Hello!
I'm Deborah Elliott-DeSorbo, one of the Psychologists at the Academy Counseling Center. I wanted to start by giving just a general overview of my field and tell you about the various paths you can take to get in it. There are basically 4 career fields you can get into which will all allow you to conduct therapy with folks who need a hand. Counselors and Social Workers require a 2 year Master's degree (which is 2 years post undergrad), Psychologists require a Doctoral degree (which is at least 5 years post undergrad -- some folks take as long as 9 years to get it done), and Psychiatrists (which require a Medical degree, or MD - 4 years of school plus at least 3 years in residency). As I said, all these folks can conduct therapy after receiving the appropriate license. Psychiatrists differ in that they prescribe meds. Psychologists differ in those of us with a Ph.D. (or a Doctorate of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology) have extensive training in research. You can also get a Psy.D., or doctorate in Psychology, where there is typically not as strong a focus on research.
The military employs Social Workers, Psychologists and Psychiatrists. Social Workers and Psychologists basically perform the same duties when we work in clinics (e.g., the Academy Counseling Center, Life Skills), with the only difference being that Social Workers cannot conduct psychological testing. Social Workers come in as O2s (or First Lieutenants) but get promoted to O3 (or Captain) usually within a year or two, while Psychologists come in as O3s.
Grad School
I am a Clinical Psychologist with Ph.D. (as opposed to a Psy.D.), so I can only speak with authority about that type of grad school. First, it wasn't easy. I did it in 5 years because I really needed and wanted to be done with it, but they were 5 LONG years. (However, it was totally worth it. I love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else.) As I mentioned earlier, the Ph.D. degree has a research focus. This "research" can be on basically any topic that has a psychological component. My chosen field was health psychology, which is the interaction between the body and the mind. A friend of mine in my Ph.D. program does research in how immigrants cope with coming to the United States, where as another friend did research with folks who are struggling financially. If you're considering applying to Ph.D. programs, you want to think about what field of research you might be interested in, then find professors who do what you want to do. The doctoral programs I applied to usually accepted anywhere from 3-8 people per year (much less than even medical school!), so you need to look pretty good to even get in. "Looking good" means things like doing well in undergrad, getting some kind of experience in the field either during undergrad or after (I took 3 years off between undergrad and grad to do research), and interviewing well.
All that said, if you're thinking of getting a Ph.D. or a Psy.D., take a look at this website. http://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/faqs.html
The American Psychological Association, or APA, is the governing body of all Psychologists. www.apa.org is a wonderful website with a wealth of info. The military has their own training programs located in Bethesda, MD. The offer both Ph.D. programs in Clinical Psychology (what I do) as well medical school. The military covers all expenses for school, and pays you an officer's salary to go there. Pretty good deal, right? The website is http://www.usuhs.mil/
Hope this helps. Please ask any questions you have -- I'd be happy to answer them.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Questions
Cadets, post questions here as comments that you'd like to see turned into new threads for discussion.
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