I haven't decided if I'm crazy yet or not, but I'm entertaining the idea of going back to school and finishing up the hours needed to obtain my clinical mental health counseling license, only doing it with a Christian emphasis and becoming a Christian counselor.
I've always had the idea of being a Christian counselor and counseling couples in the church but opted for school counseling because I didn't want to take all of the classes geared towards making a diagnosis, etc etc that UC offered. Then, one night last week, I had dinner with one of my college girlfriends who asked me if I had ever thought about being a Christian counselor. On top of that, I spent yesterday at Cincinnati Christian University for a youth ministry summit and saw a slide about their counseling program and the idea has just been stuck in my head for the last 24 hours (minus the several hours I spent getting sick since I came down with a stomach bug...ugh!).
I spent this afternoon looking throught their graduate catalog and they have an amazing program set up for graduate students that allows you to make your tuition payments on a sliding payment scale, along with offering scholarships and your typical financial aid. It's too late to apply for the fall program but I am thinking about applying for next spring. Plus, since I already have a master's in counseling (though school based), I already have 10 classes that should count toward the mental health license, which is roughly 30 of the 70 hours needed towards graduation. Definitely a perk!
What do you all think? Am I crazy? I told myself after finishing at UC that I was never going back to school but with education jobs being few and far between, I feel like I have a better shot at a job if I have a mental health license as well. I feel like this could make me more marketable and eventually get me away from the preschool.
I don't know. This could just be another one of my crazy ideas. I definitely don't want to take out anymore student loans (the ridiculous amount I have right now is enough!) so this is something I'm going to have to be able to pay for and potentially get scholarships to cover. At least I have awhile before I'd even have to think about applying...
