If you were to pursue this, I highly, highly recommend focusing your practice on catholics seeking sanctification and salvation, not practicing with any other counselors and keeping yourself under the direct care of a spiritual director.

Here is my thinking behind this:
First, you'll find out very quickly that the stated goals of psychological counseling are not the practical goals. In practice, most counselors are looking to keep people coming back for counseling in order to ensure a paycheck and not helping people. They spend a lot of time on self-actualization, which is just a fancy word for pursuing all of your worldly desires and not seeking to save your soul.
Psychology does not comprehend mortification. It only comprehends human nature, so it can only operate within those bounds. As a catholic, you would have an edge on everyone else because you do comprehend self-denial as a path to becoming a better person, with the greater benefit of helping people to grow in sanctity.

So far as my own studies have taken me, I have not found anything in the science of psychology which works in opposition to catholic teaching. However, popular theories like feminism and sɛҳuąƖ freedom which are becoming popular to propagate in the fields of counseling are so popular because they keep people coming back for more by making them miserable. I despise this tactic and I have no respect whatsoever for psychologists who adapt popular social standards as psychological and scientific fact. It does nothing but make people unhappy and it drives them to misery and despair. Which of course, keeps them in counseling.  If you endeavor to avoid adapting popular social theories, and stick to the goals of catholic life, you'll be successful because you'll be helping people to live in reality.

Of course, I advise keeping yourself firmly under the care of a good spiritual director because it is so easy to be mislead by what's popular in psychology now. You open yourself up to a lot of information contrary to tradition and doctrine, so you'll need a safe haven and someone to help you to keep it all in a catholic perspective. My personal reason for recommending this is because it took many years of untangling all of the misinformation and lies to get my mind right with Catholicism, and I'm nowhere near finished undoing the damage, so tread carefully.

I like the idea of working with those whom the world has trodden upon and whom nobody cares about. If I had such a job, I would not be able to preach to them other than saying that I was a Catholic if they asked me. The conversion would have to be done by someone else. It would only be a corporeal work of mercy to help people in that job, it would not be about trying to convert people and I know that.

Quote from: crossbro

Overall, from a career standpoint it is an awful major unless you are willing to get a Phd and have good enough grades to compete in the academic field. That means an ivy league school and high tuition.

The other option would be psychiatry which means a medical degree which translates into getting into medical school and becoming a medical doctor. Then you can prescribe drugs and make a fortune.

I don't have a lot of respect for the field. psychology is a soft science. If I had the choice between psychology and sociology, I would prefer the later.

Anyway, a psychology degree might get you a job as a youth counselor in a group home for $12 an hour if you are lucky.

I would not go into psychiatry, although I know clinical psychology is in that field. One needs to be a doctor ( 8 years study) then specialize in psychiatry ( 12 years ) before one is a psychiatrist. You need to have an MD to be a consultant. I dont have the grades to study medicine, and in this country you need to have those grades in a test at age 17 or 18. I am not willing to go back to do that test. Instead a degree in psychology is open to me, and I know that there are many jobs available in that field. One could be a councilor or rehab worker or some such job. Clinical psychologists are very highly paid. Nothing equals the salary of a consultant psychiatrist, in my country they get 300,000 Euro a year, but I don't have ambitions to be rich, nor to work in such an unproductive job. Prescribing medication for behavior problems is not my thing. I am sure that many people with problems would want to have psychotherapy and counseling without the prospect of being medicated, and in that situation, perhaps there is an opportunity to speak about the faith as well. Some of the most religious people have been before psychiatrists before and carry diagnoses. I think they would avail of the services of a counseller, or if not, there are jobs in schools and hospitals where I could help those whom society has forgotten about, and pray for them at the same time. I think this is for me ( if other plans are not possible).

Good luck. In the USA, if you want to get anywhere near being a counselor you better have at least a masters degree.

