5 Career Settings with a Master’s in Psychology

5 Master’s in Psychology Job Settings

• Community Centers
• Private Practice
• Schools and Universities
• Clinics and Hospitals
• Your Own Home

When planning your future career, one of the main things you want to envision is where you will go to work every day. After all, you will spend more time in this environment than you will anywhere else. One benefit of pursuing a master’s degree in psychology is that the careers available to you offer a wide variety of settings, including these five.

1. Community Centers

If you are the type of person who thrives in the thick of the action, many careers in psychology will lead you to spend your days out in your community. Behavioral health centers, public health organizations, youth centers, employment agencies, and addiction and recovery centers are just a few of the settings that employ individuals with master’s degrees in psychology. Some of the roles you will be able to play are lead social worker, counselor, mental health educator, curriculum developer, and behavioral health staff supervisor. You will have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients overcoming an even wider variety of behavioral and mental health challenges.

2. Private Practice

Perhaps you wish to help people in a very targeted way and a more intimate setting. Consider opening a private practice and building your own business as a therapist. This path requires a great deal of determination and perseverance to get started, but the payoff is a great deal of creative license and professional freedom. This is a great career path for master’s students who find themselves drawn to a particular psychological issue or client population. The American Psychological Association offers an excellent guide for preparing to build and maintain a successful private practice.

3. Schools and Universities

If education is your thing, many careers in psychology exist in the academic settings. If you enjoy working behind the scenes to solve problems and make discoveries that drive the field forward, you will enjoy working as a researcher and professor in a college or university. If you prefer the idea of helping younger students succeed in school look towards brighter futures, you could be headed for a career as a school or guidance counselor in an elementary, middle, or high school district.

4. Clinics and Hospitals

Are you one of those people who cannot get enough of abnormal psychology? Or maybe you thrive on biological and neurological psychology? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you might be well suited for a career in a clinical or hospital setting. With a master’s degree in psychology, you can work as a counselor or therapist helping individuals with psychiatric and clinical mental illness. There are also research opportunities available at some institutions.

5. Your Own Home

There are many careers in psychology that allow you to work from the comfort of home and the convenience of anywhere else you want to be. The advance of technology has made it possible to teach and research for online universities and degree programs. There are now even online options for preschool through high school, and they need guidance and school counselors, too. Remote therapy and counseling now have a presence, making it possible to help clients from around the world, and people who are unable to access face-to-face services.

Related Resource: 25 Best Affordable Master’s in Psychology Online Degrees

With a Master’s in Psychology, you can build a successful and rewarding career quite literally anywhere. From the ivory tower to the heart of the community, to the couch in your living room, there is a professional setting for every career interest and personality.