San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Graduate degrees allow for career path changes into new fields
Earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree has long been one of the more reliable ways to either jump start or extend a career — in business.
But business isn't for everyone and there are many other master's degree programs that can provide similar accelerative benefits in a variety of other career paths. Many adults are considering a job change after weathering the COVID-19 pandemic and looking for fields where there is a demand and they can be hired quickly.
Several programs around the Bay Area offer degrees in therapy and education, which can lead to jobs with satisfying and community-minded benefits as well excellent financial compensation.
One of the more popular and accessible advanced degrees is one that allows students to become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and/or a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in the state of California.
Cal State East Bay in Hayward offers a Master of Science in Counseling, Marriage & Family Therapy, which focuses on “multicultural diversity, collaborative treatment, wellness, resiliency and recovery.”
The college also has a school counseling concentration that prepares candidates for a Pupil Personnel Services credential in school counseling. Candidates can choose to complete fieldwork that will prepare them for an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist registration. There are also master's programs in special education and school psychology
The progressive Wright Institute's Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program seeks to create “clinical practitioners who bring a deep awareness of cultural and social context to the practice of psychology.” The Berkeley-based institute was founded in 1968 by Nevitt Sanford who believed adults could learn and grow throughout their lives.
Both the Wright Institute and Cal State East Bay programs focus on preparing students to become licensed practitioners.
Art therapy is one of the unsung master's degrees, and Dominican University of California offers the only program in Northern California. Art therapy programs are clinical licensure courses of study, leading to a Master of Arts in Art Therapy. The programs prepare students to become Licensed Practical Clinical Counselors and registered art therapists, said Richard Carolan, professor of art therapy.
“Art therapy is really about being inclusive of the creative process and expressiveness of imagery in the process of therapy,” Carolan said. “Sometimes we know more than we can say.”
Dominican's Master of Arts in Art Therapy can lead to a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy and students can also pursue a doctorate in art therapy. Graduates can become licensed to provide both counseling and art therapy to schools, hospitals, community centers, nursing homes, incarceration facilities and also work in private practices.
“Ours is a 63-unit program and when the students are finished, they meet the requirements to become a licensed marriage and family therapist, a licensed professional clinical counselor and they also meet the requirements of becoming a registered therapist,” Carolan said. “So they get all of the training that's required by the Board of Behavioral Sciences in California to meet the requirements to pursue one of those licensed tracks.”
Providing a variety of therapy services can have an important impact on people's lives.
“Our therapy uses imagery as a means of being able to help the person communicate and help others understand,” Carolan said. “When you're trying to help someone else have a little bit more control in their life and create change in their life the more you're able to help that person get in touch with their creative self, that really enhances the opportunity for them to create change. When you're talking about emotional feelings, sometimes it's really hard to find the words.”
A master's degree in education is another advanced degree, which becomes either an enhancement or a gateway to a career involving service and meaning.
Teaching credentials are their own specific certification but the Master of Arts degree not only adds a specific level of expertise, but it also pushes its holders up the pay scale. One of the most comprehensive teacher training programs in the country at San Francisco State includes three different master's degrees in education, each with several different concentrations.
The Master of Arts in education includes concentrations in three departments — elementary education, secondary education and equity, leadership studies and instructional technologies. The Master of Arts in special education has five specializations — early childhood special education, mild to moderate disabilities, moderate to severe disabilities, visual impairment and orientation and mobility.
The Master of Science in communicative disorders prepares graduates to become speech-language pathologists by meeting national certification, state licensure and credentialing requirements.
Gilda Bloom, an assistant professor in the department of secondary education at San Francisco State, explained some of the program's benefits.
“The nice thing about our program is we have a lot of faculty with a lot of different areas of expertise, so students can always find someone to work with in the area that they're interested in,” she said.
Bloom also noted how the program encourages and supports prospective teachers who want to be in a classroom.
“It's 30 units, but if you do this within the seven years that you get your teaching credential, you can apply 12 units from your teaching credential courses to the 30 units. That leaves you with 18 units, and the nice thing about the M.A. is that each student can develop what they want to research, under the guidance of a professor.”
In the first year, there are four required courses, two each semester. The second year is more specialized with the student collecting data for a field study and also teaching a curricular innovation project in the first semester and taking an elective in the second semester.
“Basically the second year, they have more development of what they're going to do,” Bloom said. “The students can really focus on what it is that they want to do in a specific area.”