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Hello!
After years of teaching HS I got an MA in School Counseling. I love working with the kids, I do a lot of group and individual therapy, am fluent in Spanish so I work a lot with my Spanish-speaking students in different programs, etc.
I am looking to broaden my horizons a bit because my hubby is being transferred to Houston, and I'm not sure I can find the same type of part-time awesome job I have here in the schools. Plus I love going to school.
So here are the 2 options I have thought of:
1) get a PhD in some kind-of counseling
2) go for my LPC
I'm not in this to make a ton of money, I just love working with kids and I love counseling and teaching. The PhD (or what would the doctorate degree be?) would enable me to eventually counsel (in private practice) and teach at the university level. The LPC would allow me to counsel in private practice.
What are your opinions? Am I missing an option?
Consider:
1) y husband will be transferred every couple of years (ugh) due to his job, and we may go abroad again at some point. So I'm not sure which of these would be more conducive to working in another country?
2) I have 3 young kids and I enjoy part-time and/or summers off. Come on, I don't want to work tooooo hard! I love my kids too much.
3) I love working with Hispanic families, with all kids and teenagers, and especially doing therapy with kids who are adopted (as my own are.
Boy, having an LPC is difficult if you are going to move every couple of years. These licenses are not easy to just bring with you. You have comply with whatever state you are moving to and every one of them have their own requirements. It's hard enough just getting the license, but moving is another animal in itself.
Plus, wouldn't you have to go back to school for more classes to qualify for the LPC? MA in school counseling is usually a shorter degree than the counseling degree.
Now, if you were planning on moving and staying in that new state for many, many years (or the rest of your life) then that's a different story.
It sounds like you like the school schedule, why not try finding another school like the one your in, you never know what you will find.
Is it really hard to get a new LPC in different states? Ugh. I thought since there was the NCE it wouldn't be that different. I have a feeling we will be moving around a lot. What about going the PhD route? What would the doctorate program be, that would allow me to counsel privately and teach at the university?
The problem lies with each state having their own requirements. One may want more internship hours or classes your program did not offer and guess what happens then? You have to obtain them before they will consider you. It also can take months just to get the lic application approved when you do meet requirements. I applied in Oct and finally rec'd it in April.
The PhD route I believe is similar. I was working on my PsyD, but didn't really plan to move. I know people do move around and they are ok (at least it appears that way), but if you are moving around so frequent I think it would be very challenging to maintain an income.
I am a school counselor as well and I have decided the best thing for me to do is to pursue my National Boards and just stay in school counseling. After having to deal with trying to get my credentials in another state and having some problems, I just really need to do this.
But, I have young kids, have 3 other teaching credentials, 2 MAs, and frankly, I am just spent with going to school for anything else!
The MA degrees between School Counseling and Professional Counseling are not very different at all. It is just an extra 3 or 4 classes. I have both degrees. Yet I am not a LPC in the state of Texas but I would like to be.
The MA degrees between School Counseling and Professional Counseling are not very different at all. It is just an extra 5 or 6 classes. I have both degrees. Yet I am not a LPC in the state of Texas but I would like to be. Amberton University located in Garland, TX has both programs and most classes you can take online.
I have a MS in both mental health and school counseling from a CACREP accredited university. I am working as a school counselor in a public school in LA and pursing licensure as a PLPC. I agree with you about loving the hours and school schedule to be available for my family. For that reason I am getting my 3,000 hours of supervision at a slower pace during the school year only. At this rate, it will take me 3 years to receive my license from the state of Louisiana.
The NCE will be a nice addition to my credentials (yay me!), but not really worth much more money nor will it give me much advantage for hiring in or outside of the school system.
A doctoral (PhD) program in counseling seems challenging with your family moves, as a teaching position at the university level is not a guarantee wherever you relocate. You still have to hire a supervisor and apply for supervision in whatever state you move. You also will face those challenges outside of the US. Professional licensing laws are stringent, time consuming and costly from state-to-state. I would research how other countries recognize as mental health professional licenses or what would be required to practice as a licensed professional in another country. It sounds like an investment in time and paperwork and possibly additional credentialing.
You may consider becoming certified in a specific field and offering academic counseling as a part-time gig wherever you move.
