If you work in the mental health field and have a master’s degree, you may be considering a doctoral degree in counseling. At Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, we offer a five-year Doctor of Psychology in Counseling Psychology. This program provides you with the advanced training and professional credentials necessary to achieve a rewarding career as a licensed psychologist. Here, we discuss this in-depth program and your potential career outlook.
Find a Rewarding Career in Counseling Psychology
Counseling psychologists help people work through personal, career, relationship, and educational issues. They assist their clients in finding resources to cope with day-to-day problems, recognize their strengths, and determine how to use them to navigate their everyday lives. As a counseling psychologist, you work to understand how people interact with the environment and how demographics and beliefs influence these interactions.
Your daily responsibilities may vary depending on your specific job, but typically your tasks include:
- Conducting client counseling or psychotherapy sessions
- Providing psychological assessments to analyze cognitive or personality functioning
- Helping clients learn how to adapt better to their environments
- Researching client conditions
- Teaching clients how to identify triggers
- Addressing patterns in a client’s life and helping them identify negative ones
- Training clients how to reframe non-helpful self-talk into positive self-talk
The Process of Earning a Psy.D.
If you want to become a licensed psychologist in Minnesota, you must earn a doctorate and receive your license from the Minnesota Board of Psychology. Currently, their requirements are:
- Completing one year of post-doctoral practice under the supervision of a licensed professional
- Passing several licensing and knowledge-based examinations
At Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, our Psy.D. in Counseling Psychology program includes a full-time internship during your final year. This intensive experience prepares you for the required post-doctorate supervision to earn your state license.
Expand Your Horizons With a Doctorate in Psychology
Earning your Psy.D. affords you the opportunity for successful and high-paying careers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for Clinical and Counseling Psychologists was $96,100 in 2023. With a Psy.D., you can pursue careers as a licensed psychologist, clinical supervisor, administrator, program evaluator, independent consultant, academic faculty, and more.
You may work in hospitals and outpatient facilities to help clients receive treatment for physical or mental health conditions, or you may choose to open a private practice. Colleges, universities, and businesses employ counseling psychologists to work with employees and students. Additionally, you may be hired by a public health facility to provide free and on-demand care for clients.
Some locations that employ people with Psy.D. include:
- Health offices
- Psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals
- Outpatient care centers
- Residential care facilities
- Doctors’ offices
An Overview of the Psy.D. Program at SMUMN
At Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, we’ve designed our Psy.D. program to cultivate expertise and leadership. Our program is one of the only two Psy.D. in counseling psychology programs in the Midwest with American Psychological Association (APA) accreditation.
When you enroll in our program offered at the Minneapolis campus, you receive vigorous training integrated with counseling psychology values. You’ll develop essential competencies in supervision, consultation, administration, research, assessment, and intervention to set you on the path to becoming a successful licensed psychologist.
Our program incorporates technical skills and the exploration of legal, social, and ethical issues in the field to create a practitioner-scholar model that has two aims:
- Developing competent graduates committed to pursuing social justice and overall well-being
- Producing ethical counseling psychologists dedicated to cultural humility and self-reflection
You can customize your degree plan with at least 10 elective credits in Diverse Populations, Diverse Settings, and Advanced Practice & Research to align your education with your specific career goals and interests. Additionally, you’ll benefit from the guidance and mentorship of our core faculty, providing you with a comprehensive and well-rounded education.
In our foundational and elective courses, you’ll learn:
- How to provide individualized counseling to a diverse range of people
- Assessment, evaluation, and diagnoses
- A variety of intervention techniques from different theoretical approaches
- Program development and professional consultation
- Supervision of counselors-in-training
Catholic-Based Education
Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota is based in Lasallian education and Lasallian Catholic Heritage. Our mission is to awaken, nurture, and empower our students to lead ethical lives of service and leadership. To that end, we emphasize and value critical thinking, problem-solving, and empathy, and highlight diversity and social justice within our Doctorate in Psychology program.
We strive to meet learners where they are and offer greater access to our programs. Qualified students can receive financial aid and scholarships to help offset the cost of their education.
Apply for Early Entry at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
Are you ready to take the next step in your counseling career? A Doctor of Psychology degree can open doors to exciting opportunities, career advancement, and salary increases. Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota enables you to explore these various career options and earn an advanced degree. Our Psy.D. in Counseling Psychology program allows you to develop your skills and services with evidence-based knowledge and ethical application.
Our admission team can answer further questions about this degree program, including our Early Entry Program in collaboration with our M.A. in Counseling and Psychological Services, designed for mental health professionals without a master’s degree. Request more information about how to advance your future in a rewarding career.
