No, grad school is not enough

One thing I often hear is that graduate programs are not enough for the field, preparing for the field, so forth. Well, program were never designed to be the end all be all, and will never be. I think if you go into a program thinking that is all you need, then you are badly confused and have a misperception of what the purpose and goals are for clinical programs. Programs are designed to provided a theoretical and a slight intro to experience. That is why we have 2-3 post grad. Otherwise, if you had to purse a doctorate in social work, counseling or MFT, then it would take forever to get finished and get people in the field. I am assuming that is how and why MA level clinicians were developed, just as BA level substance use counselors came about.

Becoming an expert takes roughly 10,000 hours…that’s a lot of time…there’s no way to rush that either. That is not education hours but real life therapy hours. It’s experiential right? So I think a lot these things I hear from students and supervisees could be navigated with some healthy expectations. However, I think a lot of this depends on each person’s background. There’s too many variations to review but you get my point. Ultimately your learn is on you. We as MFTs value being a life long learner…did you know that’s a core value? Yeah it is, look it up. We are all passionate and want to do the best. If you don’t find yourself aligned with this or aligning, look within yourself and figure out why and where that is coming from. The good new about all of this is advanced trainings!! You can learn so much and choose more in depth work.