Bachelor in Psychology from America Career Options

Switzerland Knowledge Base
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Hello,

I am a swiss-american who moved back to Zurich about 2 years ago. I spent the first 2 years doing remote work based in the US but now the past year have been working in an English speaking kita. I have a bachelor in Psychology and a bachelor in Communication from an American university.

However, I have learned that here because it is a regulated field, my bachelor in psychology is nonexistent without getting a masters. Any job that would require a psychology degree requires some kind of “degree recognition” but according to the sbfi people there is no way to get a degree recognition of just a bachelor’s in psychology, you can only get this once you have a masters as well.

My German Is still not very good (but I am working on it) which I realize is also a huge hurdle. But does anyone know of any options to work in a related way (not as a psychologist but doing social/psychologically relevant work) with only a bachelors in psychology? I love working in ways that connect to mental health, children, families, supporting other expats, research, and education. However, all of these interests seem to have very high barriers of entry.

Are there no career options for people who only have a bachelors in psychology here (also once I am able to speak German)? I feel a bit stuck as far as my career goes and unsure of what my options are. Does anyone have any guidance or personal experience?

Is there anyone who has just a bachelors in psychology from abroad that managed to build a related career here?

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Mariage counceling? Career coach? Life coach? Mental trainer for athletes?

I believe, you can be anything as long as you don’t call yourself a psychologist?

Oh, and of course, head-hunter. But they’re a dime-a-dozen and with jobs vanishing, it’s an equally competitive market as anything else non-regulated.

If the kita pays the bills, I’d keep that and try to venture into the above from there…

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Welcome. I second what rainer_d said. Below is a snippet from a post I made on another thread. The person who started that thread was from the UK, but the same idea applies to you @soza4303. Is English your primary language, or could you also do counseling in German?

Generally one can’t use the title psychologist here without having qualifications recognized. However, one can use the title of counsellor and there are some psychology-related jobs that wouldn’t necessarily need the qualifications recognized.

Here’s a link I found on Google about the qualifications for psychology and psychotherapy:
https://www.sbfi.admin.ch/dam/sbfi/en/dokumente/psychologie_und_psychotherapie.1.pdf.download.pdf/psychology_and_psychotherapy.pdf

And here’s a handy search tool, linked from the Swiss Red Cross page, that lets you click through various professions to see whether or not you’d need your qualifications recognized. For example, you could be a “life coach” without having your qualifications recognized.

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