Quote (BardOfXiix @ Jul 25 2017 03:41pm)
Psychology was pretty dark for awhile there. Still pretty dark I guess. Asylums are a lot nicer now though
That Watson/Skinner stuff is....anti-human IMO. I peer interviewed a therapist for a LICDC position on my team and when I asked him about his theoretical approach he strangely said Behaviorism. It is such an authoritarian persuasion. Its kind of old and I just can't agree with the sentiment that
thoughts don't matter. I use the cognitive-behavioral model which is 1: there is a thought, 2: that thought leads to a feeling, 3: that feeling leads to a behavior; Therefore, we can affect behaviors by clearing up cognitive distortions in thinking and feeling. Psychoanalysis is #1 but requires quite a lot of commitment on the part of both people, more commitment than insurance companies believe is necessary (thank god too much therapy fries people), so only rich doctors and clients do it.
My approach is different than many of the other therapist I've worked with, which is good, because you don't want a bunch of the same people doing all the same things you're just repeating work. Using social work theories in practice is great because you get to actually improve peoples' lives in addition to helping them deal with the shitty life that they have. I can do the psychotherapy stuff, CBT, DBT, , and I can also write a grant, act as an expert witness, know how to get things like health insurance and cheap health care, do case management at a very high quality level, take your fucking kids if you beat on them and find them new parents, find the shelters and other places to go when the weather is shit and you're homeless...
Also MSW is a terminal degree...you only need a DSW to do research at a uni and teach there. The highest license is available to the MSW after two years of practice and 200 hours of supervision by a LISW-S. If you want to do the same thing, with a psychology degree, you need a PhD. Clinical psychologists are basically overpaid social workers, and there are a lot less of those jobs available. That being said, my boss is a clinical psychologist and he is young and brilliant and a great boss
I find myself asking what is next in terms of advancement. I like working within health care and there is plenty of space to climb up in a city with a handful of major hospital networks competing with each other...you just have to always be willing to walk away from where you are and you will advance. Go to a place, put in a couple years of great work, go above and beyond, push the limits of the position, and after a couple years you will be able to say you've done that to the next place you're trying to move into, at a higher level. You have to be shrewd. There is no staying in one place and working upward...there is nowhere to go most of the time.
I hope I am not just pontificating. I am proselytizing though.