10 Things That Surprised Me About Grad School in Counseling 

I totally get that! I am naturally very shy, and I used to become sooo anxious in even making a minor telephone call. Counseling has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone, and now making phone calls to and meeting new people (new clients, parents, Case Managers, DCS, etc.) is second nature to me now. It definitely comes with practice the more and more you do it, and now I look forward to doing these things and see it as a positive opportunity to talk with and potentially help others, rather than an intimidating/anxiety-provoking task. In my experience, "practice makes perfect" has been very true! Also, 9 times out of 10, the other person in the conversation is just as nervous and thinking far too much about themselves/carrying on their own side of the conversation, that they're not even giving a second thought to whether you appear/sound nervous, if that helps. :) Best of luck!

@@DarrianCorey Thank you.

Thank you so much for watching! I am glad to hear that you found them helpful. 🙂

Hi Rene, that is so nice to hear! Thank you for watching and good luck with the rest of your counseling program!! 😊

Good luck! In my experience, it did get better and more manageable as time went on. I really struggled to adjust my first semester, but you will find your groove and become more comfortable with everything. Like you said, it's a very different style of learning in comparison to undergrad, so be patient with yourself as you grow more accustomed to life as a grad student. You got this. 😊

Thanks for watching! So glad it was helpful for you. 🙂

Wishing you lots of success and happiness in the field! :)

Yes, very true. One of my past supervisors is working on her PhD through Walden University as well -- I have heard good things about their graduate programs. Best of luck!

Thanks so much 😊 So happy to hear it was helpful, and thank you for watching!

I remember having a difficult time narrowing it down too, I felt like there was some merit to all of them! But yes, I think you will find that you'll naturally gravitate toward 2 or 3 in particular as time goes on and you develop your clinical experience. Thanks for watching & best of luck with the rest of your program! 🙂

Whaaat that's so nice! It's actually an insecurity of mine so thank you! 🙂😜

Hey girl! 👋🏼 Thanks for watching, so happy to hear it was helpful 💕

Thanks for watching! It's nice to hear you agreed/could relate :)

@@DarrianCorey you said something important I never thought of clients may want to look at my Facebook great heads up on that one

Oh no, don't be scared! It is a lot of hard work, but in my opinion, it feels like a different kind of hard work than undergrad does. It's hard to explain until you experience it - But a lot more direct application of what you learn and practicing that, rather than the typical lectures and assignments you're used to in undergrad. Either way, as long as you have the passion for it, you will make it through!

Hi John, congrats on starting your channel! I definitely plan to do a little update video soon once all of the beginning of the school year chaos dies down a little - I graduated in May and just started my job as a high school counselor. 🙂 Thanks so much for your comment and for watching!

Hello! 😊 I too did my undergrad in psychology, so I totally get where you're coming from. It's such a diverse field with a lot of options for different specialties, so it can be hard to choose. My best piece of advice would be to do as much research as you can, especially reaching out to professionals in your area and seeing if you can set up a meeting (or virtual meeting) with them. It can be so valuable hearing about a career from someone who does it themselves or has been in the profession for several years, and you can ask them things such as likes/dislikes about their specialty, what they might do differently, etc. I found that so helpful when I was looking around for what program was right for me, and you might even find that there's a subspecialty out there that you had never heard of before and would be the perfect fit for you! Best of luck. 🙂

Hi Lucia! Thank you so much for watching. I was really fortunate to attend a graduate program (The University of Arizona) that offered both the school counseling and mental health counseling concentrations, which was a huge factor in me having chose the program. All school counseling students in the program had to complete mental health hours as well, and take mental health-specific courses such as Diagnosis and Assessment - This overlap meant that all school counseling cohort students could technically pursue mental health counseling licensure after graduation if they chose to do so, but the same was not true for the mental health counseling students as they did not complete school counseling hours or school counseling classes. I knew going into it that I really wanted that flexibility to be able to choose, should I not be satisfied with my original decision. So thankfully, because of the program I attended and them encouraging school counseling students to get mental health-based hours/class training too, the transition to full-time mental health counseling was very smooth. I had already taken the NCE after graduation (I wanted to take it while all of the knowledge was fresh in my mind!), so it really just took me applying for my LAC licensure in order to get started as a therapist. I hope this helps! Wishing you the best of luck on finding the right fit for you. 🙂

