Do Psychologists Earn More than a Masters Degree in Private Practice?
Sign up for TherapyNotes and get two months FREE:
[ Ссылка ]
FREE Guide: Start a Private Practice in Counseling:
[ Ссылка ]
Many of you ask me if it’s worth it to get a doctorate degree if you want to be a therapist in private practice. I can almost feel the underlying assumption: “hey there, DOCTOR Marie Fang, you must think all of that extra work and money must have been totally worth it, right?
My thoughts may not be quite what you expect. Hang tight - in this video I break down the real story of who earns the most in private practice.
LINKS
*Some links are affiliate links. A percentage of purchases come back to me and help my channel immensely!
👉 How to DIY a Therapist Website that Fills your Practice: [ Ссылка ]
👉 Private Practice Skills Merch: [ Ссылка ]
👉 All my filming gear: [ Ссылка ]
👉 Music I use: [ Ссылка ]
This video is geared for therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field.
Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.
www.privatepracticeskills.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/PrivatePracticeSkills/
Insta: PrivatePracticeSkills
Music From Epidemic Sound:
[ Ссылка ]
This video is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.
Because psychologists tend to charge more than masters-level therapists in private practice, we might interpret that psychologists earn more than licensed masters-level therapists in private practice, right?
Not so fast. There are two issues with this assumption.
First, you have to account for the discrepancy in tuition costs of a doctorate degree vs a masters degree. Let’s break down the average costs of each:
In the state of California, most MFT degrees cost somewhere between $55,000 and $70,000 in total (just as long as you’re not at USC! Goodness).
[ Ссылка ]
The average PsyD in clinical psychology in my state costs anywhere from $120,000 to upwards of $250,000 total, depending on how long you take to complete your program. (which keep in mind, tends to vary much more for doctorates than masters degrees because of the dissertation).
[ Ссылка ]
So conservatively, doctorate-level therapists can expect to pay at least twice as much as masters-level therapists on tuition, if not four times as much. Yikes!
Furthermore, the average time between starting grad school and getting licensed is wildly different between doctorate and masters level therapists. So we also need to account for the delayed income for the average psychologist as well.
And let’s not forget to account for interest rates on those darn student loans!
[ Ссылка ]
[ Ссылка ]
After doing this math you can see that across a lifetime, a psychologist may not necessarily earn more than a masters level therapist in private practice. And they certainly would need to charge far more per hour just to earn the same amount.
I mentioned that there are two issues with the assumption that psychologists earn more than masters-level therapists. And even though I think the first point I just mentioned is valid on its own, the second issue makes the first point moot:
There is no “rule” for how much therapists of different credentials are allowed to charge in private practice.
Yep, so you can literally charge whatever you want per session, as long as there are clients willing to pay you at that rate.
[ Ссылка ]
So if your end-game is to maximize how much you can earn in private practice, your degree doesn’t have much to do with it. Or if anything, it’s easiest to make an argument that the lower tuition, faster licensure, and smaller total interest owed on student loans makes it easiest to earn more at the masters level.
The decision to pursue a doctorate vs a masters-level degree is yours to determine for yourself. But, I really discourage you from making the decision to go for a doctorate solely because you see psychologists charging more in private practice. It doesn’t necessarily mean they earn more overall!
