When did you become interested in psychology?
My interest in psychology was there from the beginning, it grew with what I encountered at school, the more I was learning the more interested I got.
How did you pursue this interest after high school?
Psychology has its application in so many different areas, I was always interested in counseling therapy. To do that in the US you need to have minimum a masters degree, and a certain number of credit hours I graduated with 48, for licensing I needed 60, so after I graduated I continued to take more classes relating to counseling psychology, learning about different theories and practices.
Whats the most challenging part about your job?
Continuing education. There is never a point, its like in medicine, where you can say I know what I’m doing completely, most of the time I do but there is always much more that I can learn. Once you have training, internships, and practice, you still can not practice counseling psychology. In the US its regulated the same way as the medical profession, which means you need a license to practice it, without it I would be allowed to practice only under supervision; which is well thought of because just when you come out of books you still quite frankly have ways to go to learn exactly what to do in what situation. Once I got my degree all I could do with it was either work under supervision or assist somebody but not work independently, the major work started with obtaining a license, which gives you the ability to work as a counselor. For that you need to pass the national board exam and get 2,000 to 3,000 supervised hours, so when you finally finish university you still won’t be making any money.
Something you like about your profession?
The good thing about counseling is you really can practice it for a long time, once you get a license you’re still not done, to maintain your license you have requirements and the main one is you have continuing education hours, which is a really good requirement so that you never get old with what you learn, and you learn new things about ethics, they’re extremely important. Counseling has moved quite a long way away from the Freudian ways with people lying on the couch. Now we look at research, evidence based, we know based on trial and error what works and what doesn’t. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the best supported, and I specialized in that.
Any tips for prospective psychologists?
You need to get a foundation first, the more you learn the more you’ll understand what interests you about psychology. It also depends where you want to develop, whether you are more research oriented or people oriented. Its really interesting, I find what I learn in my private life, and what I learn in all kinds of different settings can be applied to so many places.
By Annemarie
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