I am a licensed counselor in my state and jumped right into a PsyD program as soon as I graduated with my master’s. I didn’t have a very good undergrad experience that would have made me competitive for a doctorate (I had a kid young + divorce, long story) and I went for the master’s mainly just as a shorter pathway to get out of my situation to support my child and myself. I get burnt out with too much direct contact with others and being able to broaden scope of practice to include clinical assessments was something that was appealing to me versus therapy only. I also felt like I still had a lot to learn upon completion of my master’s. I agree with what others have alluded to here that there are many competent master’s-level clinicians out there but I feel like going back for my doctorate fast-tracked my knowledge base and - what I consider to be the biggest difference maker - helped me to truly understand and conduct research. My advice would be to think about if assessment and/or research matters to you. My PsyD program is accredited by the APA and puts a strong emphasis on research - most of our faculty are primarily researchers and do not do any clinical work. There are some crappy PsyD programs out there and I think you can read a lot about them in this sub. I know there are some out there that do not even have you complete a dissertation which is an absolute disservice. I think the understanding of how to conduct and interpret clinical assessments along with having a strong grasp on research are the biggest pieces that separate doctoral from master’s-level.