What kind of school do I need to complete?

You need at least a master’s degree to become a mental health therapist regardless of the specific master’s program or course of study you decide to pursue. Mental health providers come from various programs and can have Master’s in Counseling, Social Work, Psychology (usually Clinical Psychology), or Marriage and Family Therapy. Each type of degree has a slightly different focus and different training emphasis but all paths can produce a qualified mental health therapist. Even different schools will offer different emphasis and slightly different training within a degree type (for example some social work programs are more “generalist” where you learn about all areas of the field and others might be more “clinical” focused where they emphasize work with individuals/diagnosis/therapy). Full-time coursework takes a minimum of about two years but can take longer.

Okay so what happens after that…?

After graduating with your master’s degree, you will also need to be licensed by the board in whatever state you want to live and practice in (licensure varies both by state and by your degree). You cannot practice as a therapist until after you are licensed. The licensing procedures will be different for every type of degree (so social workers have very different licensure requirements/different licensing processes than counselors). Since I am a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, I’ll use that as the example process-

To become licensed a mental health counselor you would need to:

-pass a licensing exam

-complete the application

-submit a background check, transcripts, verification about your school work and completion of in-school clinical hours,

-pass an ethics ethics exam

-include a written consent statement future clients which must be approved by your board

After completing this then the board will review your application and, if approved, you receive a provisional license until you qualify for a full, unrestricted license.

So then I’m a therapist, right?

YES! And this is when most therapists are working towards their unrestricted license. For counselors, this means that you will have to meet regularly with a qualified and approved supervisor until you are fully licensed. Your supervisor provides support and works with you until you reach your required hours and reapply for your full license. Once you receive your unrestricted license then you no longer are required to be under another counselor’s supervision.

What kind of places can I work?

There are several options where therapists work:

-nonprofits

-hospitals

-mental health treatment centers (including eating disorder treatment and substance abuse treatment)

-private practice (as individual or as part of a group practice)

I have to have it all together to be a therapist right?

Definitely not, therapists are human just like everyone else. That being said, I was taught in grad school and fully believe that “all good therapists have a good therapist” so I suggest anyone wanting to pursue a job in this field so be seeing/or start seeing a therapist (I mean everyone could benefit from a good therapist regardless of their future career choice). Both the training in graduate school and the job can be very challenging and require a lot of emotional energy and you deserve support.