://www.eastern.edu/academics/gradua...ly-therapy

There are also non-clinical PsyD programs like the ones at University of Arizona Global Campus. If you want a higher paying teaching path, healthcare administration usually pays more than teaching a mental health or social science subject. With 30 transfer credits from your counseling master's degree, you could complete a DHA at Oklahoma State University in 1 to 1.5 years, and they're relatively cheap. The DHA has neither a dissertation nor applied research project. DHA is becoming a well-known acronym and is definitely well-known in the healthcare industry.

Another option is a Doctor of Medical Science (Northeastern has one that is open to non-physician assistants) and the Doctor of Health Science. I have threads on a few of the programs that don't require dissertations.

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Never mind on Eastern University. It looks like their doctoral project is similar to a dissertation. In comparison, EVMS' Doctor of Health Science program has one capstone course instead of multiple project/dissertation courses.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Doctor of Health Science. I have threads on a few of the programs that don't require dissertations.

Faulkner University offers a PhD in Health Sciences that can be completed in 18 months. The dissertation coursework is designed to be completable in 6 months.