wasabigirl

Thank you so much! Do you now what's the percentage of people in a program get this scholarship? I didn't ask my cohort since it's kind of personal, I guess.

1. It depends on the program. Some universities do not care if you go straight to PhD from a bachelor degree. Some universities MA and PhD are combined, so after you do your MA, you don't have to apply for PhD. You will automatically go to PhD after finishing your MA. Some programs want people who have an MA to go to PhD. In my case, I just go straight to PhD, and about half of my classmates only have a bachelor degree since my program do admit people directly from undergraduate degree. 2) You may want to check which province/regulations...etc. I know in some province, most employers' health plan only cover the therapy if the therapists are registered social worker or psychologists. (I heard people told me, but I am not quite sure. you may need to check with other people). I was working for a CBT program in the hospital. After a while, I feel that I want to improve myself, so I applied. Didn't think I would get an offer, but I did. It's a good program. If you are interested in research and assessment, PhD is great. But if you just want to do therapy, a master of social work is the best to find a therapy job. You don't need to spend 5-6 years to get a PhD to work as a therapist. Master degree can open a lot of doors to work as a therapist.

What is the alternate list? Is it like a waiting list? I thought they only tell you yes or no for your scholarship application. Thanks so much for your reply!

A PhD in Clinical Psychology has good career prospect because a lot of assessment is reserved for PhD level clinicians. However, a MEd or MA in Counselling Psychology is not that easy to find a full-time permanent job for the following reasons: (from my observations working in the field plus my other therapists friends' observation in Canada) 1. High Competition You are competing with other master level graduates who have a degree in Social Work, Nursing and Occupational Therapy. All these professions (plus MD physicians and psychologists) can practice psychotherapy. A lot of registered social workers practice psychotherapy, and they work for hospitals, community health centres, non-profit organizations...etc. Many social workers also have their own private practice. Many of them are successful therapists. In fact, most secured psychotherapy jobs are in the hospitals where they 90% take only social workers. They don't really take people with a degree in counselling...only with a few exceptions. --> In short, Social Workers seem to have a bigger competitive edge when it comes to the job market counselling. 2. Low numbers of positions Most psychotherapy jobs in the job market are in contracts. And also not many numbers of job if you compare to other field. You never know if your contact will be renewed. Most counselling graduates go to private practice or find alternate jobs such as working as a mental health worker or CAS worker. Going to private practice can be an option. A lot of therapists start from there. 3. Maybe some new hope With the new psychotherapy College (CRPO), I think the job hunting for counselling new graduates is getting a bit easier. But there is still long way to go. I got a MA in Counselling Psychology when I was 24 years old. I had very difficult time to find a job in the beginning. Most of my classmates also had a hard time to find a job when they first graduate. I think the first 1-3 years is the most difficult. After working 3 to 5 years, you will find yourself easier to get a position. It's just bad that a lot of good positions in hospitals only accept Master of Social Work. Most non-profit organizations pay their therapists pretty low. Contract jobs become a norm that people have no job security, no health benefit, no pension. It's sad. But it's not just psychology. Many professions become like this. I was very lucky that I found a full-time permanent job in the hospital when I was 25 after working for 1 year in a non-profit . The hospital job paid me not bad and plus good health benefits and HOOP pension. That pension is the best part. But I still decided to go back to PhD in Clinical Psychology after working for the hospital for few years since I love research. Most of my classmates from my Counselling program didn't really secure a full-time permanent job in the first few years. I know a few experienced therapists who have successful private practice. Nevertheless, it's a business and there is always a risk.

It's a mentorship, so I am not in the supervisory role. I guess they might need a recommendation letter from our lab since they want to apply for graduate school. Thanks a lot for your advice. I think it's good to communicate the expectation. I feel they do not respect my efforts that I coach them at all. Maybe I should also discuss with my supervisor about having other undergrad students to help with my project.

Thank you so much! It think that's a good idea!

Thank you so much again for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate it a lot!

Hello! Thank you so much for your detailed reply! Appreciated it! 1. Yes, the professor is in my area. I am doing a research in her field too (I am not saying which field in case my supervisor is also seeing this forum). Not sure why she couldn't really give much constructive advice, and it's more obvious when the research gets harder. 2. I know why the other student left. I never spoke with her, but from her cohort (the other student I know), she prefers hands-on professor, so she switched at her 3rd year. Also I heard from others that she is a bit too laidback, so she needs professor to push her. And her new professor is very attentive to students and always push students for publication. I don't know how my supervisor thought of that, but I heard my senior student in my lab that our professor was "cool" for the switch and didn't really say much things. I will find out more what does it mean "cool". On the other hand, my professor is so laid-back. We are now working on a project that we hope to publish. I already finished my final draft of the manuscript in mid-February, but has not heard anything back from her at all... not sure what's happening. 3. And I appreciate your suggestions. I agree with you that volunteering in another lab, though it's good, can be demanding as well. I may have to consider my workload for sure. I think I need to discuss with another lab's professor to see what's the expectation of their lab in terms of workload...etc. Thank you again!