Houston is a great place to obtain specific mental health certifications that often only require masters level counseling degrees. These certifications are much less expensive than paying for additional graduate-level classes for a mental health counseling degree or a 2-year PhD program with a dissertation. If you are only looking for part-time work, this may be a great way to network and build your resume with what you can provide "coaching" in.
Sounds like you have an exciting road ahead of you with travels and new locations. Continue researching the possibilities!
It's great that you love your job, OP. I think, that having to move every couple of years would handicap you in some of your job options (no matter what degree or cert. you get), and especially in setting up a private practice. 2 years in each place wouldn't give you enough time to build a private practice, and even if you did attract some clients, how fair would it be to them, if you had to abandon them, just as you were seeing some progress with them? And how could you even interview for school jobs, knowing you'd only be a temporary hire? How would that work?
I think, that before you can answer your question about career directions to choose, you should talk to your husband about all these transfers, and ask him to look into the possibility of either extending each assignment to, say, 5 years in each location, or to see about the possibility of settling permanently in one place, after a couple of transfers. Otherwise, you won't have any realistic work/career options, and it would mean a loss of income for the two of you.
Hello!
After years of teaching HS I got an MA in School Counseling. I love working with the kids, I do a lot of group and individual therapy, am fluent in Spanish so I work a lot with my Spanish-speaking students in different programs, etc.
I am looking to broaden my horizons a bit because my hubby is being transferred to Houston, and I'm not sure I can find the same type of part-time awesome job I have here in the schools. Plus I love going to school.
So here are the 2 options I have thought of:
1) get a PhD in some kind-of counseling
2) go for my LPC
I'm not in this to make a ton of money, I just love working with kids and I love counseling and teaching. The PhD (or what would the doctorate degree be?) would enable me to eventually counsel (in private practice) and teach at the university level. The LPC would allow me to counsel in private practice.
What are your opinions? Am I missing an option?
Consider:
1) y husband will be transferred every couple of years (ugh) due to his job, and we may go abroad again at some point. So I'm not sure which of these would be more conducive to working in another country?
2) I have 3 young kids and I enjoy part-time and/or summers off. Come on, I don't want to work tooooo hard! I love my kids too much.
3) I love working with Hispanic families, with all kids and teenagers, and especially doing therapy with kids who are adopted (as my own are.
Please advise!!!
I'm a former teacher who is now an LPC.
A few comments that sprang to mind reading your post:
- I knew few bilingual LPCs where I am, and there is a need. Ditto people who have experience with adoption.
- If you do go this route, and you know your will be changing residences, definitely look up the licensure specifics for an LPC in Texas, and ensure that whatever institution you will be getting your training at has a program compatible to those requirements. I say this as someone who trained, lives, and practices in a bistate area, where even that reciprocity is a little dicey. You want to make sure you can get licensed where you will be living without additional schooling and clinical hours.
-Where I am, counselors typically go master's level, because once you are at PhD level, you are able to be a psychologist, given the appropriate credentialing. You can also be a LMLP (licensed master's level psychologist), here versus an LPC or LCPC, at the master's level, but it changes the clients you are able to see.
-Where I am, you can work in schools with an LPC...I may be doing so in the fall, in addition to seeing clients through the same private practice where I did my internship. The practice received a contract to place LPCs in the schools, in a nearby district, and I'm looking to get in on that, due to my past experience teaching.
-I have a 2-year old and a 3-year old, and also find the being able to set my own caseload element of private practice appealing, because I am definitely looking at starting slow until they reach school age, and then ramping up the number of clients I see as that transition occurs.
-*IMPORTANT* I also have a spouse for whom frequent moves can be on the table at times (military). Including overseas, which we are entertaining the idea of right now. It's a game changer, when it comes to mental health licensure. Where I am, I would not be able to practice abroad. I wouldn't even necessarily always be able to practice domestically, depending on where we would be. This is because I am a newly minted LPC, and here, that is not an independent license...in order to get the independent license (here LCPC), I need to amass 4,000 supervised clinical hours and submit documentation to that effect, which takes no fewer than two years, and can take longer. So even on a military base overseas, which do have a need for counselors, I would not be eligible to work with my current level of licensure, because it is not an independent licensure. So, if frequent moves are part of your life, you need to make sure you are on track to do whatever is needed where you are to obtain independent licensure, and know that even then, transfer issues can be a pain.
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