Yes, it entirely depends on the state. Counselors may be licensed in two or more different states, which would appear as both credentials. I am really only familiar with the LPC process of going through a CACREP-accredited Master's program, taking and passing the NCE, and then accruing your supervised hours for licensure from there. I'm not as familiar with the LMHC process, but if I had to guess, I would imagine it's pretty similar. Here is a good resource that I think outlines this pretty well: www.psychotherapynotes.com/decoding-counselor-alphabet-soup-lpc-lpcc-lmhc/ Also, thank you for watching! I'm so happy to hear that you enjoy them and they make you get excited about counseling! (Lastly, I love your profile picture. Daria rocks.) :)

That's a good suggestion, thank you! I will add it to the list. :)

Hi Daniel, great question! Essentially, your counseling theory or approach is how you view your client, their presenting problem, and its solution -- In other words, what do you think is responsible for their suffering? Is it their thoughts/outlook, their lifestyle habits, their childhood? What approach will you take in helping them to solve the issue at hand? Not to worry - Grad programs will teach you more about all of the most well-known theories (Cognitive-Behavioral, Psychodynamic, Client-Centered, Existential, etc., just to name a few) and then it will be up to you to decide which one or which combination of them resonates with you the most. I remember taking a "Selective Theory Sorter" quiz in grad school that helped me narrow down my approach a lot - It was similar to the one on pages 5-9 here! www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjt3ZGdh5b_AhWlO0QIHTEBB7gQFnoECC0QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fkentuckyaces.weebly.com%2Fuploads%2F5%2F6%2F2%2F9%2F56299209%2Ftop_10_ways_o_find_your_theoretical_orientation.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2aHabjblvFWpim30ImTM2-

Hi Jordyn, thanks for watching! I completed both my undergrad and graduate degrees at the University of Arizona in Tucson. 🙂

Hi Kerry! Congrats on making the decision to become a therapist. :) I had heard the same thing about grad school as well, but personally, I didn't find that I became super close with my cohort. I will say though that I think the pandemic likely contributed to this - We made it one semester into the program before they moved classes to Zoom, which could make it harder to connect. I had heard that the cohort before us had gotten super close though and would all go out together as a group, so it is definitely possible!

@@DarrianCorey thanks for responding! that definitely makes sense- i feel like Zoom classes make it very difficult to connect with both professors and students. props to you for getting through 75% of graduate school online though, i don’t know how you did it!

Depends on the school/program, but typically yes as long as you have gotten some experience that is related prior to applying. They may also ask you to take some foundational psychology courses prior to entering the program as well

@@DarrianCorey tysm for replying..it really helps

It tends to depend a lot on the program and if that is something they value, but generally speaking, programs in clinical mental health counseling tend to focus much more on theories and techniques and applying these clinically rather than research and statistics. If you were going into a PhD program in clinical psych, the statistics focus would be much more prominent. I think I only had one class in my graduate program that was about conducting research/statistics. I remember a lot of people in my cohort being nervous about the class too, but it was pretty fun! The faculty and staff in a grad program want to help you and see you succeed too (and if not, find a different grad program!) I hope this helps alleviate some of your worry. :)

@@DarrianCorey thank you for the response it was very insightful

Hi Kenny, that's great! I totally understand your concern. However, I hope it may be comforting to know that many others in the field also returned to school to join the field and came from backgrounds not related to psychology or counseling, so it can be done! Volunteer work or internships is a great place to start for getting more experience - Being a peer mentor, facilitating groups of some kind, etc. If you live close to a research university, you might also consider reaching out to the faculty for psychology research labs you are interested in and seeing if you can assist or get involved in any way. In this case, the faculty member could write you a letter. Schools are often lenient in who they want letters of rec from too, some allow letters from previous bosses or supervisors as well. If not, it never hurts to take some basic psychology classes either through a university or community college. This not only gives you a chance to potentially get another professor who could write you a letter, but also shows your dedication. Many grad schools ask for a certain number or type of undergraduate psychology courses for admissions anyways. Lastly, any experience that you can tie into psychology or counseling in some way can be beneficial, even if not directly related. For example, someone who works at a daycare could argue that this experience helped them gain vital counseling skills by increasing their communication skills with both parents and children, and learning how to create age-appropriate and developmentally-appropriate activities for the kids as a child or adolescent therapist would. Hope this helps! Best of luck.

