Ten Things You Need to Know if You Are Thinking of Becoming a Therapist

1. Psychologists and doctoral level therapists enjoy more prestige, generally speaking, than Master’s level therapists. To earn a doctorate takes a student 5-8 years, and to earn a Master’s Degree takes 2-4 years. I have heard a LOT of people try to talk down the doctorate, the PhD, as if it were worthless, and just involved a lot of research, which does not help one become a better therapist. That is nonsense, and is virtually ALWAYS an opinion held by somebody who did not go for the PhD or PsyD. Does this mean PhDs are always better therapists than those with an MA? No, not at all. But the world DOES see the two degrees differently, and to say otherwise is just…well, let’s just be kind, and say “uninformed.”
2. A PhD costs WAY, WAY more than an MA, and takes WAY WAY more time. Only you can figure out if that is worth it for you. I have written in depth about this issue elsewhere. But you need to hear it again, here…Please consult with me if you have questions.
3. APA approval is a VERY, VERY big deal, but/and it is REALLY hard to get into a PhD program approved by the American Psychological Association. Ridiculously, stupidly hard. They keep the numbers crazily low. They say it is to maintain quality control, and I do not believe that for a minute. You very well may have to look at PhD Psych programs that are NOT APA approved, if you choose to go the PhD/PsyD in Psych route…
4. CACREP is becoming a bigger deal every year for the Counseling profession. If you go through a NON-CACREP approved Counseling program, you risk not getting licensed in the state of your choice.  That is just the way it is. It is not fair, it makes no sense to me, AND/BUT it is the way it is. You have to really think twice about going to a non CACREP-Approved program. (CACREP stands for Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, and yes, it IS a very unfortunate acronym…) Be in close contact with the state where you plan/hope to practice and find out if a non-CACREP approved program will be license-able there. Honestly, if my own kid (I do not have kids) asked me, I would tell them to get VERY informed, and be VERY careful. Not worth the risk. Same reason I did NOT go to a NON APA-Approved Psychology Internship (which was my first choice…) Not worth the risk in my career.
5. Art Therapists are licensed AS Art Therapists in about 5-6 states. In other states they are licensed as Professional Counselors, although Art Therapy as a profession claims VERY LOUDLY that it is its own profession. (They may not want to say that too loud, because some of those Counseling boards around the country might actually HEAR them and stop licensing them as Professional Counselors…Yikes.)  By comparison, Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, Counselors, Psychologists are all license-able in 50 states, versus very few in Art Therapy AS Art Therapists. If that makes you nervous, I don’t blame you.
6. After you graduate from a Master’s or Doctoral program, you have to accumulate a LOT of supervised hours, probably in an agency of some kind. This is LIKELY to be the hardest, most demanding, and crappiest jobs of your career. You learn a lot, you get supervised, you get your hours, but it is not always easy. You have to know that the field does this to its most recent graduates—it gives them the hardest clients and case loads. Does that sound insane? Well, it is….
7. AFTER you become “Independently Licensed”, your degrees of freedom, your options, your possibilities increase exponentially. You have to know this. As mentioned in Point 6, the first couple years out are generally the hardest. Then more becomes possible…I personally think it is worth it….
8. Private Practice is a BUSINESS, and you would do well to cultivate a strong social media presence, a strong web site, a strong social network, and a strong support cast of billing people, and so on. The business part does not have to be unsavory (I actually love it, and thus have been enormously successful in it), but it is not your thing, then you have a challenge ahead in the private practice world.
9. You should seriously consider whether you are the kind of therapist who is made to bring Life Coaching into your practice, or even add it as a separate part of your business model. I am a consultant/coach in this area, and believe that SOME therapists are extremely well suited to blend Therapy and Coaching, and some are not. It has been a godsend to me.
10. How much money can you make? Let me give you some of my numbers. (Nobody EVER wants to give you their numbers!) I am a Psychologist and make maybe ten to twenty bucks more per session than Master’s level therapists from the insurance companies. Medicaid pays me about $122 per session, and the highest paying insurance companies in New Mexico pay me around $145 per session. Do the arithmetic (Seriously, get out a note pad and do it!!!)  Of course there are all kinds of expenses, but let’s simplify it. For simplicity sake, I tend to view my AVERAGE session as $100. Fifteen clients/sessions a week is $1500. Do that for 45 weeks and gross $67,500. You can do more clients per week, fewer, you can work more than 45 weeks a year, but you get the idea. If you see 25 clients per week (not wildly uncommon) at an average of $100 a session, you are looking at $2500 a week, and if you manage to do that for 50 weeks (I would not do that, but you might) you are looking at a gross salary of $125,00.00 

Other therapists do NOT work with insurance and charge anything they want, anything the market will bear….It gets complicated, Some of them make WAY more money, and some WAY less. Whether to work with insurance companies is a whole ‘nother blog….

I hope this was helpful. I could say much more, but this was a starting point. Good luck in pursuing your career, and if I can be of any help, text me at 505.699.7616 or email me at jamesmicknolan@gmail.com.

Warmly,

James Mick

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