Can You Do Counseling With An EdD in Cognitive Science

Discussion in 'Education, Teaching and related degrees' started by jimwe, Dec 14, 2017.

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  1. jimwe

    jimwe Member

    I'm currently working as a substance abuse counselor for about 4 years. Prior to that, I taught ESL overseas for about 20 years. I've taken a couple of courses at ACE in Cognitive Science because I'm interested in Cognitive Psychology. They offer the EdS and EdD in Cog Sci, I've been considering the EdS but I am wondering if the EdD would allow me to hang out a shingle as a counselor? Anyone?
     
  2. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    College of Mount St. Joseph, huh? I was actually there once – nine years ago, for a performance of Oklahoma! As I recall, they didn’t have a bad theatre department. But I digress . . .

    My take on your question is that the answer is probably no. Counselor licensure is based on a master’s level degree that follows a specific curriculum developed by the American Counseling Association and the National Board for Certified Counselors.

    Do a Google search on “Ohio Counselor Licensure,” and you’ll find a ton of articles, resources, on what you would need for licensure.

    Counselor licensure laws come in two flavors: Voluntary title acts, and mandatory practice acts. Under the first type, anyone can counsel professionally and charge fees, but you must be licensed to use the a term such as “Licensed Professional Counselor,” which may include abbreviations such as LPC, LPCC, LMHC, LMFT, LSW/LCSW (for social work), etc. Under the second type of licensure, you must be licensed to counsel, period.

    That said – and I’m too lazy to find out myself which type of legislation Ohio has, but you could probably call the Ohio licensure board for an answer. In other words, can you hang out a shingle as a counselor (as long as you don’t call yourself licensed), or do you actually require licensure to hang out a shingle at all?

    Several years ago, I testified in the legislative hearings when Pennsylvania had proposed a mandatory practice act, and I killed the bill in 15 minutes because of the negative impact it would have had on religious and spiritual counselors, pastoral counselors, new age counselors, nutritional counselors, and a host of others. The Pennsylvania Counseling Association reworded the bill into a voluntary title act, so I then testified in favor of the new bill (which passed). In PA, anyone can hang out a shingle as long as they don’t claim to be an LPC. I got out of the field shortly after that and haven’t kept up with goings-on in the LPC world, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a majority of states (like Ohio, perhaps?) have mandatory practice acts.

    The path to licensure? A master’s degree in counseling, preferably accredited by CACREP (which makes you licensure and board eligible faster than non-CACREP programs), covering the 10-or-so areas proscribed for counselor training.

    Be careful to avoid non-licensure degree programs such as developmental psychology, depth psychology (I know of one person who actually majored in astrology but was hip enough to call it depth psychology). (Then there was the guy who did his Union Ph.D. in “Supreme Military Intelligence” – functionally a degree in T.M.)

    And, in case you didn’t think about it . . . See if your employer has a tuition reimbursement program and would consider footing the bill for a professional counseling program. In most states, being a CAC (certified drug and alcohol counselor) requires CEU-based courses, and the CAC (or similar) title is not the same as the LPC title in terms of education label.

    Let us know what you find out . . .
    :drive:
     
  3. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    By ACE do you mean the American College of Education? If so, I don't see any cognitive science programs offered.

    In any case, every state that I'm aware of requires at least 2 supervised clinical internships over the course of a Master's program in order to qualify for licensure. My program, which is accepted in all 50 states, required internships of 300 and 600 hours (total of 900 minimum) over the course of 2 years of full-time study (I did it part-time in 3 years).

    There are DL options available for counseling programs, but they do involve supervised internships done in your local area, along with periodic residencies at the school or at satellite locations.
     
  4. coffeetx

    coffeetx New Member

    I cannot find that degree anywhere at ACE but I'm interested if it exists!
     
  5. MattS

    MattS New Member

    I am a doctoral candidate at the American College of Education. That degree does not exist at that ACE (dunno if there is another).
     
  6. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    I'm curious about the depth psychology degree because I know someone who is an (unlicensed) clinical director whose masters degree is from a legitimate state school, but is in depth psychology. When I took a look at the curriculum this program offered... I couldn't possibly imagine how it would qualify someone to be a counselor, MFT, or otherwise. This person isn't licensed by the California BBS, but the program the person is employed in insists that clinical directors do not have to be BBS licensed.

    The depth psychology program in question looked interesting -- it was a Jungian program -- but I really don't see why someone who worked in the field would bother with a masters degree that couldn't lead to licensure. Perhaps nobody ever told this person that the degree would not make them license eligible.
     
  7. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Psychology is a vast field with many sub-specialties, many of which have nothing to do with clinical or counseling psychology. While I'm license-eligible, I just haven't had the time to do my supervised clinical hours in order to be licensed, and my interests have shifted to forensic, investigative, and criminal psychology anyway, none of which have licenses that enable one to do counseling.

    One of my favorite psychologists, Philip Zimbardo, has his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Yale. He's not licensed, can't see patients/clients, but he was also the architect of one of the greatest psychological experiments ever, the Stanford Prison Experiment.
     
  8. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Little Anna Maria College has a Masters degree in Counseling that does not make its grads eligible for licensure to practice. However, just down the street in little Assumption College that has a CAGS program to make up for Anna Maria's shortfall. Perhaps your Cognitive Science degree might work with a CAGS on top. Otherwise I think you're not going to qualify. Of course, the ultimate answer is that all these licensure questions are a function of state law. What might be true in one place might not be true in another.
     

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