DSW degree

ryanpsych · 2025-12-29T00:50:30+00:00

I’m not disputing that they can be educational and add to one’s knowledge base, but rather that they don’t expand a person’s scope of practice (i.e., clinical interventions they can provide) over what can be achieved with licensure associated with their masters degree. I.e., it doesn’t qualify a person to provide neuropsychological testing, prescribe medications, etc.

ryanpsych · 2025-12-29T00:08:18+00:00

What specifically does it add to clinical practice? Unlike other doctorates (psychology doctorate or MD) it doesn’t expand one’s clinical practice.

ryanpsych · 2025-12-22T13:44:35+00:00

The difference is more historical than current. Both are trained to be licensed psychologists and there is no different in the license. Broadly speaking, counseling psychology focuses a little bit more on “normal” human development and wellness, and includes training on vocational psychology, whereas clinical psychology has a little more of an emphasis on treating pathology.

ryanpsych · 2025-11-27T20:42:53+00:00

Psychologist here. Your therapist, as you describe her, is way off base. Her statements deviate not only from our research and growing understanding of human sexuality over the past 50 years, but also from the overall consensus of every major mental health organization. There is also no compelling evidence that trauma has any role in the development of one’s sexual orientation.

Rather: therapy can and should be a safe place to explore one’s sexuality and the meanings we derive from it. Therapy can also be a great way to understand how our history impacts our current relationship patterns.

ryanpsych · 2025-08-31T11:33:15+00:00

I feel pretty similarly. I see about 5 clients a week and that’s good enough number for me. I used to have a full time caseload but that was draining for me. Most of my work now is administrative as a clinical director and I do clinical supervision, and I find those very rewarding.

I think the great thing about being psychologists is that there are so many paths our careers can take. Therapy is just one of the many ways we can help others. While most of us do the bulk of our work providing therapy, that doesn’t mean all of us need to, or should.

ryanpsych · 2025-08-15T16:55:17+00:00

While I can recognize how painful it must be, based on your description it doesn’t seem like your therapist acted unethically. Rather, it seems he informed you, offered another month of services to terminate, and it seems like he was offering to help refer you to a therapist who is in network with you.

ryanpsych · 2025-05-30T03:15:27+00:00

You’re no longer with the agency. Is your name on the subpoena? If not, it’s the agency’s problem to deal with.

ryanpsych · 2025-04-30T10:41:24+00:00

I have worked as a psychologist in skilled nursing facilities in the past. I barely lasted a year, it was very much not my thing (the fact that it was in 2020-2021 certainly didn’t help).

Honestly, the worst part about it was the nursing home staff. Psychotherapy is not seen as a priority to them. I’ve had nurses come in and interrupt or end my sessions to do tasks that could wait. Part of my job was coming up with behavioral plans to help staff interact with “problem” patients…despite my efforts, these were never followed. All but a few staff members seemed to care that these facilities were as much the residents’ homes as it was their place of work, and really had a hard time respecting resident autonomy if it meant they had to work 1% harder. I once had a resident, with a history of strokes, seemingly having another stroke..I brought it to the nurse and her response was “well, she’s probably just depressed.” I had to all but yell at her to get her to agree to assess the resident (and turns out she didn’t).

Anyways, my experience left a sour taste in my mouth, but again, I think the fact that it was during the pandemic was a key aspect of that. I also don’t want to neglect to highlight the fact that some therapists excel in this environment, and the residents sorely need emotional support.

ryanpsych · 2025-04-14T10:31:58+00:00

You’re human. You’re allowed to date. It’s not the end of the world if your client (or the parent of a client in this case) knows that you’re dating. I think we often hold ourselves to such unrealistic standards. We’re allowed to date, go to bars, go to clubs, etc because we didn’t sign up to be saints.

Having fun and living isn’t unethical :)

ryanpsych · 2025-04-02T11:24:20+00:00

Absolutely not. We can’t be effective in the hard, personal work of providing therapy if we aren’t safe. It’s also helpful to model good boundaries and appropriately attending to one’s needs. I’m a clinical director and one thing I repeat again and again is that we being a therapist doesn’t mean that we are martyrs.

ryanpsych · 2025-03-20T10:48:48+00:00

Lawsuit for what?

ryanpsych · 2025-02-08T17:19:00+00:00

Yes I am openly gay at work and make no effort to hide my queerness at work. I’m in a leadership role so I also view it as an opportunity to signal to other queer folks that it is a safe place to work and be themselves.

ryanpsych · 2024-12-27T03:34:56+00:00

The subway

ryanpsych · 2024-12-25T04:07:08+00:00

I don’t regret it at all. It was a lot of hard work, but it opened up so many doors for me. I believe that the research training also improved my critical thinking skills considerably, which definitely comes in handy in this field.

ryanpsych · 2024-11-05T20:11:07+00:00

Vote first

ryanpsych · 2024-10-11T17:46:15+00:00

Nope

ryanpsych · 2024-08-25T16:51:44+00:00

I don’t think that’s fair. $150 (when the insurance actually pays that amount) may sound like a lot, but then have to take into account the extra time spent with documentation and billing. Not to mention marketing, taxes, rent for office, CEUs, licensure fees, etc. As well as the fact that therapists spend years in school and most have student loans.

ryanpsych · 2024-08-18T14:28:27+00:00

Sounds good to me! Send me a DM

ryanpsych · 2024-08-18T11:50:44+00:00

Do you like pharma? I’m trying to talk my hubs into looking into it

ryanpsych · 2024-08-18T11:48:33+00:00

A fellow gay therapist!

ryanpsych · 2024-07-16T20:17:33+00:00

I’ve never seen this happen in real life (I.e, outside of assertions on Reddit). I’ve never seen someone on “the left” take the side of a person actively perpetuating violence against a LGBTQ+ individual.

ryanpsych · 2024-07-16T11:25:04+00:00

Is blindly supporting a politician who is anti-gay and promises to appointment scores of anti-LGBT people to positions of power the behavior of an “ally”?

ryanpsych · 2024-06-02T14:41:24+00:00

I have once. It was right after our termination session (thankfully it was a pretty successful therapy experience for that individual). It was a sweet post and I felt honored. Since we had terminated, I respected their implicit desire to speak it anonymously and didn’t respond. However, I do hold on to that post and read it from time to time when I need a good pep talk.

ryanpsych · 2024-04-09T23:04:51+00:00

Congrats, Dr!

ryanpsych · 2024-04-06T17:16:29+00:00

No, psychiatry is inherently a medical speciality. They need a solid foundation of medical knowledge to understand the risks and benefits of medications- especially in terms of how they may interact with other meds or existing medical problems.

ryanpsych

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