My Dissertation

One of the rites of passage to earning a PhD in just about anything is to write a dissertation. A dissertation is typical a big, huge, hairy paper. It can be anywhere from 200-400 pages and is more like a book than a paper. In fact, many schools will publish some dissertations to go in their libraries.

Since I'm a counselor, I'll talk about counseling. In order to earn a PhD in professional counseling from LU I have to take a certain number of classes and I have to write a dissertation. The class work isn't a huge deal to me. I love to study and to learn. I'm hungry for knowledge.

The dissertation doesn't even scare me that much, it is a LOT of work, but I'm not afraid of that. In counseling it helps if the dissertation brings new knowledge to the field. In that vein, I'm studying the psychological affects of a military deployment on the spouses on the homefront.

I love our military families and want to do something to help them. But, my first love in counseling is to work with soldiers with PTSD. I'll work a chapter of that into my dissertation, but I'm wondering something. I know that the topic for my disseertation is good, and the research is necessary, but should I have stuck to my first love? There is starting to be more done on PTSD, so is good that I focus on something else and expand my ken? Or should I have stuck with PTSD?

Thus is the life of a PhD student! Lots of hard work and second guessing yourself. And did I mention lots of reading???? Not as many tests as for undergrads and master students (especially if you take independent study classes!) but we make up for it. And at the end...you will have to call me Doctor! ;-)