Looking for advice about becoming a therapist/counselor

[lindmejo]

To summarize my situation as succinctly as I can:

I've lived in Japan for six years now, primarily working as a full-time English teacher. I'm looking to move away from English teaching and am interested in pursuing a career as a therapist and/or a professional (non-English teaching) childcare specialist. There are two obstacles to my ability to pursue a traditional therapists license: 1) I'm not into academia. I prefer to learn and study at my own pace and don't want to pay a lot of money for school. 2) Living in Japan makes it difficult to attend workshops, conferences, etc., for non-academic degrees in therapy. 

What I would like to know is: has anyone made a go of it through online means? Are there any reputable places to earn a degree/license online?

Personally, I did years of journaling on top of about four months of behavioral cognitive therapy and one year of IFS therapy. I also have studied quite a bit of psychology on my own and through FDR, so I feel I have a solid base.

A non-traditional approach I am considering is this:

Offer my services as entirely donation based (thinking to ask for $5-10 or whatever the client felt the session was worth) and create a blog or website for clients to write testimonials. I figure this will provide me with a way to gain experience, establish a client base and build a reputation, while providing a service for people who don't have the funds or means to see a traditional therapist.

I would be extremely interested to hear from anyone who has either tried something similar or earned credentials online, as well as what people in general think about the concept. Any advice/feedback/comments would be tremendously appreciated!!

 

[empyblessing]

What a great post you made and a noble virtue to heal others. 

I am not the most learned on the subject of becoming a therapist but there are three paths that I'm aware of. One, the traditional route is to go to school for psychology and go through all of the therapist training and certification there. It's long, frustrating, and really doesn't teach you much, as far as my limited understanding is concerned. The second option is one that a lot of people are doing now, and that is to obtain a masters degree in social work. If you already have a degree in another area of study, you can probably apply to most graduate schools for social work. The reason why a lot of people choose this route is because it's less time intensive.

The third route is to bypass the state and advertise your service as "life coaching" or "personal guidance" "self-help practioner". You perform the same function but you don't have access to medical referals, insurance companies, licensing, etc. You establish a private practice, offering low or free services for new clients, and bypass the entire state monoply. The difficult part is establishing clients and maintaining them because if you're good at your job, they won't be coming back. They might send their friends though. 

[lindmejo]

Thank you very much for your reply and insight regarding my situation. I really appreciate your kind words and advice.

I had never considered a degree in social work, so I'll look into that option some more. Thank you for the suggestion!

Option number three is obviously what I'm leaning towards at the moment, though I'm not sure what kind of market there is out there for donation-based life coaching or therapy. I've never seen anything like it (other than the kind of listener concos Stefan does), but I know several people in real life and through FDR who have expressed an interest in therapy, but simply don't have money to spare, so it seems there may be potential in that area.

Naturally, I'm not looking to make it my main source of income really, but rather just looking to gain new experience, expand my own knowledge and primarily help people who want it but don't have the means to acquire it. 

I will look more into the market as well as what other people have done. Thanks again!