Tell me more about that: Therapy

[love_pirate]

I've seriously thought about being a counselor or a clinical psychologist.  I have a strong interest in "ecopsychology" or ecotherapy, and I would like to have the credentials to practice this.  According to Wikipedia:

"Ecopsychology recognizes the escalating spread of pain and despair being felt by people in response to nature’s continuing

Comments

[braveatoms]

I have a friend who is not a fan of "counseling" as such, as its ethical standards are lower than a lot of the other human-services disciplines, at least by her report. (You can date clients after a certain period of time, etc.) Social work may be worth looking into for you. In my program at least (or the one I used to be in, and am sort of still in now), the "biopsychosocial" model -- looking at how genetics, personal psychology, and environment interact -- is a big freaking deal. If that's representative in other programs, the idea of the person as someone affected by the world around them (and not necessarily just failing to function as a part of its machine), is very important. There's also a focus on strengths-based counseling in social work, i.e. looking for the health in someone and developing that, rather than just attempting to curttail the disease. Check it out. :)

[love_pirate]

Interesting...social work is actually something I've thought of doing. But like everything else, it's just so hard to know what it would actually be like to practice. I've heard it's really stressful, you have to work a ton of hours, it's a thankless job, etc. (I'm sure you've heard all that and more!) But wouldn't you have a choice about what kind of setting you worked in?