I am currently a first-year graduate student at Lesley College working towards a 60-credit Counseling Psyschology degree. What does that mean? It means that, over the next three years, I will be taking a series of courses, a practicum and two internships. It also means that, presuming I graduate (and therefore have fulfilled all the requirements), I will be able to take the liscensing test soon after. If I pass, a scant few hours of interning will be all that stands between me and being a Liscensed Mental Health Counselor. Whee!
What is a Liscensed Mental Health Counseling degree, you ask? To answer this, it is easier to go over the things it is not. It is not an M.D. I do not ever plan on getting an M.D. for psychology; the bio end of psychology is interesting to me, but I do not plan on studying it to the point of being able to prescribe medication. It is also not a PhD or PsyD. Sad to say, I will not be able to call myself Dr. Genstein after this. :) It is also not a Masters degree, at least, not really. That would normally be a 48-credit program, which is designed to allow you to go on to get your Doctorate . . . except that most Doctorate programs want people right out of their Bachelor's degree. Welcome to one of the many odd parts about the field of Psychology. Despite a Masters being presumably intended to bridge the gap between a Bachelors and a Doctorate, many schools will not even allow you to apply your graduate school credit to your Doctorate. So, an LMHC degree will allow you to get liscensed at a level somewhere between Masters and Doctorate. You are paid marginally less than someone with a PhD, and there are the rare places which won't know where to place you for hiring, but that's increasingly common. With America being the HMO-land it is, most of the time LMHCs are hired over doctors, as the insurance has to pay a lot less money for you to work for them.
In case you're wondering, I still feel the school is truly amazing. If you're in the Boston area and looking for a liberal, holistic experience in either counseling psychology, education, environmental education / studies, expressive therapies, or intercultural relations . . . or you want to create your own interdisciplinary program . . . I highly recommend the school.
Some recommended reading if you're thinking of getting into the field of counseling:
