Q. I just completed my sophomore year in college and I am beginning to search for graduate school and make decisions about what I am going to be doing for the rest of my life. I am a psychology major and I’m extremely interested in Drug and Addiction therapy and counseling. As I was doing research for this field of study, though, I was only able to discover jobs for MD’s. I do not have the money, nor the motivation for medical school, but I want to do what I can to get in to drug counseling. Can I still go into this vocation with a PsyD. or even just a MA? Or do I need to be looking for another career?
A. I am surprised that all that you can came across were jobs for MDs when researching your vocational interest in drug addiction therapy and counseling. You do not need a MD just to work with this population. If you are interested in working as a therapist/counselor, most states will require at least a master’s degree. That degree could be an MA (Master of Arts), a PsyD (which is more like a PhD in terms of amount of schooling but without the heavy research component) or a master’s of social work (MSW). The vocational trend for those wanting to work as a therapist/counselor over the past few years has been the master’s degree in social work. Once you receive your master’s degree in social work, you can take a state licensure exam and if you pass, you are licensed to perform therapy. The same is not true with the MA. Since many MA programs do not supervise or necessarily train students for therapy, some states do not license MAs, but these programs vary tremendously. If will depend on your state and the state licensure rules. You can look into this.
Many graduate social work programs, if you receive your undergraduate degree in social work, will only require three semesters to complete your graduate degree, as opposed to four semesters if you do not have an undergraduate social work degree. This is a nice feature of many social work programs. Additionally, master’s degrees in social work are popular since they are an alternative to the PhD in psychology (but less prestigious), the degree you would need to get to if you wanted to stay within the discipline of psychology and become licensed for counseling. Some believe that social workers have taken over jobs previously only held by psychologists. MSWs are licensed therapists that demand less pay for essentially the same jobs that psychologists do. This has led some insurance companies to hire licensed social workers for less as opposed to paying psychologists who demand more money per hour for the same jobs . In some circles, psychologists are taking on a bit of a different role, trying to establish prescription privileges, (like psychiatrists) and in a few states have succeeded. The only general difference between psychologists and social work jobs is that psychologists are trained to administer standardized tests (e.g. IQ tests) and most social work programs do not train their students to administer such tests. Also, psychologists are trained to perform to conduct research and many social work programs do require research work, if any.
To summarize, master’s of social work programs are the most popular since they require less time and energy than the PhD in psychology or the PsyD and will allow you to become licensed as a therapist/counselor in most states; MA degrees vary from state to state and may not be adequate degrees if you want to be a licensed counselor/therapist; and PsyDs are great degrees that focus on clinical training but usually require longer training than the social work master’s degree to become a licensed counselor/therapist. Also know that schools of psychology are extremely selective on their applicants and are very difficult to get into. Some say it is easier to get into medical school than into a PhD program for psychology–both are very selective programs. This is not the case with social work programs and I am not sure about PsyD programs.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions. Take care.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 20 Jun 2006
