Author: Jonathan Forney
I have started to notice a pattern. Over the past year, a growing number of friends and acquaintances have been asking me the same question: how do I become a therapist? Many of them are considering the same kind of career shift that I made — leaving one professional life behind to build another, one centered on supporting other people’s mental health and wellbeing.
As I write this, I am nearly done with my MEd program and internship. I have been genuinely happy with the path I chose — both the learning process along the way and the results, in terms of the clients I now get to work with. But I remember how difficult it was, in the early stages, to find clear and honest information about how to make an informed choice among a number of pathways that all seemed to lead to very similar outcomes.
This blog is my attempt to fill that gap. My hope is that it can serve as a practical guide for people who are seriously considering a career in clinical mental health — whether you are a recent graduate exploring your options or a mid-career professional thinking about starting over.
Why This Question Is Harder Than It Should Be?
One reason the “which path should I take?” question is so difficult is that the mental health field has a lot of parallel tracks that genuinely do lead to similar places. These relatively parallel tracks (psychologist, social worker, counselor) are mostly artifacts of the historical evolution of mental health careers in the United States. The history of these pathways is a nerdy topic for another post. For now, it will suffice to say that you can end up running a private practice, working in community mental health, or taking a position at the VA whether you hold an LMFT, an LCSW, an LPC, or a doctoral degree. The credentials look different; the day-to-day work often does not.
There are many pathways to becoming a therapist that lead to very similar outcomes in terms of how you are licensed to practice and the types of jobs you can pursue. In many cases, the best path for you may simply be the one you think you will enjoy the most — with professors and peers who share your outlook on mental health and wellness.
That said, the tracks are not completely interchangeable. There are things a licensed psychologist with a doctoral degree can do — administering and interpreting formal psychological assessments, for instance — that someone with a master’s degree generally cannot. So while overlap is the rule, the distinctions are real and worth understanding before you commit to a program.