PhD in Psychology

[TMW2010]

All this information is great. I am looking into christian counseling. I would like to have my own practice/work in a church. I have a friend who knows of a christian counselor in her church and she takes in interns. she said that i could intern there to get the hours I need. Getting my Phd is a goal i would like to attain, but if all I get is my Masters I will be happy with that. There are other interests that I have like Computer Science Technology, but this will not take as long as my masters or Phd. If I can knock out most of the requirements cor Comp while getting my bachelors in Psych, I will also get my bachelors in comp.

You'll be able to do counseling with a master's degree, provided you take the right track (CACREP accredited is a good place to start, because that means it covers the requirements of most, if not all, states for counseling.) I'm not sure if Christian counseling requires an LPC to legally give counseling, but if it does, that's another thing you'll have to look at getting past the testing and intership hours for. And you get a provisional license once you past the exam and requirements, but have to be supervised for 3 years before you get a full-on license and can practice on your own.

If you're not going to be a practicing psychologist, just a licensed counselor, you don't need to worry about APA accreditation for a doctoral program unless you're looking at working for the government and want to have your degree recognized. In that case, Capella, Walden, NCU, and a host of others have doctoral programs that'll get you the Dr. title, and there's a number of Christian oriented programs out there as well. Honestly though, (especially in the field of psychology) a doctorate that doesn't allow you to get licensed isn't good for much other than to let you teach grad & undergrad level courses, and put the Dr. in front of your name.

ULM ULM's Gateway to Online Degrees (GOLD): Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy: Non-Clinical Concentration in Creative Systemic Studies has a non-clinical doctor in Marriage and Family therapy that is 100% online that is actually pretty nice on a couple levels if you don't need the doctorate for licensure or practice. Its 60 credits, can be finished in three years (if you can handle the dissertation in a timely manner) and best of all... Online students pay instate tuition for the program. Now because its not set up to be clinical, it won't get you licensed as an LMFT. I find this kind of sad, because for my state, the only thing the program is really missing is the internship portion of the requirement.