To students considering psychology as a major

Post Reply New Topic

College students with an interest in psychology and a passion for helping others should consider the extremely high demand there is for psychotherapists who are knowledgeable about adult autism, and especially for psychotherapists who are knowledgeable about the conjunction of autism and various co-occurring mental conditions such as depression, BPD, etc.

And there's an even greater need for psychotherapists who can empathize with their clients from personal experience.

In the U.K. there's a professional Association of Neurodivergent Therapists, founded in spring 2021. I hope a similar org will form in North America sometime soon.

It might be relevant to know that only 5% of psychology students end up as registered psychologists. This is one of the worst graduate outcome for any vocational profession on the planet (probably on par with fine arts).

Most psychology majors end up in human science/human resources and client services jobs.

In the US, one would need a Master's degree to pursue a therapist, counsellor, psychotherapist, & so on career. After that, there'd be licensing & ongoing education costs. Considering how expensive college has become & is becoming here, I don't think the numbers of students & grads will increase to even come close to meeting the need.

And with costs rising, how many patients can afford the costs needed to obtain & continue therapy? On Medicaid it's difficult to find a provider who both accepts it & has available appointments. Off Medicaid, it's easier to find a therapist, but the costs can be high.

Hmm, I hadn't heard the term "registered psychologist" before. Googling, it appears to be approximately the same thing as what's called a "licensed psychologist" here in New York State.

Here are the New York Psychology Licensure Requirements.


Hmm, I wonder what the main barriers are for someone who wants to become a clinical psychologist. According to the above-linked page, the necessary steps are:


and that last item, the licensing process, involves:


I wonder which steps along the way are the biggest hurdles, or otherwise weed out the most people.

Offhand, I would guess that the biggest hurdle might be admission to a Ph.D. or Psy.D. program?

Hopefully the biggest hurdle is NOT one of the later steps.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 29 Mar 2022, 7:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hmm, here in New York State, a doctorate is required to become a psychotherapist.

But there's also the option of becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, which requires only a master's degree, not a doctorate.

Here are the New York Social Work Licensing Requirements, including the steps to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.


One would need to be good enough at academics to get scholarships.

One could also lower the cost of a college education by making heavy use of online educational resources for a year or two BEFORE attending college, then taking a placement exam so as to skip intro courses, if the college allows this.


More funding is needed for therapy via Medicaid. This is a political problem. If we had an all-around much better-organized community (see Longterm visions for the autistic community and Autistic workers project), we would be in a much better position to agitate for this.

Yes sorry the language is synonymous - registered = licensed

In Australia you need a minimum of a Masters in clinical psychology + 2 yrs supervised practice so a total of 6 years study and 2 years practice to be registered.

Effectively many masters students convert their clinical masters into a PhD

So going back to students considering psych as a major, its important to know that entering a college level psychology degree that in a class of 100 students only 5 will end up as registered or licensed psychologists able to work with clients.