<p>There are many paths into the mental health field, psychiatry being the most rigorous and time-consuming. The kinds of licenses vary from state to state. In addition to psychiatry and clinical psych, clinical social work, psychiatric nursing, marriage and family therapy and psychoanalysis are all paths that are licensed in many states. Many of the psychiatrists I know started out with the goal of becoming a physician and, having achieved that, realized that mental health was the field that most interested them; in retrospect, the path into clinical psych would have been shorter and cheaper. Here’s some info: <a href=“http://www.apa.org/topics/psychologycareer.html[/url]”>Internal Server Error; </p>
<p>The child psychiatrists around here, btw, are making $300/hour cash, because most of them are refusing to participate in managed care, and they are turning away patients. When it comes to talk therapy, it’s no surprise that, given the cost of a psychiatrist, the insurance companies would prefer to reimburse for sessions with a social worker or psychoanalyst whose sessions cost $80-$150. </p>
<p>I would look very carefully at clinical psych as a possibility, keeping in mind that in order to do a grad degree in that field you need to fulfill the premed requirements as well as having some psych courses.</p>