When I Grow Up.....

When I grow up I'd like to be a therapist.  I'd like to, eventually, work in a nice office with a nice desk where I keep all my paperwork organized.  I'd like to have some nice comfy chairs, an overstuffed couch, a bean bag, a coffee table with some adult style coloring books on it, some Van Gogh prints on the walls.  When people put a gentle hand on a friends shoulder and say, "You really should talk to somebody," I want to be that somebody that they're going to come talk to.  Whether they think they might have a mental illness, or they need help dealing with something that has happened to them or been done to them, or maybe they just can't believe that they deserve a happy life and need help getting there.....I want to be that person.

http://www.humanservicesedu.org/counselor-vs-psych-vs-therapist.html

It can be tricky when terms are sometimes interchangeable and sometimes not.  Even trickier when outside of the profession, those terms become even more fluid.

http://www.psychiatry.org/residents-medical-students/medical-students/psychiatry-is-it-for-me?wptouch_preview_theme=enabled

I am not aiming to be a psychiatrist.  Oh, I would, if I were ten years younger but at 42 I just really do NOT have the ambition.  The ability is there, and I think I would find it fascinating to take the classes (I've always really loved biology) but it's just beyond what I want to do at this point in my life.  I've only got an Associate's Degree as I being this journey, so I've got many years of school ahead of me no matter what I do.  And MedTerm was aggravating enough 20 years ago.  lolz!

http://careersinpsychology.org/new-york-social-work-licensing-process/

I am not aiming for employment in the field of social work.  Now there are some people who work their collective ASSES off.  And with the right degree in the right area of social work you can absolutely be a therapist.  Most often, the help is not limited to talk therapy for these fine folks but also includes working with programs, departments, courts, et cetera, as in intermediary to help their clients out in the world.  New York State does NOT make it an easy thing to do, being a social worker.  Just reading the description of what necessary to become a therapist through this degree program makes me want to gouge out my eyes.  Oh, and it takes at least a Master's plus so many clinical hours and supervision and a lot of the same hoops.  And in the end, you work twice as hard for about half the pay and the field has a burnout rate akin to the retail career I fled years ago.  My hat is off to the men and women in that field....it is a calling.

http://careersinpsychology.org/how-to-become-a-licensed-counselor-in-new-york/

http://careersinpsychology.org/how-to-become-a-psychologist-in-new-york/

http://www.counselor-license.com/articles/psychologist-vs-counselor.html#context/api/listings/prefilter

Well, when you look at choosing between a doctorate in counseling and a doctorate in clinical psychology, you're looking at the same number of years and the same level of work involved to get there.  There's really a lot of overlap between the two, depending where you look.  I'm aiming for the psychology doctorate.  I like the versatility, I like the research aspect of it, it's much more in line with what I want for myself.

There are four colleges in my area.  SUNY Canton, SUNY Potsdam, Clarkson University and St. Lawrence University.  Now, the two universities have tuition fees that are higher for one year than the tax assessment on my home.  I'd sure LOVE to attend either of them, but I'd also love to have Marilyn Monroe's figure and Harry Potter's wand.  Canton offers a BS and Potsdam offers a BA.  If I were stopping at Bachelor's level, I would definitely have to aim for Canton, but I will pursue a Master's then a Doctorate after that point.  So I am hoping to go to Potsdam.  I've sent them my application, my previous college transcripts, and have filled out my financial aid paperwork.  I was hoping to hear back from them this week.  Waiting always sucks.  ;)

I haven't stopped watching the local job listings.  I am still getting the occasional thanks but no thanks letters from jobs I've applied for.  Kind of depressing, those letters.  There are worse things, but still....

As I navigate all of this, doing this research on what's what, and trying to narrow down what I'd like to see myself doing a decade from now, I am stunned at how useless my high school guidance counselor was.  I have no memory of that person outside of one maybe ten minute session that all kids had to be handed applications for college or some such thing.  Nobody ever told me so much as what degrees were what, what took how long, where to go for various programs, or even helped me narrow down the vaguest idea of what I might want to aim for.  I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, handed a form to fill out, then shoo'ed out of my seat as the next drone was called in.  I had no older siblings, my parents didn't have higher education, a few distant family members went to college but I wasn't close to them, then, nor did I have the wisdom to even ask them about it at that point in time.  Thankfully, I've been able to help my son a bit more than that.  This experience will allow me to be much more help to him, when it's time for him to do this in a couple years.

Onward and upward.