Career Preparation in Psychology: Recent Episodes
Heather Cramer
This podcast is a series of interviews from various careers in psychology. It is meant to accompany PSYC 200 at Milligan University.
My dear dear friend Emily Key joins me for today’s episode. Emily is a Licensed Professional Counselor, often abbreviated to LPC, who currently works in private practice in Johnson City. She’s a 2009 Milligan Grad who went on to get her master’s degree in counseling from ETSU. Emily’s journey is fairly typical for someone who decides to pursue licensure and eventually get into private practice, so I hope you find it helpful to hear an example of what that looks like if you’re considering pursuing something similar.
This podcast features Dr. Myra Elder. Dr. Elder is a clinical psychologist who has spent her entire career working with military veterans at the Mountain Home VA Hospital. She has seen some interesting things in her career and, while she has dealt with some heavy, heavy issues she’s also been able to protect herself from burnout, which is something most people in mental health struggle with. My conversation with Dr. Elder gives a glimpse into another area in the field of mental health, but she also gives some great advice, whether or not you’re interested in pursuing clinical psychology.
For this podcast, I was fortunate to get to talk to Dr. Kelly Ownby. Dr. Ownby is a board certified psychiatrist, and as you can hear in this episode, she’s working in a lot of different areas and has accumulated a lot of experiences over the years. I imagine most people know that psychiatrists go through medical school, but most people don’t really know what the work looks like afterwards. There’s a lot of stigma in the mental health field, but I think this is especially prevalent in the work of a psychiatrist. While Dr. Ownby’s work isn’t identical to all psychiatrists, I hope this broadens your understanding of the work psychiatrists do in their practice.
Today’s podcast features Kate Emmerich. Kate is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who currently works in the counseling center at ETSU. The LCSW is yet another route for someone to go if they want to do clinical work with clients but the degree, a masters in social work, is different than a counseling degree and, as Kate discusses, may offer some different options beyond clinical work. This could be a great next step to consider if you are passionate about broader social issues or are interested in working more broadly within your community.
Today’s episode features John Lawson, who is a licensed marriage and family therapist (also known as an LMFT) currently working in his own private practice, GracePoint Counseling Center, in Johnson City, TN. The degree curriculum for an LMFT is similar to that for students hoping to be an LPC or school counselor, but there are differences in therapy modalities, which is some of what John talks about in this episode. I hope this episode helps you gain some clarity in the difference between this and other counseling concentrations.
For today’s episode, I had the joy of talking with Garrett McDonald. Garrett is a school counselor at Indian Trail Intermediate School which is a 4th and 5th grade school within Johnson City Schools. Garrett got his school counseling degree from Milligan’s counseling program. During that time, he worked part-time in Campus Activities for Milligan. The curriculum for the school counseling degree doesn’t differ much than that of the clinical mental health counseling degree, but the licensure process is a bit different and, obviously, the work setting is different as well. If you’re interested in working with children, this can be a great route to go.
Today’s episode features my friend and former Milligan classmate, Erin Batkiewicz. Erin graduated from Milligan in the fall of 2010 and eventually went on to get her master’s degree in music therapy from the University of Kentucky. Music therapy is a relatively new field that many don’t know a lot about, including myself before this talk with Erin! I hope you find it as interesting as I did.
Dr. Christine Browning joins me for today’s episode. Dr. Browning currently serves as a professor of counseling in Milligan’s counseling program and has Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision from the University of Mississippi, a master’s degree and an educational specialist degree in school psychology from the University of Memphis, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Crichton College. She is certified in trauma and abuse through the Allender Center. Her experience in working with victims of trauma is what I wanted to focus on in this episode, so I do want to go ahead and give a trigger warning that this episode does contain some conversation about child abuse and relationship violence.
For this episode, I had the joy of speaking with Dr. Amanda N’zi. Dr. N’zi and I went to Milligan together, but didn’t realize it until we were planning for this conversation! Dr. N’zi is a 2007 Milligan graduate who went on to get her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Florida. She specializes in child psychology, working with kids ranging in age from infancy to adolescents.
For this episode, I spoke with Dr. Aaron Hymes. Dr. Hymes currently serves as assistant professor of counseling and leads the addictions counseling concentration in Milligan’s counseling program. He is a licensed professional counselor and mental health service provider, a board approved clinical supervisor, and certified master addictions counselor with over a decade of professional experience. I hope you enjoy hearing his journey and hearing a bit about what it is like to work with individuals who are struggling with addiction. If you’d like to learn more about this area, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Hymes.