Understanding the transition from psychology graduate to post-graduate counselling studies

Abstract

University graduates have invested significant time, money, and effort into completing their studies, with many discovering that their chosen discipline is not what they were expecting, nor the right fit for their individual values or goals. Transition between disciplines is particularly common in the helping professions, but little is known about the motivation for these transitions. To better understand motivations for transitioning disciplines, we investigated why psychology graduates chose to transition to post-graduate counselling studies. Using semi-structured interviews, we asked the participants ( n = 8) to describe their perceptions, motivations, and experiences of studying psychology and counselling. Applying reflexive thematic analysis, we identified a meta-theme that the transition to counselling was facilitated by the participants’ desire to have a profession that aligned with their core values; and they viewed counselling as a strength-based, flexible, holistic, and humanistic approach to helping others.