Counselors Career Description

In the career as counselors, they mostly deal with children, adults, or families with multiple issues. They study individuals problems like health, mental, family, educational, or career problems and assist people to overcome their problems. They need to clearly understand and analyze these issues in order to provide their clients with appropriate support and counseling.

Tasks:-

In the career as counselors, the tasks that are carried out vary according to the type of specialization of work. They are follows:-

Educational and school counselors :- They provide counseling to students from school and colleges. They assist the students with problem in education, career, and other types of stress. Counselors use interviews, counseling sessions, aptitude tests, interest, likes and dislikes interviews, and other methods to assist the people and for counseling.
Marriage and family counselors :- They study the group or couples problems and use the principles and theories for resolving their relationship problems.
Substance abuse and behavior disorder counselors :-They help people with addictions of alcohol, drugs, smoking, and eating disorders. These counselors need to study the type of addiction, the reason for it and then have to suggest methods to overcome it. They also need to check whether the patients are following the methods suggested and observe the results.

Qualification:-

The qualification needed differs according to the type of specialization of work. However, most of the time a master's degree is usually needed to be licensed as a counselor. Some of the states also accept a bachelor's degree with additional courses of counseling. The courses that are available are human growth and development, career counseling, mental and health counseling, relationships, social and cultural diversity, group work, research and program evaluation, and program identity. Theses courses are also beneficial to enter the career in counseling.

Other necessary skills:-

In the career as counselors, the skills that are necessary are as follows:-

Good interpersonal skills as they need to deal with different kinds of people.

Desire to help others.

Strong analytical skills.

Strong mental ability and convincing skills.

Place of work:-

In the career as counselors, counselors place of work depends on the type of work. For example, the school counselors work in schools or classrooms. Most of the time the counselors work in their offices, where people come to visit them and solve their problems. Others work in private industries, hospitals or other social services centers. Some of the counselors may have to travel to meet the clients in severe cases. Rehabilitation counselors work for 40 hours a week and for the whole year. However the school counselors work only for 9- 10 months with 2-3 months of vacation.

Job Opportunities:-

In the career as counselors, the counselors have a wide scope in different areas according to their specialization of work. Educational and school counselors work mostly in schools, colleges and universities. Other types of counselors work in hospitals, social care centers, healthcare facilities, vocational and rehabilitation centers, job training, career development, and residential care facilities. Some of the abuse and behavioral disorder counselors work in different organizations.

Remuneration:-

In the career as counselors the salary depends on the type of specialization of work, employer, education, and experience. The education, vocational and school counselors are the counselors that get handsome salaries as compared to other counselors. School counselors can also earn by privately counseling other children, or visiting other schools and even working in other jobs in summer vacation. The school counselors get more benefits like more vacation period, paid holidays, and health insurance facilities. The mental and rehabilitation counselors working as government employees or in hospitals and social service agencies are also paid with higher wages. However, residential care facilities often pay less as compared to other employers.

Job Progress:-

In the career as counselors, the counselors who are licensed for counseling work as counselors. The counselors need to be master's degree or bachelor's degree with some years of internship to be licensed as a counselor. The educational and school counselors who work at schools, colleges or universities, with years of experience might be promoted. They get senior positions like supervisor, head, or administrative positions. Other counselors may specialize in one field like children counselors, marriage counselors or psychological counselors.

Employment forecast:-

The employment growth in the career as counselors is supposed to increase rapidly in the future.. However, the demand for counselors differs according to the specialization of work. The demand for 'abuse and behavioral disorder counselors' is expected to be faster than other types of counselors. The increase in stress is increases number of addictions. For the need to make people aware of the consequences of addictions and to help them to come out of their problems, the counselors would be needed in large numbers in future. On the other hand, the stress due to increase in competition in school children or college students is rising. The need of the means to overcome their stress will also increase consequently. That is why, the teachers, parents and students need counseling so that students could be able to solve their educational and career problems.