forkYroad

[shazza]

Help me decide my life, TPM! I'm having yet another quarter life existential crisis! Thanks, Barry.

I completed my degree majoring in Politics and Sociology (in before Arts jibes), and since then have had vocation difficulties. I’ve been the editor of a newly launched, youth magazine since October of last year. And I gained full time employment in January of 2011, which concluded last month due to differences – the crux being I was paid as a contractor rather than a full time employee.

Today I applied to do a Graduate Diploma in Counselling at the Australian College of Applied Psychology. To console someone would be an awarding career for me, as I have a natural ability to listen and help those that are having personal difficulties. But, I also have had an affinity – especially of recent – in the academia side of things. I enjoy theories and research as well as the clinical side of things; the counselling degree I applied for, however, is solely focused on being practical.

From my understanding, if I wish to study psychology at a later time of my life, I cannot use the Counselling degree as previous credentials and would essentially have to start scratch; they’re officially mutually exclusive, despite exhibiting many similarities.

I did my degree initially with the idea of working in a Government agency or the Public Service; perhaps working for a local member of Parliament. But as I get older, the facade of Australian politics is killing all my initial passion to get into it as a career. I wouldn’t say no to working in some form of entry level public service job while I’m studying this counselling course, however. Ultimately I’d love to be a writer (such as a book or a television show), but I don’t really want to put all my eggs into one basket with that one.

Then there’s the whole third option: social work. I haven't seriously considered or researched that, but perhaps that may be an amalgamation of helping someone and research without the copious amount of years needed for clinical psychology? But ideally I’d love to pursue a career in counselling, THEN afterwards dabble in psychology. I asked if I could do like a double graduate diploma in both counselling and psychology, however that isn’t viable. Is it worth doing a psychology degree? BA + Hons (4 years) + Masters (2 years)/PhD (3 years) + clinical supervision (2 years) is an awful long time in comparison to the 2 years of a Graduate Diploma of Counselling.

I've had a fair bit of depression and self-esteem issues since about May, so I've been more prone to doubt my life and choices with it.

Thanks guys!

[Asilynne]

I'd advise the 2 years of a Graduate Diploma of Counselling for now, and then if you decide to pursue a higher one later, you will have been set with a decent career for awhile before then, plus said career would have given you a good deal of real world experience in the meantime Real world exp could give you that edge if you wanted to find a career after getting your phd too, it might help to set you apart from the rest of the people which may only have the schooling to back them up.

[shazza]

This is very true! The course begins in about 12 days, so I think I'm doing a couple of units part time via correspondence to give me a taste for it. If I find myself craving a more academia/theoretical approach, I might swap from a Grad Dip in Counselling to a Grad Dip in Psychology. I have subsequently realised that there is Graduate Diploma's of Psychology offered, along with summer school, that condenses the usual 3 year degree into one. If I wanted to become an accredited psychologist, the time isn't so long: Grad Dip (1 year) + Honours (1 year) + Masters (2 years). By then I'll be 27 or something! Whoo!