Thank you for your message. It's just mentoring. Giving advice and discuss together around every 2 to 3 weeks. We don't really have any guideline for our collaboration. If you see my another post today (in psychology forum if you search my posts), I also mentioned that our lab environment is not collaborative at all. People do their own things. Supervisor is friendly but does not help much for students in their research unfortunately. I am fine with not much research since my goal is to be a registered clinical psychologist, so practice is more important than research, but I feel missing a lot of things in graduate school.

Hello everyone, (sorry this question is long, but I am just so confused and worried. I appreciate your support). I am now doing my PhD in Clinical Psychology. My supervisor is a very friendly woman. She got her tenure about few years ago and is in her early 40s. She is approachable. She likes to chat with students (chatting about travels, her family and teaching experience). She is a great instructor. A lot of students told me that she teaches very well. However, I have found her supervising style is not a good fit for me that she is super super hands-off. I am just entering to my second year, and there's another student who recently defended his thesis and will go to his internship in September. I remember when last year I entered the program, he didn't tell me much. He just said our supervisor is friendly but alright with research. He didn't go into details. I think he didn't want to speak ill of our supervisor. At that time, I was not accepted into other PhD program in Clinical Psychology, so I chose to come here. I enjoyed all my course work, and my peers are quite friendly, but I don't really like my lab environment. I don't know if I should change a supervisor, but I am worried that I will upset her since she is the one who gave me interview and accepted me. Without her, I would not have a school to go. I am also thinking about volunteering in a second lab, but I am not sure if that would work. I appreciate the support and advice from all of you. Here are the reason: 1) Supervising style: I found my supervisor does not spending too much time on her students in terms of mentoring research. She wants students to think of their own projects and rarely gives much advice. This is later confirmed by the senior student in my lab. He also often found it frustrated that the supervisor was not really helping him to conceptualize his dissertation and other research projects. I am now writing up a research proposal for a project that I am going to work on. I found there's not much help from my supervisor. We will meet for sure, and she is always friendly and nice. She won't turn down meeting, but I found those meeting is not really that helpful. She usually just asks my ideas and asks me to write up. The good thing is that she return my first draft very quickly, within 1 week, and I can continue work on my second draft (there are feedback, but not much). 2) Competency (?) I often found when i asked my supervisor a question, it appeared that she does not have the knowledge to offer much guidance to me. This is also confirmed by the senior student who also thinks in this way. I remember when I joined his PhD dissertation progress meeting, his committee members found a few mistakes that he made but my supervisor didn't find those mistakes. After the progress meeting, I ask him how he felt. He said, "well, you know, that's how you work with this supervisor, not much help". We have two research consultants in my program, which is great. I consulted the professor who is the research consult. And he is amazing. He gave me so much reading and guidance. I found discussing with him is 10 times more helpful than talking to my supervisor. However, since he is not my supervisor, I could only focus on the research methods. 3) Negative lab environments: I found our lab does not have much collaboration. People just do their own things. I initially have 2 seniors students above me, but one left to another supervisor. The one who stayed didn't want to help me with anything. For example, when my supervisor said I could discuss with my research projects with the senior student, I emailed him, but he refused to help. He kept saying he is busy and has no time. Two of my classmates (in my cohort) told me that their senior students in their lab are very friend and helped each other with research. But these things do not happen in my lab. I never get any help or have any discussion opportunity with my lab members. In addition, Our lab meeting is very scarce...around 4 times a semester while other labs have weekly or bi-weekly meeting. I found no support here. I actually don't really know what do to. I am thinking to volunteer in a different lab to learn new things since I don't feel I am progressing much in my research. My goal is to become a Clinical Psychologist, so publication is not that important. However, I feel I miss so many interesting learning in research. I appreciate your suggestions!

Hello everyone, I am now a second year graduate student in my psychology lab. In my lab, we have 3 undergraduate students, 3 graduates students, including me. My professors asked me to mentor 2 of the undergraduate students. I sent a few useful reference book for research and statistics to them, but they never really replied my emails (not even a thank you email). They only replied my email if I hold a meeting with them (which I coached them with some research skills face to face before the school lock-down). About a few weeks ago, I have collected all my interviews and I needed to transcribed the audio-taping. My professor told me that the undergraduate students should help with my work. I sent them an email to ask them to work with me. They told me that they are doing their reports and would wait later. Later , I sent another follow up email. Up til now, it has been 3 weeks that I sent my last email, and they still haven't replied my email. Do you think I should bring this up to my supervisor? I don't feel comfortable working them these two undergraduate students anymore due to lack of respect. But I also don't want to create a fuss over it. I would like to find other undergraduate volunteers to help me, but not sure if that will jeopardize the relationship with the original 2 students. Also, I feel our lab really lack of cooperation in general. We kind of do our own things. I am even thinking about volunteer in another lab now to have a more collaborative lab experience. Thank you so much for your suggestions!