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 Q
I watch the Ricki Lake Show, and I must say
that I love what you do. My major is sociology and my minor is psychology.
My aspirations are to go to graduate school and get my Master's in
Counseling and become certified in Marriage and Family Therapy. My
question is, do you have any advice for someone who is aspiring to become
a relationship counselor? Is there any specific path that I should take in
order to become a successful relationship and family counselor?
--- W.T., Dallas, TX
A There
are several approaches to a career as a mental health professional who
specializes in working with couples. You could become a clinical
psychologist, a counseling psychologist, a clinical social worker, a
marriage and family therapist, or a relationship coach. Each
profession differs by its focus on human behavior and its approach to
helping the client(s) resolve problems. In order to know which
classes to take and subjects to major in, you really have to do more
research to understand which of these jobs (or others) might appeal to you
most. Most of the careers require a master's degree or a Ph.D. and
when you are finished with graduate school you typically have to take an
exam and become "licensed" to practice psychotherapy in your
state.
Some great places
to look for more information are:
- The American Psychological Association (www.apa.org). Visit
http://www.apa.org/students/brochure/index.html for an
online brochure about careers in psychology that explains all of the
different types of psychology (clinical, developmental, social, etc.),
what psychologists do and how to plan your education and career as a
psychologist.
- The National Association of Social
Workers (www.naswdc.org).
Visit https://www.socialworkers.org/profession/default.asp
for online brochures that describe the social work profession and how
to pursue a career in social work. They include information
about certification and accredited schools of social work.
- The American Association for Marriage
and Family Therapy (www.aamft.org).
Visit http://www.aamft.org/resources/Career_PracticeInformation/career.htm
for information on what marriage and family therapists do and how to
become one. Other areas of the website provide additional
information about graduate schools and how to apply.
- The International Coach Federation (www.coachfederation.org).
This is a good resource if you want training in or more information
specifically about coaching as a profession. If you are
interested in a career in helping people improve their lives through
some form of psychotherapy or coaching, I suggest that you obtain
traditional graduate school training in some area of human
development/behavior and then pursue coaching training. The
graduate school training will give you a very strong foundation in
understanding and influencing human behavior and make you much more
competitive and well prepared to coach.
The truth is that there is no one
"right" answer about how to pursue a career in helping
individuals and couples. Once you know what kind of people you want
to help and with what kind of problems, you will be able to determine
which university programs to attend and which classes to take by doing the
necessary research.
Just to tell you a little bit about me, I was a sociology major who
discovered psychology during my junior year. Rather than stay in
school more than four years to double major, I decided to remain a
sociology major but to take enough psychology classes to prepare me for
graduate school in psychology. In graduate school, I pursued
developmental psychology because I was interested in child and adolescent
development and how people change and develop over time. When I
finished graduate school, I realized that more than I wanted to do
psychotherapy, I really enjoyed "coaching" people, and that's
when I started learning more about coaching in addition to my background
in psychology.
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Dr.
Michelle
Ask Dr. Michelle