There are nearly countless careers in psychology, from therapy to business management. Marriage counseling, grief counseling and drug addiction counseling are among the common therapy and counseling careers. These careers are steady, consistently available lines of work, as it can be pretty well guaranteed that, at any time and in any location, people are going to have marital problems, struggle with drugs and experience traumatic situations that cause them to need professional help.
Industrial-Organizational Psychology is another option, at the doctoral level – Industrial-Organizational Psychology is a high paying line of work which is projected to increase by 53% through 2022 (“Careers in Psychology”, 2016), which studies human behavior in the workplace.
Additionally, psychiatry, and clinical psychology, different forms of conducting therapy, are common. The distinction is that a psychiatrist is a medical doctor with a psychology degree, while a clinical psychologist focused completely on the psychological studies, and did not pursue a medical degree. These positions can be available through hospitals, clinics, the government – such as in correctional facilities – or private practice offices. There are plenty of other career path; one last good example is play therapy, which is a post-graduate form of training that can be qualified for through a degree in psychology or social work.
Play therapy is a form of therapy centered around children, designed to remove a few limitations which talking therapy is inhibited by when dealing with troubled youths. Children can more easily share their feelings and feel in control during play therapy (Hayes, 2011).
Becoming a play therapist requires an active license in a mental health field, and training in play therapy and child development with an accredited program like APA, as well as 500 hours of working as a play therapist under a licensed supervisor (although it is possible to practice play therapy successfully without being registered). All of this requires a big personal commitment to making a difference in the lives of children, and to doing good above just seeking a high salary.
If one wants to be successful in this career field, they must dedicate themselves to excellence, and truly care about what they are doing.