@@DarrianCorey Omg thank you so much for your timely response, I feel much more fired up, thank you!

I'm in an mhc program, and up until August 2021, the last psych class I took was general psychology back in 2006. And I didn't do anything to get experience before I applied. I quit an english literature phd program in December and applied to a counseling program in April. So depending on the program, prior experience definitely isn't necessary. And honestly I haven't felt behind the other students who did have psych majors, except for in my research and eval class, which has been a nightmare in general so I don't feel bad about it.

Thanks for watching :)

That's a good question - It seems to entirely depend on the program and the focus of your program. Personally, the program I attended gave us a Counseling Theories course, as well as Counseling Techniques course during the very first semester, and we were expected to have narrowed down what our main clinical approach(es) are by the end of the semester. Definitely an important question to include in your research into programs, and ask at an interview, since some other programs may specialize in teaching only one approach for example.

I think you will also find that your approach tends to evolve as you go through your career too, and as more research is released on new techniques. So always important to remember it's great to have a general idea of where you're headed early on in your grad career, especially so you can practice those approaches during your practicum and internship, but by no means are you bound to that particular approach you initially chose for the rest of your career!

Hi Hayden! My overall GPA in undergrad was just above a 3.87 if I remember correctly, and my major/Psychology GPA was 4.0. For me, the workload of grad school itself was hard, but I found the content so enjoyable it was not too hard to look past the tough times. Clinical hours in the program can be challenging at times too (and a little intimidating when you are just starting out!) but I learned the most from that part of my grad program.

Grad school required a lot more reflection and personal introspection too which can be tough and/or uncomfortable for some, but definitely a necessity if you are wanting to become a therapist!!

I attended the University of Arizona for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. 🙂

Hi Aly! I did not work while in my graduate program. I was very fortunate to have support from my family to allow me to focus strictly on my classes and getting my clinical hours needed to graduate. I did pack all of my internship hours into one semester, meaning that I did essentially work full-time at my internship site during my last semester, just did not get paid. I will say though that while it is challenging to work throughout a grad program for counseling, it is certainly not impossible and several fellow students in my cohort did so!

I did, but not in the way that I was used to if that makes sense! I had a steady stream of homework in grad school, but I found that it was a lot more applied in comparison to the homework I was used to from undergrad. For example, recording yourself doing a mock counseling session, recording how you would respond to a given client scenario, etc. While we all of course write our fair share of essays in grad school too, the writing is also more about the applications of what you learn, like what type of counseling theory you would use with one of your more difficult cases, writing about what personal experiences of yours inform your most-used counseling theories or techniques, or what techniques worked well or didn't work well with a client.

Hi Annee, haha such a great question! It is certainly not a bad thing to have these characteristics in everyday life, in fact, it often helps you to come across as friendly and charismatic. However, it can become a bad thing if there is too much of it in a session, or if you are like me and naturally smile when you are nervous - This can come across as not very genuine, and may not match the mood of the session. For example, if someone is disclosing to you during a session having experienced some sort of traumatic experience, or disclosing suicidal ideation to you, you can probably imagine why you would not want to have any sort of smile or animation on your face - You want to be able to match your facial expression and tone to the current feeling of the session, if that makes sense. You don't necessarily need to have a poker face, but do need to be less reactive at times. For example, if someone tells you something outrageous that they did or a traumatic experience that they had that is shocking to you, it may make them feel worse if you show your true expression of disgust or shock to the full extent. As for talking a lot with your hands, again, not a bad thing! But, can be distracting at times for certain clients. My personal hints for knowing I'm doing it too much is if I see people looking at my hands instead of my face, or maybe commenting on rings I am wearing more. :)