Explore Psychology Career Paths with a Master’s Degree

Psychology is a broad and rewarding field, offering professionals the chance to make meaningful impacts in people’s lives. With a master’s degree in psychology, you gain access to a wide range of opportunities — whether you’re passionate about clinical work, human services, research, or specialized roles in schools, communities, and corporations. The need for mental health professionals continues to rise, and earning an advanced degree allows you to stand out in a competitive job market while also preparing you for licensure and certification.

At Russell Sage College, our graduate psychology programs help you gain the knowledge and hands-on experience to take the next step in your career. Whether you’re advancing in your current role or transitioning into a new one, this guide explores psychology career paths with a master’s degree, including job outlooks, salary ranges, and areas of specialization to help you decide which path is right for you.

When you earn a master’s degree in psychology, you develop a deeper understanding of human behavior and enhance your real-world interpretation of those behaviors while expanding your research skills. For this reason, earning a master’s degree makes it easier to pursue new psychology career paths as well as advance in your current job and earn a higher salary.

Because they possess a more advanced skillset and deeper understanding of research and its role in psychology practice, people with a master’s degree in psychology find it easier to advance in psychology-related careers, especially in management roles, which often require a master’s degree. You also need a master’s degree to achieve most psychology-related certifications, such as school counseling and mental health counseling. These are also fields you can specialize in during your graduate studies, further preparing you for the specific challenges present in your field.

With a master’s degree in psychology, you can explore more specific careers and achieve advanced certifications that allow you to take your knowledge and skillset to new levels, helping people and systems by understanding, interpreting, and guiding behaviors. This includes jobs in common areas such as research, clinical therapy, and public health, as well as more specialized options such as those in business and school systems and in law enforcement through forensic mental health programs.

At Russell Sage College, we offer our graduate psychology students a variety of options in terms of specialization as well as method of learning. Specifically, our psychology master’s programs cover a range of psychology jobs and career paths through both traditional in-person and online mental health and psychology degrees.

Currently, we offer programs in community psychology and forensic mental health as well as a master’s in mental health counseling. Notably, Sage’s master’s in mental health counseling program is approved by the New York State Education Department’s Office of the Professions and qualifies graduates to sit for the licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) certification exam.

Many psychology jobs require or at least prefer candidates to have a master’s degree, and most of them offer comfortable salaries that are higher than what you could achieve with a bachelor’s degree alone. Top psychology jobs and salaries include the following:

Educational, Guidance, or Career Counselor
Median salary: $66,9903

Human Resources Manager
Median salary: $154,7404

Mental Health, Substance Abuse, or Behavioral Health Counselor
Median salary: $60,0805

Marriage and Family Therapist
Median salary: $68,7306

Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse
Median salary: $86,0707

Social Services Director/Community Services Manager
Median salary: $77,0308

Are you more interested in clinical practice, or does psychological research sound more interesting to you? One of the most significant benefits of achieving a master’s in psychology is that it allows you to specialize. This means that you can take courses in one area of psychology, such as child and adolescent development, forensic psychology, substance abuse, or community psychology, to become an expert in that specialization.

At the graduate level, you not only tailor your coursework to focus on one of the many specializations within the psychology field, but you also have more opportunities to gain real-world experience. For example, you can learn more about research in psychology by working alongside and aiding professors who are active in the field and who publish their research results. You can also participate in internships beyond the gates of your school and work with and learn from professionals who are actively doing the work that you want to do.

Choosing the right psychology career path is not always easy or obvious, but it starts with understanding your own strengths and desires. Ask yourself a few key questions about how you want to spend your days as a professional, such as:

In addition to answering these questions, learning more about available psychology master’s programs in your area, such as psychology programs at Russell Sage College, will help clarify what pursuing different specializations within the field means in real terms. You can also connect with academic advisors within graduate psychology programs who can further educate you on the implications of different specializations and their associated career paths.

While earning a master’s degree in psychology is a great move for your career and your salary over the long term, it is also just a start. For many graduates, seeking additional certifications, such as those for LMHCs, school psychologists, and Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselors (CASAC), can make the impact of a master’s degree even better. In these cases, exploring graduate programs that are accredited for specific certifications that you want to pursue is essential.

Many students finish their master’s degree in psychology and then continue their studies to earn a PhD, which allows them to work in research and teaching fields. A master’s in psychology can also help you get into other types of doctoral-level programs, such as medical school and clinical psychology.

A: Yes. While there are jobs available with just a bachelor’s degree, many psychology-related certifications such as school counseling and LMHC require that you either have or actively work towards earning a master’s degree. In addition, a master’s degree in psychology opens up a variety of research and management-level jobs within the field, increasing your earning potential exponentially.

A: No. There are many jobs within the psychology field that only require a master’s degree. Fields as diverse as school counseling, marriage and family therapy, substance abuse therapy, human resources, and psychiatric nursing only require a master’s degree. In addition, many therapists in private practice also only have masters’ degrees along with mental health counseling licenses (LMHC) or similar credentials.

A: Yes! Sage offers an online mental health counseling degree with several different concentrations, including trauma and acute care, couples and family counseling, and substance abuse and addiction counseling. The online degree is accredited by the New York State Education Department’s Office of the Professions and qualifies graduates to sit for the licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) exam.

A: While clinical and counseling psychologists perform similar work helping individuals cope with varying forms of mental illnesses and behavioral disorders, the order of magnitude of these conditions varies in a clinical versus counseling setting. In simple terms, clinical psychologists work in clinical settings, often serving patients with severe mental health or behavioral disorders in places such as hospitals and institutions. Counseling psychologists, on the other hand, tend to work in out-patient settings, including private practices. They treat patients with less severe mental health conditions, helping them to navigate daily problems and develop coping skills.

Of course, some degree of crossover occurs, and it is not uncommon for clinical psychologists to treat patients in private practice settings or for specially certified psychological counseling professionals, such LMHCs with a Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor Trainee (CASAC-T) certification, to work in clinical and in-patient settings.

A: It is absolutely possible to transition into psychology from another field. However, to earn your master’s in psychology, you may need to meet some basic undergraduate prerequisites. Usually, when you submit your undergraduate transcripts as part of your master’s application, the school will inform you of any specific or additional courses you will need to take to meet prerequisite requirements.

Email [email protected] to learn more the master’s programs at Russell Sage leading to exciting psychology career paths.