Deciding Among the Options
When we chat with prospective students, a few issues regularly emerge. For most people, the decision to embark on graduate in psychology is related to a significant life transition. This section is intended to help you navigate through frequently expressed concerns.
Organizational students tend to be (a) people who want to gain skills and competencies that will allow them to advance within their current corporate environment, (b) people who are or hope to be internal consultants within their current corporate environment, and (c) people who are part of a private firm in which ‘you’ function as an external consultant to business enterprises.
There are any number of business enterprises – some small, some large, some huge – which run into problems as they become successful. If they aren’t successful, they fold. If they are successful, success often has to do with the original vision of the founder(s) whose idea or product gave the organization a competitive advantage. Yet, as organizations grow, new challenges develop which often are resistant to the energy that drove the original successes. To a large extent, students who are interested in organizational psychology are people who have a heart for helping organizations move through these periods of resistance.
Change is usually difficult but is also inevitable. Managing change processes so that an organization (and the real, human beings who rely upon the organization for a living) maintain a success oriented, competitive advantage, is typically the goal of the organizational consultant. Is this the kind of work in which you would like to be involved?
One question the prospective student should consider is -- are you by nature entrepreneurial? The program offerings at PSP will provide you with core competencies to guide and manage organizational change, but will not teach you how to be confident. While you may develop networking-oriented relationships with other students, many of our students are older (‘mature learners’) and are already involved in corporate environments, or already have substantial contact bases, which they hope to leverage with the advanced degree they will receive at PSP.
We have had students who come to the organizational doctoral program with masters degrees in clinical psychology – they have, perhaps, become involved in the administration and maintenance of the ‘corporate culture’ of an agency that provides clinical services as the ‘product,’ but is managed by people who have no education in the best practices of organizational management. On the other hand, we have had students who have a post-bachelor degree in organizational development, who want to move to the next higher level of capability.
Clinical students tend to be people who (a) work in the general health services field, (b) people who have imagined themselves in the role of a psychotherapist, and (c) people who are masters-level psychotherapists who would like advanced training at the doctoral level.
While most organizational psychologists (those who complete the doctoral program) do not seek formal licensure, almost every clinical student does seek formal licensure. Why? Because the practice of psychotherapy is regulated by the State of California and most every other state. This distinction is important because the decision to seek graduate education in clinical psychology is only the first step in the process to be licensed.
Masters-level psychotherapists work with individuals, couples and families. Their State of California licensing examinations tend to focus on family systems theories – those psychotherapeutic methodologies that frame the presenting problem in a larger, family context. Yet, in their actual, day-to-day practice, many Marriage and Family Therapists work as individual-oriented therapists. It often depends on what one enjoys.
Doctoral-level psychotherapists work with individuals, couples and families as well, though they tend to focus more on individuals. With a doctoral degree in clinical psychology, one can become a State-licensed Psychologist. In addition to their work as psychotherapists, a Psychologist is trained to administer psychological evaluative instruments, such as the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Millon Multiaxial Clinical Inventory, the Thematic Apperception Test, the Rorschach Inblot Test, and others. Note that one can achieve the Psy.D. and license with the Board of Behavioral Sciences as a Marriage and Family Therapist. Many people with the Psy.D. dual license as a Psychologist and as a Marriage and Family Therapist.
It may be helpful to note that the managed care environment in which we all live has led to cost containment measures which, as a practical matter, have limited the number of treatment sessions allowed by the insurance company. These limitations have added influence to and prompted the further development of brief psychotherapeutic methodologies. Notably, what is known as cognitive-behavioral therapy is of critical importance in contemporary practice. Indeed, many people would argue that cognitive-behavioral therapy is efficacious in ways that traditional psychotherapies are not.
The PSP masters-level degree that leads to becoming a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist will take most students about two years to complete. At the end of your educational phase, you will sit for the PSP masters comprehensive examination.
