I want to be a UX Researcher

Yo.

So I been a UX designer for about 7 years. I’m currently a senior at a large company. The most exciting part of UX for me is research and testing. I don’t really care for UI design.

I want to move into a full time UX research role. I’m also considering a PhD in (Transpersonal) psychology. In preparation for that, I’m looking at a quantitative psychology masters program. My math skills are abysmal. However I’m fairly good at qualitative.

So I’m curious for those who might be UX researchers, how did you end up in that specialization?