# Social Work, Counselling, or Psychology?



## Sidhe Draoi (Nov 25, 2016)

My mom says that social work is the best field to go into.. I think because it would give me a lot more options for less education.
Counselling seems to give fewer opportunities for less education.
I want to go into psychology but my mom says the degrees are useless unless you get a PHD or something like that.

I want to work in mental health somehow.. Im not sure my moms way is my way..


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## Wellsy (Oct 24, 2011)

Social work degree would count for a lot more as it entails a lot of the same psychological theories. Psychology really is more if you want to pursue up to a masters or phd in order to do assessments that youve done training for which often entails the clinical diagnoses in whatever area you’re working or to do research.
Social work is certainly more of a fast track in terms of education and can still go for masters and make a decent amount and whats good I think is it doesn't isolate the state of the person as being inherent to the individual unrelated to the social world. Psychologists consider this also but their solutions are individualized and wheres there is a broader setting to intervene and collaborate with someones issues in social work.
A psychologist could certainly go the route of counselling although as mentioned above it can entail more. But could still go for that is smaller courses perhaps as added to being a social worker.

In terms of how much your education might cost, what youll likely learn and what you can do after graduating, i can see the sense in doing social work. But if you really want to pursue other things then you certainly can, just try and figure out if those pathways and ends are what you really want. Because if your idea of mental health and what you want to do isn’t really specific to say what psychology specifically offers as distinct from something like social work then you might be doing more than you need.


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## JayDubs (Sep 1, 2009)

I'm not a social worker, but I'm in a field that collaborates with them a lot. The burnout rate for them is quite high. It's very tough work. And it often draws very empathetic people who are especially affected by the types of stress that social workers have to deal with (seeing people in terrible situations). 

I'm not saying don't do it. We need social workers and it can be fulfilling. But definitely try to ride along with them or do an internship before committing to the field.


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## prplchknz (Nov 30, 2010)

I was being pushed into social work and i decided that i didn't want to do it, but people were like you'd be so good at it. and its like but i don't want to and i don't think i'd be happy doing it. i don't think i could to be honest i think it's too stressful for me. so make sure it's absolutely what you want to do.


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## ESFJMouse (Oct 13, 2020)

FWIW, Social Work is a good versatile field to go into. You can work in hospitals, schools etc., if you develop burn out you can set up your own practice and offer speciality services according to your schedule. MSWs are quite flexible and you can do lot with them, they tend to be around 46 credit hours and can be completed with internships in 2 years full time. Counselling has less options, the MSW has many more options than counselling. 

A psychology PhD would have even more options but is considerably more time and money spent initially. It is a lot less hands on than a Social Worker. All of them will have a high burn out rate but because MSWs are often in hospital settings, they tend to burn out more. With the psychology PhD you would earn more, and be able to teach at higher levels of learning and take on more leadership roles. Do you like research? If you do, and you are patient and have the resoucres PhD in psychology will open a lot of doors if that is what you want. Degrees that are professional and offer licensing would be the best bet, as you can bill to insurance or work privately.


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## gracewil (Sep 7, 2021)

I am going to study psychology next year. I don't agree that it is useless


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## Electra (Oct 24, 2014)

prplchknz said:


> I was being pushed into social work and i decided that i didn't want to do it, but people were like you'd be so good at it. and its like but i don't want to and i don't think i'd be happy doing it. i don't think i could to be honest i think it's too stressful for me. so make sure it's absolutely what you want to do.


Why was it stressfull?


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## Electra (Oct 24, 2014)

Wellsy said:


> Social work degree would count for a lot more as it entails a lot of the same psychological theories. Psychology really is more if you want to pursue up to a masters or phd in order to do assessments that youve done training for which often entails the clinical diagnoses in whatever area you’re working or to do research.
> Social work is certainly more of a fast track in terms of education and can still go for masters and make a decent amount and whats good I think is it doesn't isolate the state of the person as being inherent to the individual unrelated to the social world. Psychologists consider this also but their solutions are individualized and wheres there is a broader setting to intervene and collaborate with someones issues in social work.
> A psychologist could certainly go the route of counselling although as mentioned above it can entail more. But could still go for that is smaller courses perhaps as added to being a social worker.
> 
> In terms of how much your education might cost, what youll likely learn and what you can do after graduating, i can see the sense in doing social work. But if you really want to pursue other things then you certainly can, just try and figure out if those pathways and ends are what you really want. Because if your idea of mental health and what you want to do isn’t really specific to say what psychology specifically offers as distinct from something like social work then you might be doing more than you need.


In Norway you can take psychology without a phd, its a shorter course for just about a couple of years in uni I think, now.


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## shameless (Apr 21, 2014)

Like others said Social Work is the field with the best wage/job security for education. But also like others said, burnout. Sorta depends what area of things you’re in. I did internal case management in the private end. That works in conjunction with County Social Workers. I worked in behavioral health. Like others mentioned, very emotionally draining. Some of the shit you see is so fricken sad. Talking serious shit here. Suicide/Attempts, Heavy Drug Use, Major Mental Health Stuff, Strung Out Prostitutes, Victims of Rape, Molestation, Neglect, Abuse. Extreme DD that breaks your heart. Parental Abandonment. List goes on. Shits sad!!!!

So just be prepared to be stuck in a system between privatized corporate care and the county/gov. You’ll find alotta screwy things about how the system works on every level. From both the gov. end, to the private end. Hey even through in conjunction of the policies and politics of the neighboring sector of Police & Hospitals state regulations.

In order to be an effective Social Worker you have to be comfortable going to bat and saying controversial things that many bureaucrats in the room will shoot down. So then you’ll have to be comfortable working extra hours to do the research and pull the weight yourself. That’s if you’re a social worker trying to make a difference in the people’s lives and not just copying and pasting and not reading progress reports. So I’d say please only do it if you’re actually committed to helping the people. Because while there’s a shortage of SW. They don’t need anymore who copy and paste the plans.
~I’m saying that from haven been the auditor at a previous company my job was to match & check between county SW & private end document and plan cohesiveness. All I gotta say is: person centered my ass. Way too many people on both sides doing bare minimum. And that’s just not a job to be doing bare minimum.


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