Explore Counseling Career Options

As a career designation, “counselor” is a bit like “entertainer” or “engineer.” There are, of course, all kinds of entertainers working at very different levels in the entertainment industry, and whether or not they’re actually entertaining is often a matter of taste. Similarly, there are nuclear engineers, civil engineers, aerospace engineers, chemical engineers, nanotechnology engineers, and, if you happen to have a young child, the word might bring to mind a guy in a train yard wearing overalls and a very particular kind of hat.

Counseling is a lot like that, minus the hulking locomotives and the compulsory caboose. The Oxford dictionary defines counselor as, “A person trained to give guidance on personal, social, or psychological problems.” It also includes this secondary definition: “A person who gives advice on a specified subject.” And, in deference to those living in North America, it acknowledges that counselor refers to a role that’s often filled by high school students at summer camps.

But, even if we stick to the more narrowly constrained realm of professional counseling, there are all kinds of counselors — school counselors, mental health counselors, substance abuse counselors, behavioral disorder counselors, vocational counselors, rehabilitation counselors, and even grief counselors. These professionals are trained in various counseling techniques, are usually certified and licensed in the state they practice, and work in schools, clinics, community centers, residential facilities, and private practices, helping individuals, couples, and families overcome difficulties and cope with setbacks.

What Does a Counselor Do?

The American Counseling Association (ACA), a non-profit member organization representing people employed in all facets of professional counseling, makes some very clear distinctions when it comes to whom it considers a counselor. Actually, professional counselor is the term the ACA prefers, for two very practical reasons:

1. Counseling is a generic term that can refer to camp counselors and financial counselors, two designations that don’t fit the ACA’s definition.
2. Professional counselors are licensed by the states in which they practice to perform a very specific function, usually after earning a master’s degree in the field.

By contrast, Therapists are not regulated in the same manner, whereas psychologists and social workers, both of whom may provide counseling in a professional setting, are generally considered to have different priorities.

Psychologists, who often have to earn a PhD in order to practice professionally, often engage in research and other clinical duties, as well as in counseling. And social workers, as the ACA literature explains, “are trained to assist individuals with more basic needs than counselors” — needs like securing health care services, housing, and other basic resources. Counselors, on the other hand, “Focus on wellness, career development, client empowerment, and client strengths, and are also experts in addressing the needs of different cultures.”

The ACA’s overview of professional counseling goes into further detail: “Counseling is a collaborative effort between the counselor and client. Professional counselors help clients identify goals and potential solutions to problems which cause emotional turmoil; seek to improve communication and coping skills; strengthen self-esteem; and promote behavior change and optimal mental health… Professional counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals.”

In practical terms, that means meeting with clients, listening to their problems, assessing their situation, and providing concrete strategies, advice, and resources to help them improve their situation in life. For a school counselor, that would mean meeting with students and, in some cases, parents to address academic and career goals, behavioral problems, or other specific issues. For marriage and family counselors, that entails meeting with individuals, couples, and groups to help them work through family problems. There are addiction and mental health counselors, who meet with clients in clinics and other healthcare facilities to help their clients develop coping mechanisms and other life skills, and military counselors, who may work on military bases or in veterans hospitals, assisting men and women in uniform cope with the stress of their jobs and/or make the transition to civilian life. And there are child counselors and gerontological counselors, who specialize in working with clients on challenges related to their respective points in the cycle of life.

The charts below, drawn from the most recent data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), include a breakdown of where these professionals work, depending on the area of specialization.

Mental Health Counselors

School and Career Counselors

Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors

How Long Does it Take to Become a Counselor?

The most direct path to a career in counseling — i.e., a career as a licensed professional counselor — has four basic steps:

So, it can take up to eight years, from the beginning of a bachelor’s degree program through full state licensure, to become a professional counselor.

This process can vary by two or more years, depending on the particular career in counseling. For example, mental health and marriage and family counselors generally do need a master’s degree plus two years of work experience in most states, while some states require school counselors to have one to two years of classroom teaching experience or to hold a teaching license. At the other end of the spectrum, it is possible in many states to become an addiction counselor with just a bachelor’s degree, although job prospects and salaries are quite a bit better for those with a master’s. The ACA provides links to each state’s professional counseling licensing board and school counselor certification agency.

What Do You Need to Study to be a Counselor?

If the study of psychology exists on a continuum, with research and theory on one end, and direct, person-to-person treatment and intervention on the other, then counseling is clearly on the latter side. It is, at heart, an applied social science, one that’s certainly grounded in a foundational knowledge of psychological and sociological principles, but that requires the communication, assessment, and interpersonal skills necessary for working with individuals in need of help. As a result, most of what students need to learn for a successful career in counseling happens at the graduate level, through the coursework and supervised internship opportunities that are part of a master’s degree in counseling.

There are some colleges and universities that offer the option of majoring in counseling, usually as part of a concentration in psychology, but a four-year bachelor of arts or bachelor of science in any discipline is technically sufficient to qualify for admissions to a master’s degree program in counseling. That said, it’s recommended that students aiming for a career in counseling start by taking introductory psychology and sociology classes as an undergraduate. Here are some of the other types of bachelor’s degree courses that can provide a solid foundation for a counseling career:

There are essentially two parts of a master’s degree in counseling. The first consists of general coursework in the principles and practices of counseling, and often includes classes that cover the following topics:

The second part of a master’s degree program includes supervised, in-the-field counseling experience, as well as more specialized advance coursework that target a specific area within counseling. These classes typically address the following topics, although this can vary quite a bit from program to program:

How Much Do Counselors Earn?

Counseling is a broad field, with many different paths and areas of specialization. And they all require a level of dedication, commitment, patience, and compassion that isn’t easy to neatly correlate with salaries, which can vary quite a bit from area to area. For example, the most recent BLS employment data indicates that the median annual salary for mental health counselors as of May 2020 was $47,660. However, those in the lowest tenth percentile of mental health counselors, which likely includes those who have yet to be fully licensed, earned less than $30,590, while those in the top tenth percentile earned more than $78,700. Here are salaries in other areas of counseling:

2019 Occupational Employment Statistics and 2018-28 Employment Projections, Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS.gov.