Should I go for a long career/degree in Psychology even though I am 28?

Never give up your dream. If you put forth your greatest effort with your art, you cannot fail. Don't let setbacks make a failure out of you. Think like a genius is a book you should read. It is by Tod Siler.

Hey I am an artist too and I think about becoming a psychotherapist in the Jungian tradition but it is expensive and takes a long time to train. Also psychology courses are pretty scientific and people only really start looking at Jung etc at post grad level and even then Carl Jung, G.I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky etc these people are not taken seriously by professional psychologists at all. Most psychologists do things like administer tests to see if a kid has dyslexia etc they are not involved in the esoteric. Nowadays people want the quick fix of cognative behavioural therapy and aren't interested in dreams etc.

What about doing a post grad in art therapy? Or doing a post grad just in art or some other humanities where you can explore your interest in the work of Jung etc Or you could train as a psychotherapist look into psychosynthasis!

I don't think you are too old to retrain but I do think you will be disapointed in psychology if esoteric psychology is what you want to look into as it is not taken seriously in that feild.

Also as an artist myself I know it is hard to keep going but remember you aren't doing it for money or fame but for the chance to express youself.

Also a Phd might be a mistake. I always wanted to do one but in reality it is very expensive. In the past it was needed to enter academia but now education is being squeezed especially non science and engineering subjects so there are fewer and fewer teaching oppertunities and more and more people wanting to teach so you have to be brutally honest with yourself about your abilities. If an actually proffessor is saying wow you should be an academic then that is good feed back if it's just people you know then take that with a pinch of salt.

With advances in sciene too people are just less into esoteric psychology. It's more of a new age self development thing.

My thought is that you shouldn't actually worry about what to major in just yet. Instead, enter a community college with plans to transfer to a university. Take the basic classes that all people have to take - math, English, history... and in addition, also take a class or two in the fields you think might interest you. My thought is that you should take classes in psychology, philosophy, and maybe sociology. And oddly enough, I actually think you may be a match for philosophy, rather than psych; but take the classes and see how it goes. See what you like. It's often quite different to study something formally than to just do it on your own, so keep your mind open to new things and new ideas, and see which classes most appeal to you. Take direction from there.

Just take it step by step. First, enter the college. Do well, term by term. Take classes that let you explore your potential interests. By the end of your associates, decide firmly on a major. Transfer for the bachelors. Then on, if necessary, for grad school. At each end-point, where you get a degree, decide your next steps.

Not caring about the time it would take is not realistic. Of course you care about that. You also need to care about the reality of your situation - if you get to the cc classes and hate them/bomb them, then a PhD is not happening, so you'd need to find a different path. But you'd do that. And for now, take it step by step, do well, and see where it all takes you.

If you are interested in esoteric psychology you will find it a challenge to conform with expectations of of institutional psychology necessary to get a qualification that would allow you to work in a clinical capacity.

If you are interested in being able to pursue more education with a longer term aim of being able to make a living and help people heal themselves you could look at other alternative medicine paths that tend to be more open minded. Chiropractors for instance work on improving the energy pathways of the body but many of them will also work to provide their patients with diet and lifestyle advice to improve overall vitality. In the meantime learning to do chiropractic would not involve compromising yourself of the areas of thought/philosophy/psychology that you know and hold sacred.

Of course, chiropractic is just one example. The point was just that there may be other healing modalities that can be used to apply what you Know that are of interest and can ultimately server to provide a living for you and your family.

Light.