Transition into Clinical Psych from Another Field?

[Thrasymachus]

Hello. Sorry in advance for the long post. The tldr is that I am currently in a philosophy Ph.D. program and wondering if I would have any shot at transitioning into a Ph.D. program in clinical psych without research experience.

The longer story is that I began as a double major in philosophy and psychology as an undergrad. By the time I reached my junior year, I realized that I wanted to apply to grad programs in philosophy and dropped my psych major to a minor in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience to focus on learning a second language (a valuable tool for applying to philosophy programs), though I graduated with 30+ credits in psych. My undergrad GPA was 3.74, and I think my psych GPA was in the 3.8 range. Because I knew somewhat early on that I was going to be shifting my focus to philosophy, I did not pursue any lab work. the closest thing I have was that I volunteered in a mental health clinic for about 8 months as an undergrad, but this wasn't a research setting, it was more like a rehab program. My GREs were high for verbal and the essay portion (90+ percentile), but low for quant, so I would plan to retake if I did reapply.

Fast forward and I have since completed a master's in philosophy (3.95 GPA) and my first year at a funded Ph.D. program in philosophy (3.93 GPA). I've been presenting my work at international conferences, I now teach a course, and I would say my professional development in the philosophy world has been going relatively well. That said, I've never really been able to leave psychology behind, and my work has increasingly shifted to the intersection of philosophy and psychology. I am now doing quite a bit of research on the philosophical underpinnings of various therepeutic orientations (i.e., CBT and psychoanalysis), and at the moment, I am currently putting together a dissertation project at the intersection of philosophy and clinical psychology. To gear up for that research, I'm taking a graduate seminar on the history of psychology, and will be taking another in the fall on cognitive behavioral therapy, and will probably take one more in the spring of 2021.

The real issue though is that my work is becoming interdisciplinary to the point that I'm not sure philosophers (at least the ones in my department) can really help me with the kinds of questions I'm interested in. Likewise, I'm honestly becoming a bit tired of academia (or at least the philosophy world), and when thinking about career outcomes, I'm becoming far more attracted to the idea of working as a therapist either in a community setting or private practice (the job market in philosophy is abysmal). The thing is, I understand from reading these forums that research experience is a pretty big "must have" for grad programs in psych. And while my resume would probably look very strong in the philosophy world, my sense is that my achievements, or even my work as a philosopher, won't be well recognized in an application to a psychology program. I had been hoping to get a volunteer position in a lab at my current institution to help my chances at a possible transition over and above taking grad seminars, though COVID kind of killed those plans. At this point, outside of taking grad classes in the psychology department, I don't really have time to start over and do another MA. So what I'm wondering is if it's even worth sending out some applications this fall to clinical programs, or if I should stay the course in my current program, and perhaps obtain a 2 year degree in MFT or Mental Health Counseling afterwards, given that my interests in clinical psych are mostly non-academic.

Thanks for any help!

[transfatfree]

I know of a clinician who completed a PhD in philosophy and then a PhD in clinical psychology, but it was a huge commitment in terms of time. You are right about considering other less costly/time-consuming options (e.g., MFT, MHC, and I will add social work) to become a therapist. Based on the settings you want to work in, and if your primary goal is to provide therapy, becoming a master's-level therapist may not be a bad idea. A PhD in clinical psychology is probably only necessary if you are in very specialized sub-disciplines (e.g., neuropsych assessment).

Having said that, if you have read other posts, some successful applicants got accepted without that much research experience. It may not be the norm but there are professors who are willing to "take the risk." Very often, the qualifying paper(s) and dissertation are major hurdles for students who are more interested in clinical work and research to graduate. You may need to convince the admission committee of your genuine interest in clinical psychology instead of the awakening of the abysmal prospects of philosophy majors (some of them also switch to law school). You have some nice plans to fall back on so if you can spend the time and money for applications, you can choose to apply this fall. You may want to target programs/faculty with very strong research matches though, especially when there is likely less funding and more competition in this application cycle. 

[philoquant]

Are you me (...but with more psych experience)? After 8 years in Philosophy grad school and my only psychology experience being philosophy of psych, in 2018, I decided to go for a career change and pursue Psychology. At the time, I wanted to do Clinical so I applied to a bunch of Clinical PhD programs. I was rejected without interview from every PhD program (which I expected). Luckily I had interviews at funded MA programs and now I'm happily attending a fully funded masters program. I'm super happy it turned out this way because my newly found psychology research experience showed me that I'm actually interested in quantitative psychology, so this year I'll be applying to quant PhD programs. I guess my takeaway message is that if clinical PhD is your goal, but you don't feel like you have enough experience yet, consider a funded MA.

[jamesalexander]

-

Edited September 2, 2020 by jamesalexander
Repeat post