Remember your first serious breakup? For a stretch, it felt like all the darkness in the world had folded around you. And you thought it would be that way forever, were it not for that one friend — their glimmering support made you feel things might get better, one day.
Fast forward to now: you discover you also have a certain je ne sais quoi for helping others when they need it. Counseling is the career that lets this quality shine brightest. But it isn’t a one-size-fits-all vocation. You can take different career paths, each as diverse as the next. To help you decide, we’ve put together this simple but helpful guide to different careers in counseling.
The path to becoming a counselor
Much like other careers in the healthcare industry, your counseling career will start with a diploma or bachelor’s degree in counseling. Next, you choose a specialization to study; for example, if you want to become a school counselor, you’d likely choose to complete a Master’s in School Counseling online or in person.
Next comes your practical training. Here, you’ll apply your counseling knowledge in a supervised clinical environment. It’s like learning to drive; after a certain number of supervised hours, and passing an examination, you’ll get your counseling license.
Once you’ve got your license, it’s time to establish yourself. This is when your training returns, with continued learning. Why? The counseling field grows, and so must you. Everyday is a learning opportunity.
Critical detail: you must research the state requirements where you plan to practice. If you study counseling in Michigan but plan to be a counselor in California, for example, check and double-check these requirements so that you do what’s needed to get your license.
Counseling: 4 common careers
Counseling is a broad term. Think of it as Base Camp. Once you’re ready to specialize in a particular type of counseling, you take that route up the mountain. Here are four common counseling careers.
Grief counselor
Bereavement. Something no one wants to deal with, something everyone has to deal with. When a mother, husband or best friend dies, an emotional wave washes over us that’s so consuming we can feel like we’ll never reach the surface: grief.
A grief counselor helps patients come up for air. They get to the heart of loss by identifying how a person’s grief manifests, then give them practical ways to recognise and cope with their grief. Unlike other fields of counseling, the criteria for people needing grief counseling is brief; if a patient has lost a loved one, grief counseling is likely for them.
Mental health counselor
Mental health. That elusive state of well-being that lets you thrive in life. We’re all susceptible to struggling at times, but for some of us the various aspects of mental health — emotional, behavioral, cognitive — prove too much to handle on our own. This is where a mental health counselor comes in.
Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and substance-use disorders; these are the types of issues a mental health counselor will help people overcome. Like a grief counselor, this help comes through strategies you implement yourself, along with treatments like psychotherapy.
Nearly one in five adults in the United States live with a mental health condition, but only half of them receive treatment. The deeper we dive into mental health, the more important this counseling field becomes.
School counselor
Even for those who thrive in their school years, this time of life is filled with challenges as diverse as they can be relentless. A good school counselor can make a significant difference in the lives and well-being of struggling students.
More specifically, a school counselor helps kids with their academic, social, and psychological development. Their help isn’t limited to direct, one-on-one contact with students either; as a school counselor, your expertise could be called upon to help teachers and administrators develop a curriculum that implements the positive practices you promote.
Rehabilitation counselor
Rehabilitation: the act of restoration. We’ve all had to find our way back to normal life — or something that resembles normal life — after a setback. If your setback was particularly damaging, there’s a good chance a rehabilitation counselor was by your side for the journey back.
It’s incredibly diverse work being a rehabilitation counselor. One day, you might be teaching clients about their disabilities to help them better understand their conditions, while on another you might be advocating for their needs within their workplace, school, or other institution.
With any career choice, it’s a matter of balancing head and heart. Counseling is no different. It’s a vocation ruled by emotions, rather than objective facts and details. For this reason, trust your gut. And don’t feel discouraged if the first path you take doesn’t work out. Though each counseling career has its unique dealings, each is a different branch on the same tree. If you can reach one, you can reach the rest. Good luck!
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