Why in bachelors of psychology is their usually only one counseling class ?

Most states / provinces; you can’t be a counselor without having a Masters or a Phd. The one course doesn’t make you a counselor. In my state you have to go through a practicum / internship to be a counselor.

Because there is a lot of other education to cover. A bachelor’s degree is not enough for this field. To be frank, a psychology degree is in the “I got a degree” category. It’s practically worthless at the four year level. Master’s and Phd is where the meat and potatoes are here.

Update Edit Their is an emergency mental health first aid course. I would like to take it when available. I don’t have a link or more details.

@Blackwater_Park With a psychology/sociology/social science degree one can be a telephone peer councillor.

@Blackwater_Park You are grotesquely wrong.

A 4-year psychology degree is valuable. You can work as a case manger for individuals with many different kinds of disabilities. You can work in human services, an enormous field. You can work in shelters. You can work as a school counselor. That’s the tip of the iceberg.

To answer the question, a 4-year degree is insufficient to become licensed to perform therapy.

@Hawaii_Jake Only about half of the people with a psychology degree work in a related field. You don’t need a psychology degree to get most of the jobs you mentioned either. If you go into this field, you need to be prepared to get an advanced degree. The value in a four year psychology degree is in having a four year degree, which is required for many different jobs. Generally they’re unrelated though.

^I work for the state division overseeing these kinds of areas. All our contacts require employees of contracted agencies to have a psychology or sociology degree. I know what I’m talking about.

@Blackwater_Park You’re not only wrong, you’re insulting. I have a BA in psych and am damned proud of it. I worked in an esteemed psych hospital administering complicated testing which is most often performed by someone with a Masters or PhD, but I suppose you don’t think much of that, either.

@RedDeerGuy1 If you’re wanting to do counseling, most often they have a degree in social work, not psychology, and even then, the degree is often a Masters. There are so many areas to go into in psychology, including research, that most people who would like to do just counseling usually have a goal of at least a Masters.

@smudges No, that’s great that you were able to do it. I also sense you’re a little older. 20–30 years ago this degree meant more, a lot more. These days it’s one of many “churn out” degrees that droves of people major in and most universities just accommodate them. I can see why it’s a popular choice. It’s interesting, not particularly difficult these days and it offers general education plus some important life soft skills that are useful across a wide range of work. That said, a new graduate in Psych wanting to work in the field, will need to spend more time in school.

^You just keep piling on the insult.

I’m honestly not trying to insult anyone here. Don’t shoot the messenger, this is not controversial. There are not near enough jobs in psychology for today’s graduates. Universities know this and over the years the programs have been watered down, more accommodating to lower scores and became degrees that keeps students at the university. Business, Biology, social sciences and a few others fall in this category. I don’t think this was the case when some of you earned your degrees.

@smudges How does one with only a BA land a job like that? Do you have lots of experience? I’ve spent the past few years applying for hospital jobs since I graduated in 2020 with no luck—not even an interview. At this point I’m seriously thinking about going back to get a Masters.

The Bachelors degree in Psychology is the first degree if counseling and/or therapy is your goal. You learn the substance of the subject then go on to grad school if you want to work with people and their problems. I know many people with psychology degrees who are now attorneys and clerics. The counselors generally have a masters degree and true psychotherapists/psychologists actually are required to have a Ph.D.

https://www.apa.org/support/licensure

@loonylune To be honest, I think I was lucky. I hadn’t graduated yet (did in 1987), but was finishing up. My ex and I knew we wanted to move, so I was applying to hospitals in states/towns we were interested in. One of them was in Asheville, NC. I wrote a great introductory letter, graduated with a 3.9 in my field, 3.2 overall, and they asked me to come for an interview. (It was the hospital where Zelda Fitzgerald had died in a fire.) Anyway, I got the job and administered lots of tests, including the Rorschach. Then, the PhD in charge would do the interpretations. Really rewarding and interesting meeting so many varied patients.

So as I said, I think I was just lucky. There were 4 other BA employees in my department, so maybe they made a practice of giving people a chance to gain experience (plus they could pay them less). I think if I were you, I’d see about the Masters if you’re not having any luck, which is what I had planned on getting before getting that job. You can get one in less than 2 years if you put in the time. Don’t give up on your dream. It’s an excellent field to go into and there are so many different jobs that use psychology, as people here have attested to.

@Blackwater_Park Yes, even when I was going to school psychology was looked upon as an ‘easy A’, but that was mostly for freshman who weren’t planning on going into it as as career. And the earlier courses are pretty easy because there’s so much common sense being taught. “If you’re abused as a child you’re likely to be an abuser as an adult.” Well, duhhh! LOL

As I said to @loonylune, I felt very lucky to get the job I had when I graduated because it was widely held, and probably true, that you couldn’t do much with a Bachelor’s.

I think @Blackwater_Park was answering the OP’s specific question about clinical/counseling and being able to work as a counselor.

Most states you need to have an MSW, or PhD, or MD, or some other post graduate education to work as a therapist. During that post grad work you get clinical training. i didn’t see his answer as offensive when I first read it, but I understand why some jellies saw it that way. Could have been more delicately worded.

It doesn’t change the facts that almost everyone who considers majoring in psych is told (warned) that they will most likely have to get a graduates degree to work in the field, and do they want to commit to that much time in school? If not, they need to make sure they are ok with what will be available to them in the field that doesn’t require more than a bachelors.

I don’t have a degree in psych, I’m not a counselor, and not Canadian.

But I do know that professionally there’s a distinction between counselling pyschologists and clinical psychologists, and that core courses and degree requirements vary for both – and can even differ depending on what university you attend.

But in the US it’s not just a matter of getting handed a BA (or MA) and walking into the job you want. States have mandatory licensing requirements before allowing anyone to set up practice, and most employers prefer counselors who have been board certified by the American Board of Counseling Psycology. Both state licensing and board certification require testing, internships, and additional study. Get an overview here :
https://www.psychology.org/careers/counseling-psychologist/

So can you get your psych BA with just one counselling course? It’s possible, but it’s really just the first step if you want a real career.

My Daughter has this and did not have a single counseling class. The focus of the undergrad is not about being a counselor. That is taken up during Grad school.