9 to 5
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Does anyone here have an MSW or work as a counselor?
I am thinking of going back to school for a Masters in social work, so I can work as a counselor and eventually become licensed. The counseling field has interested me for awhile, and after doing some volunteer work I know this is what I want to do. After doing some research, I am starting to realize that it might be better to get an MSW rather than a Masters in Counseling Psych or something in counseling. Thing is, I do not want to work as a traditional social worker in a hospital or nursing home, I want to be a therapist or counselor working one on one or in groups with people. I am going to an information session in a few weeks for a prospective school that offers an MSW, but wanted to see if anyone on here had any thoughts regarding which degree to get.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Re: Does anyone here have an MSW or work as a counselor?
I'm an LPC (licensed professional counselor) and got my master's degree in counseling. I know plenty of good counselors who got a Counseling degree, and plenty of good counselors who got their MSW. However, I'm very glad I went the counseling route.
I knew without a doubt I wanted to do therapy and had no interest in other types of social work, so it was important to me to focus my entire grad degree on counseling. I just didn't want to spend time on other stuff. I have also had several of my MSW friends tell me I had so much more counseling preparation than they did, but I also have several MSW friends who are excellent counselors. A lot of it has to do with the specific program you look at and some are better than others.
I work in a hospital, had several years in psych., and am now working with cardiac patients doing individual therapy and classes on stuff like stress management and emotional eating. I love it.
I saw your post on MM and know many steered you towards an MSW, and I agree that it is a fine degree and more versatile. But, if you are 100% sure you want to do counseling primarily, I would encourage you to look at counseling programs as well. It certainly was the best choice for me. At the end of the day, though, I really believe good counselors are born, not made by a degree. A degree helps, though. :-)
Good luck at whatever you do, and feel free to ask any more questions!
Steps on My Spiritual Journey
I am an LPC, as well. I received my M.S. in Counseling Psychology. Since I have a masters of science, my program at The University of Kansas was heavy on the research and statistics. I use none of that today (when I got int he program I thought I was going to get my PhD and use the research part to get a professorship afterwards...I changed my mind). I am in private practice seeing individuals and I got my training AFTER graduate school when I started doing my 4,000 for licensure and I was an LPC-I (Licensed Professional Counselor Intern). I don't feel like my program prepared me at all to do what I do today. My expertise come from being in therapy myself, going to consultation groups, having a supervisor to consult with, and continuing education.
Here in Austin in the private practice world, many therapists have either an LPC or LCSW. I would check out both programs, look at their course work, and call graduates from each program to get their feedback.
In the state I'm in, you have to have a MSW and be licensed to bill insurance, which I'm guessing is why you are interested in it. Its a very competitive market where I'm at. I used to work with lots of people out of grad school with dreams of private practice counselling who ended up making $32,000 a year doing case management with homeless people while they waited to get licensed. A friend of mine has a job that doesn't offer free supervision so she is having to pay for private supervision while she works on her license. I'm not trying to sound negative, but I have known people that ended up leaving the field altogether because they were so disappointed from what they thought it would be. I've also known a few people who found work in a college counselling center while they are working on getting licensed and loved their work.
If where you are volunteering now is a place you would want to work after graduating I would ask them what degrees they look for in people and what a starting salary range is. If not, I would find a place you could see yourself working at ask if you can do an informational interview with someone there.
I was accepted into a program at a MAJOR university in Fl. It was going to cost too much, so I am going to be readmitted this fall.
I actually want to work with homeless, perhaps go into counseling, but found the MSW diverse enough to have options.