Becoming a Psychotherapist As A Career Switch

One potential career switch might be to that of "psychotherapist". Here, as with many fields, terminology and exact title is important.

This is not to impugn the field or practitioners of it at all - but as best I've been able to determine, "psychotherapists" do not have to be credentialed or licensed as such in the US; see e.g. http://www.aboutpsychotherapy.com/Tcredentials.htm - this New-York-centric webpage has a detailed list of titles -

or http://www.mentalhealthchannel.net/psychotherapist.shtml - which oddly uses the term "licensed psychotherapist" - possibly an oxymoron - will research further.

This relative lack of barriers-to-entry suggests some potential for a mid-career switch. Contrast with clinical "psychologists" who treat patients, who do generally have to be specifically credentialed and licensed, and with "psychiatrists", a medical specialty which requires an MD degree and licensure - not an easy career switch.

Despite the apparent lack of formal government license requirements for "psychotherapists", there may be informal professional standards or gateway credentials which are "best practice" for entering the field, or which clinical employers expect to see. See the Washington Post article
Becoming A Psychotherapist In Two Years Or Less for a practical discussion.

Other related fields may be "social worker", which also requires credentialing and licensing. A more researched taxonomy with links will follow later.

One wonders if this field may somehow converge with "life coaching", a not-unrelated field for which "private credentials" seem to be evolving.

Credentialing and licensing for "psychotherapists" as such seems to be more formalized in Canada than in the US; see http://www.ccpex.ca.

Also see http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/603929.html for more information on credentials and licensing. If there isn't one already, this would be a ripe area for the Dummies books to do a Becoming A Psychotherapist For Dummies book - the welter of degrees, credentials, and licensing is a bit confusing.