Quote from: soulguard

Quote from: crossbro

Overall, from a career standpoint it is an awful major unless you are willing to get a Phd and have good enough grades to compete in the academic field. That means an ivy league school and high tuition.

The other option would be psychiatry which means a medical degree which translates into getting into medical school and becoming a medical doctor. Then you can prescribe drugs and make a fortune.

I don't have a lot of respect for the field. psychology is a soft science. If I had the choice between psychology and sociology, I would prefer the later.

Anyway, a psychology degree might get you a job as a youth counselor in a group home for $12 an hour if you are lucky.

I would not go into psychiatry, although I know clinical psychology is in that field. One needs to be a doctor ( 8 years study) then specialize in psychiatry ( 12 years ) before one is a psychiatrist. You need to have an MD to be a consultant. I dont have the grades to study medicine, and in this country you need to have those grades in a test at age 17 or 18. I am not willing to go back to do that test. Instead a degree in psychology is open to me, and I know that there are many jobs available in that field. One could be a councilor or rehab worker or some such job. Clinical psychologists are very highly paid. Nothing equals the salary of a consultant psychiatrist, in my country they get 300,000 Euro a year, but I don't have ambitions to be rich, nor to work in such an unproductive job. Prescribing medication for behavior problems is not my thing. I am sure that many people with problems would want to have psychotherapy and counseling without the prospect of being medicated, and in that situation, perhaps there is an opportunity to speak about the faith as well. Some of the most religious people have been before psychiatrists before and carry diagnoses. I think they would avail of the services of a counseller, or if not, there are jobs in schools and hospitals where I could help those whom society has forgotten about, and pray for them at the same time. I think this is for me ( if other plans are not possible).

Good luck. In the USA, if you want to get anywhere near being a counselor you better have at least a masters degree.

In my country a degree in psych is 4 years. An additional 2 years is required for counselling psychology. 3 years for clinical and forensic.

Hmm, you never quite struck me as the psychologist type, if I would have to say in the area of counseling, perhaps more the coach type.

Sensus Traditionis has some text books and conferences.

Psychology (and psychiatry) is largely a Jєωιѕн deception. Both were pioneered by perfidious Jєωs, and to this day, both fields are navigated mostly by Jєωry. It is anti-Christ in nature as both of these pseudo-sciences invent "disorders" and "illnesses", while they push Big Pharma's poisons on the goyim to "remedy" these invented conditions. Both of these fields demonize Catholic, traditional, family-oriented and patriarchal values as "abnormal" and "limited thinking" in the human psyche, while they advocate distortions and perversions in the human condition, and anything that denies Christ as Truth, as "normal" and "healthy".  Most recently, look at how they advocate pervert fαɢɢօtry as "normal" for the masses to accept.  The shrink was engineered to replace the Catholic priest in order to steer the people away from Christ and His Church.

Psychology (and psychiatry) is largely a Jєωιѕн deception. Both were pioneered by perfidious Jєωs, and to this day, both fields are navigated mostly by Jєωry. It is anti-Christ in nature as both of these pseudo-sciences invent "disorders" and "illnesses", while they push Big Pharma's poisons on the goyim to "remedy" these invented conditions. Both of these fields demonize Catholic, traditional, family-oriented and patriarchal values as "abnormal" and "limited thinking" in the human psyche, while they advocate distortions and perversions in the human condition, and anything that denies Christ as Truth, as "normal" and "healthy".  Most recently, look at how they advocate pervert fαɢɢօtry as "normal" for the masses to accept.  The shrink was engineered to replace the Catholic priest in order to steer the people away from Christ and His Church.

Best post ever.

If one likes to analyze behavior with the intention of finding solutions to a behavioral problem, i think the method by which one does so would only be a sign of wisdom. I am not interested in promoting unwise psych theories which are not proven and manufacture problems rather than solve them. Someone needs to help all the people society has broken, the job being almost like a wise friend with lots of knowledge and clarity who gets paid for giving advice, but Catholics should do this anyway for free in day to day life.