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I was an Occupational Therapy major but loved working in psych and luckily that was the field I picked for 13 years. Unfortunately, the mental health system in Michigan is VERY sick and there are no longer jobs available in my field. But, I also worked on a Masters in Clinical Psych and worked with numerous psych professionals for a very long time. Here are some of the things I've seen:
PhD Psychologists and ACSW's (Accredited Clinical Social Workers) make about the same salary in a hospital even though an ACSW has a Master's degree and the Psychologist has a PhD. I would strongly recommend looking into social work. ACSW's do therapy and they can be involved in research too. They can also quickly move to school social work with a course or two. With a bachelor's in social work you can usually get a job as a case manager in a community mental health setting (pay isn't great) BUT they will usually pay a portion of grad school so you can put food on the table and do therapy.
As for working with kids.. I worked on inpatient adult psychiatric units for 3 years and on child and adolescent units for 10 years. Are the kids tough to work with? Yes! Is the most rewarding thing I ever did? YES!!!! I found child and adolescent psych to be far more rewarding as a therapist in an inpatient setting because.. most adults admitted to inpatient psych units have biological disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. They get on their meds, they do great. Some would stay out of the hospital after that, most would go off their meds and be back a few months later. With the kids, more of their problems stemmed from the situations they were dealing with in their homes/families/schools, etc. There was more therapy involved and less medicating. Some had biological disorders but they were more rare. They needed to learn coping skills, social skills, anger management skills, conflict resolution, etc. In my experience, most of them really did better as a result of treatment. The hardest part is earning their trust and getting them to believe in themselves.. when you do that, it's an unbelievable feeling!
As for sciences.. Neuropsychologists have to do the most studying of the brain although all psychologists have to have some knowledge of the brain and how it works, etc.
It can be a very rewarding field but you do have to go to school for a very long time. I would seriously consider Social Work or, as an earlier poster suggested, Educational Leadership/Counseling which would also only require a Masters.
Dee
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