Are there any counselling volunteer work?

Can a person with a PhD in Clinical Psychology work as a counselling psychologist?

• My wife and I live in Ontario, Canada. She is currently doing a BA in psychology and is looking for a graduate school. She wants to get a PhD and she wants to do councelling, not clinical work. University of Waterloo, for example, offers a highly regarded clinical psychology PhD program straight out of undergraduate studies. The location is great, the university is great, the program is short (time saving). But it's clinical, not counselling. I heard that clinical psychology degree offers more possibilities and that may include the ability to pursue counselling career options. So the question is, if she wants to work as a counselling psychologist,  does she have to get a PhD in counselling psychology, or would PhD in clinical psychology work too?

• Answer:

  Great question as this field's terminology can be quite confusing. Clinical psychology and counseling psychology have A LOT of overlap. One of the ways to differentiate them is in their philosophical roots. Clinical psychology comes more from a medical model, hence diagnoses, hospital work, more severe psychopathology. Counseling psychology has its root in education, so it has slightly focuses more on prevention, strengths, and struggles through common transitions (grief & loss, divorce, etc.). But in both fields you are learning how to understand, support, and treat people so that their lives can improve. When I graduated from my PhD program in counseling psych, I found that mental health graduate degrees (including PsyD and sometimes social work) are often interchangeable, depending on the setting, population, level of experience, and job responsibilities. So the short answer is: Yes, you can do counseling with a clinical psych Ph.D., though you can't technically call yourself a "Counseling Psychologist." Most employers will post job descriptions such as "candidate must have background in a clinical or counseling field, experience with _______ population preferred,…" If she wants to pursue this program, she will have to write a convincing essay about why she wants to do CLINICAL psychology. And after she gets in, she will need to consciously select the types of counseling settings and populations that speak to her. For instance, if she feels drawn to working with children or the elderly, then she'll need to make sure her practica experiences are in those settings so she'll be prepared for employment in such places. Hope that helps! Lynn