I certainly think your experience with bipolar disorder would be very worthwhile for your therapy practice, in working with people who have that or other issues that they themselves are struggling with.

Hi Mari,

I certainly feel that getting my master degree in counseling and being a registered intern for MFT have been very worthwhile for my career and personally rewarding experiences for me. I would like to say that it is never too late to pursue what you want to do in your life, but I also understand your practical concerns for the cost of schooling, age, and so on. I live and work in San Francisco where the cost of living is very high, and counselors/ therapists are not necessarily highly compensated. I say that post-master/pre-licensed MFT Interns are paid anywhere between $12/hrs and $20/hrs in Bay Area, (Of course, there are many non-paid positions, too) and how much you can earn as a licensed therapist really varies. (I see that some are making 40K working for non-profit agencies and others making 80K + working for hospitals, for-profit, or private practice.) I've met a psychologist who got her license in her 50s and chose to work as a physical therapist that was her trade for most of her life because she made better money doing it.

I guess that it really depends on you to make it work. Good luck!

hi mari
I am 46 too, and just started school again this year at JFK in pleasant hill in the psy d program. I had my masters in counseling from sf state, but i did not get the hours in time to test for my license, so i had to re-register and lose all my original hours. that, and looking for work in the bay area which is overfilled with masters of every degree, inspired me to go back to school. i was working as a social services manager at a care not cash hotel for a year before, and i had been working at various unsatisfying social work type jobs. I am very happy with the program i am in, even though i am going to owe a lot of money and its a very long commute from san francisco. I think I am the oldest one in the program. my advice would be to go to a doctoral program if you can manage it, because although it is harder, its not much longer and the rewards and opportunities are greater. If not, make sure you stick to it and get your license as soon as you can, because without a license you are not really competitive. if you are living in some other area of the country, the degree I think is more valuable, and thats not to say mfts dont find nice jobs, but think of all the graduating classes of students who fall in love with the area, if they are not from here, and decide to stay.
but a degree is always better than no degree.

I must be the luckiest MFT in the world. I have secured two wonderful jobs in the bay area since graduating in December, 2006. At age 47, I'm beginning my second career. For me, there is a definite part of this that has been being in the right place at the right time, but it's also been about networking, perseverance, attitude, selling and promoting myself, being willing to take risks, being relocatable, accepting temporary conditions, ... having an undefended ego, making smart choices and admitting dumb mistakes, being honest with myself and others. Now I'm about to move into a dream job with superb pay and benefits and a wonderfully supporting environment.

Best of luck to you. Have fun in school.

My opinion.
I returned to school at 36 and received my MA from NCOC Graduate Psychology program. My personal experience with Mental Illness was a contributing factor why I chose this industry.
In order to answer if pursing an MFT was worthwhile, I believe one must first be able to address self care with 100% competance. Managing mental illness can be very helpful to empathize with others who suffer, but causes collateral problems in treatment, by the innevitable secondary trauma experienced by therapists/ counselors.
I left the Mental Health industry disgusted by the incompetance and injury done by interns. I worked with two co-workers who commit suicide, two had sex with minor clients, and many who blindly projected theory and their illness on to clients and their families. I was pressured by supervisors to not pursue complaints to the Board of Behavioral Sciences and feel guilty and embarrassed how I played party to agency and industry corruption. I worked many uncompensated overtime hours. I spent thousands of dollars on therapy supplies and spent countless hours collecting materials for art therapy groups that were thrown away.
I witnessed Directors embezzling monies from MediCal and other slush contracts, meanwhile clients with severe and worsening symptoms went without help. I did not see any agency address these issues with integrity, justice or compassion.
I am sickened that the most disturbed clients in CA receive services from the least prepared or experienced. The intern system is doing far more harm than good, mandating repeated attachment interruptions and creating a deluge of paperwork that follows minor clients into adulthood. I worked at one agency that replaced four successive therapists in one group home with pregnant workers, each staying less than one month. (This is not a criticism of hiring pregnant workers, but a representation of how little thought to how clients would cope with pregnancy transference and repeated staff changes.)
I am convinced that the Mental Health industry as we know it today is corrupt and incapable of serving the needy. I am saddened that the industry is moving toward a medical model with charts, billing, and treatment plans superceeding coordinated quality of care, humanity, or kindness.
I am grateful that I met a few supurb therapists and a handful of accountable executives, or I would probably would have launched a public service campaign about the dangers of the industry.
NCOC did prepare me to know the theories expected by my collegues, but I floundered for years to write treatment plans and notes, diagnose, and deal with crisis. If chosing this industry, expect to write a lot. The industry depends upon these documents for payment (not for client care).
If you really want to help, consider becoming a family advocate. Alameda County regularly hires consumers to advocate for others. The pay is the same as therapist and requires no degree. Save the money from the education and have a few good vacations instead. You'll need it. This is the hardest work you will ever love.

Fter many years of deliberating (and also getting trained in Hakomi Therapy--a body-centered method of psychotherapy)--I am 44 and will be starting my second year of the MFT program at SF State. I am really loving it. More than I thought. The academic discourse is stimulating and I look forward to my internships to be an amazing experience too. I start at Santa Cruz Hospice in Sept.

As far as the portability of the MFT license--there is a new LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor) license that will come to be in the next year or two, and my teachers tell us that we will automatically be "grandfathered" in. This license will be recognized nationally. Yay!

Private schools are soooo expensive, If you can make it work--it is cheaper to do school at a state school, and then train on the side or beofre or after, in a more alternative, somatic method, if you are so inclined. I debated about whether to go to a cool, somatically oriented school, and am so glad I went cheap instead.

Oh--and btw--in private practice, an MFT can make quite a bit--it is almost ridiculous to me. In the Bay Area the average pay is $130/hr. Of course insurance companies reimburse at a lower rate, but still...

So--all in all--I highly recommend it! The way I have done it is to give myself the *out* that if at any point it wasn't/isn't the right path for me, that I could leave. This has felt good to take it one semester at a time. SOmetimes you don't know how something will feel until you start experiencing it. There are many more things to consider--legal implications and parameters of this degree, working within the system etc.

Good luck!

It's great if you're married to someone or have a trust fund. Otherwise you have to work for nothing for two years to get your hours, and who in midlife can do that? I have an MA in counselling psych, but cannot afford to get my hours. What a waste. That's why the profession is full of middle aged, middle class white women. Their husbands are supporting them through the internship.