I really want to get into the field of Forensic Psychology. I am a pretty late bloomer, I have had a lot of life set backs and couldn't finish school on time. Currently I am a Junior in undergraduate Psychology program with 2.8 GPA but I think I can get up to 3 by the end of my school. I also have a lot of experience working in mental health and human rights field as a case manager. I need advice on what can I do now to be able to get in to a PsyD program? Can I get into it bypassing Masters?

I want to tell you about the therapy session that had one of the biggest impacts on me. This was after college, where the FBI made me see a campus therapist after a bad incident where I got real drunk and yelled a bunch of obscene terroristic threats called my team mate a n... thirty-seven times near the campus. This was unrelated to that incident, but for other, deliberately unspecified reasons, St Joseph's kinda forced me to see this one psychologist, who I noticed, upon entering his office for the first time, had a PhD in forensic psychology from Harvard plagued up on his wall, along with many other trophies of achievement.

I'm not going to give you a big story about what our sessions were like, but they were very much like playing chess. There's a lot I can say about this but I'll keep this succinct and cut right to the chase. The session started normal, just catching up on the week's events before he started trying to lead me in a particular direction with questions. I played along, thinking I could outsmart him, but near the end of the session, when the conversation naturally flipped into talking about family, I let my guard down a little because I, metaphorically, had his king in checkmate in just two more turns.

Of course, that's not at all what happened, as I recall how he was innocently talking to me about my younger brother. He asks why I thought we didn't get along or do things together, and I said we were just too different in age, and he presses that question where he gets me to openly acknowledge that I was aware that people of different ages do different things. This causes him to say, and I'll never forget this, he said:

Well that's not a good sign

Then he smiles at me with a shit-eating grin and asks when is the next he'll see me. Then I went home deflated and paranoid and suddenly aware that my contingency plan was not at all going to work the way I thought it would. It made me want to work harder at being a good person, and here we are today.

Hey guys, I am a freshman at my university. I literally only started less than two weeks ago and I'm already feeling major regrets about my major. I'm meeting with the chair of my department to discuss this further, but currently, I am having major anxiety over my career path.

I want to go into forensic psychology. I am currently majoring in Criminology and plan to double major in Psychology as well. I plan to get a Ph.D in crim and a master's in psych. Along with internships and experience, I believed this path would lead me to the job I want. (Court psychologist)

But alot of sources online tell me my job is an absolute dead end. Alot say that I'm going to be working at Starbucks or some other low paying job, and I'm seriously panicking.

Should I genuinely change my major? Do you think the job I want is feasible with this plan?!

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Hey everyone! Long story short, I’m interested in getting into the field of forensic psychology.

I’m sure this question is asked frequently, and I have skimmed through some old posts, but I kind of wanted to ask in regards to my personal situation/goals!

Long(er) story: I graduation with a BS in psychology and have worked for the past four years in a behavioral health facility. Because of the circumstances around a lot of the pediatric patients they were usually assigned a caseworker. This has given me some idea as to the legal side of things from talking with them. I am currently interviewing for a few caseworker positions but I do know that eventually, I want to shift my focus more to the legal and psych side of things. Which from reading on here and talking with some old professors, seems like the broad field of forensic psych is where I could look.

To be honest, I haven’t looked too much into the more specialization areas of forensic psych and I know it is a super broad area, but I have been considering returning to a masters and eventually doctorate program after re-settling after the job change if possible. There’s some programs that are forensic psychology near me, but i’ve read some people say to get a masters in clinical psych. Then i’ve also read some people mention a JD/PhD program. So there’s really a lot to sift through.

I was hoping to get some advice more specific to what I have interests in. So a lot of my work experience is pediatric and youth programs, but I’m not entirely wanting to stick to that area. I also do have some interests in regards to Trial Competency (as one of my final papers for my degree I wrote on the NGRI plea and process. Outside of that, the legal aspects interest me and concealing those who may be caught up in the web of legality.

Hopefully this helps you guys help me and I apologize for the long post. Thanks in advance for any advice and feel free to ask any questions!

Edit: I am in the US.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Self-explanatory title, I am interested in the career path but I wonder what interacting with prison inmates does to you mentally on the long term, compared not to the general population but with patients one may see in a hospital as a clinical (neuro)psychologist (e.g. psychiatric patients, neurodegenerative disease, stroke, etc)

EDIT: As one commenter rightly pointed out, forensic psychologists do work outside of prison settings. I am interested in that aspect of forensic psychology as well as any others, though!

I think this is already a discussion to have in clinical psychology in general, on whether you can talk about a case to your friends as long as you anonymize any information.

But then in forensic psychology I assume the deontological and legal context might be more strict in regards to what you can and can't say.

I suppose it differs by country but, can you, in your country?

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Announcing this week's Crime & Psychology newsletter, all about The Execution of a Serial Killer:

https://jasonfrowley.substack.com/p/the-execution-of-a-serial-killer

Click and check it out - it's FREE! I'd love to see you there.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

That's the subject of this week's newsletter in the Crime & Psychology Substack. It took me an age to write but I think you might like it. It's completely free, of course. Check it out here, I'd love to see you!

https://jasonfrowley.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/143163827?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Here's a link to this week's free Crime & Psychology newsletter on Substack. This week is the first of two newsletters about lobotomies and their implications for personality.

https://jasonfrowley.substack.com/p/an-explosively-violent-frontal-lobotomy

The Crime & Psychology newsletter comes out twice a week and it's FREE! If you're as fascinated by this area as I am, I'd love to see you there. Come along and join us.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.

Please utilize this thread for general inquiries, including study or career advice, assistance with coursework, or lay questions about Forensic Psychology.