The PSP doctoral-level degree that leads to becoming a licensed Psychologist will take most students closer to three years to complete. At the end of your educational phase, you will sit for the PSP doctoral comprehensive examination, and be authorized to begin your dissertation. Dissertations are the equivalent of your first book – typically anywhere from 100 to 1000 pages. Many students tremendously enjoy the class phase of their education, dread but deal with the comprehensive examination stage, but have a real problem with the dissertation phase. Are you a person who has ‘found your voice?’ Do you have a desire to add something to the body of work that has been done by clinical doctoral candidates in years past?
If your primary interest is being a psychotherapist, becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist may be the best and most direct route for you to pursue. With the advent of ‘managed care,’ many insurance providers do not pay for multi-test psychological evaluations, as valuable as they are for teasing out what is really going on with a patient. On the other hand, a licensed Psychologist can typically command a higher per visit fee structure, and is more highly trained in the practice of clinical psychology. Within a mental health organization, the Psychologist would typically be placed in a higher level administrative position, commensurate with the higher and deeper level of education.
Even though the licensing boards are separate, both the Marriage and Family Therapist-bound student and the Psychologist-bound student must complete 3,000 of supervised professional experience before being allowed to sit for the State licensing examinations. In truth, it is easier to obtain the necessary supervision if you are Marriage and Family Therapist-bound. In addition, it is most difficult to find a paid internship. Further, both State licensing boards expect that a person will complete the 3,000 hours within a limited number of years. Thus, while being a PSP student on weekend days and working a full-time job during the weekday days is a real draw to the PSP program, students have to consider how they will first find and then build into their post-educational schedule, the time to accumulate supervised clinical hours for which you may not receive any compensation.
Another deciding issue may be the cost of the education at PSP (or other schools). The cost of pursuing the masters-level degree is significantly less than the cost of the doctoral-level degree. To be sure, although the quality of a PSP education is very high, the cost for any given program is far less than what you would pay at a different school. In addition, masters-level clinical education opportunities are plentiful, but doctoral-level clinical education is harder to find. And it is especially difficult to find when it is affordable.
What is ‘affordable?’ The typical PSP student is a mature learner, and on average the PSP student is 45 years old. Part of the decision process for any prospective student is how to amortize the cost of the education over the years you have left to work. At the masters or doctoral level, the prospective student should look at the other schools that offer a program that leads to licensure. What is the cost per unit? Can you attend classes in a way that fits with your current lifestyle? How long will it take? What other requirements may that school have (certain undergraduate coursework, a thesis or dissertation at the end of the program)? Are there certain tests that must be passed in order to enter the program, for instance, the GRE? Does the school have access to Federal student loan programs? You will see that the term ‘affordable’ can relate to a variety of potential decision factors.
The typical PSP student is a person who cannot justify the significantly higher cost of the other schools in the area. For example, the only other graduate schoo that offers a doctoratel in clinical psychology in the Sacramento area will charge about two and a half times the cost PSP charges, for an equivalent program. They would argue that their program is not ‘equivalent’ because their program is both accredited and APA-approved. Yet, we are certain that the prospective student will not receive a better education at this other school, so what will you get for the significantly higher tuition? The answer lies in the issue of accreditation and, in the case of this school, approval by the APA. If you are 25 years old, you may get out of the program and accumulate sufficient supervised professional experience (clinical hours), by the time you are 30. In this case, you may have 40 years to amortize the cost of the education (assuming you work until you are 70). However, if you are 45 years old, you may get out of the program and accumulate sufficient supervised professional experience (clinical hours), by the time you are 50. In this case, you may have 20 years to amortize the cost of the education (assuming you work until you are 70). These are the kinds of rational calculations everyone must ‘perform’ for themselves as part of the decision-making process when considering the meaning of 'affordable.'
We offer the student an unparalleled educational experience in a collaborative, non-competitive environment, at a reasonable cost. Our programs are oriented to mature working professionals. Are you the kind of person who would benefit by what PSP has to offer?
