[Counselling Psychology Applicants 2021 CANADA]

Hi Everyone, 

I got my acceptance from Western University for Counselling a few weeks ago. However, I also got an acceptance for a Masters of Social Work. The social work program is actually offering essentially free tuition in scholarships and after reviewing the colleges regulations for both professions a social worker is able to perform psychotherapy (after 2 years supervision)  and counsel clients as soon as they graduate; versus the counselling programs in Ontario only gives 200ish hours of practicum and you need 1000 to register to be a psychotherapist and also need to write the EEEP exam to be certified whereas social work you do not need these things. I talked with a social worker, counsellor, psychologist and all say the same: The overlap in the professions is massive and you can get to the same point career wise and see the same clients in the same settings as other mental health professionals. Ultimately this is leading me to reject my offer from Western University for counselling and pursue social work. 

Some of you will be skeptical about this and possibly think it is dumb of me to do social work instead of doing counselling (which admittedly i thought of myself) but the social justice work, the ability to counsel and the opportunity to be at the same spot as a psychotherapist seems too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially with the scholarships. I say this all because like you folks, Ive been on this forum and experienced rejection from schools and been discouraged. However, please take some time to think about other avenues to get to the same spot, occupational therapists, social workers, nurses, counsellors, psychotherapists, and psychologists among some others can all perform a lot of the same tasks. I wanted counselling and thought that was the only route until I learned about social work and their ability to do psychotherapy and it completely changed my view on where my career is going to go and what I value and actually want. 

 

Good luck to everyone in the coming school year, round of applications and everything else. Im more than willing to answer any questions or concerns or PM me if you want to talk more. 

[Counselling Psychology Applicants 2021 CANADA]

15 minutes ago, 1097 said:

Do you mind advising if this email was sent to your personal or western email account? 

It was sent to my personal email account. 

[Counselling Psychology Applicants 2021 CANADA]

Just received my invite to Western for an interview on March 9th. So for anyone who applied to Western the email should come out tomorrow or latest Monday I’m guessing.