With the new trend to rethink your work and lifestyle, choosing a counseling career may be just the thing to solve your desire to be useful and have a great career at the same time. Are you a recent university graduate looking to launch your career? Or maybe you have been in the workforce for a while and want to change jobs in favor of something more meaningful?
Whatever your circumstance, if you are serious about looking for employment and want to do something that will make a real difference to the lives of people who are suffering, then why not seek out schools with masters in counselling and consider counselling as a career?
If you pride yourself on being kind, compassionate and empathetic to others, you may well be very suited to a career in help services. So, if this is something you had never previously considered, and your interest has been piqued, then please keep on reading. As we outline 8 reasons to learn counselling as a career.
Before we outline the reasons to choose a counseling career, it is worth highlighting what exactly a counselor does.
Essentially, a counselor is a trained and qualified professional who assists their clients to come to terms, and deal with complex, traumatic and challenging situations in their lives.
Typically, this involves them engaging in several methods, including talk therapy, to identify the root cause of their clients’ issues. Whereupon they will provide them with resources, coping strategies and tools to overcome their struggles.
Counselors can choose to practice in a range of different settings which may include:
As a counselor you can practice generally, or within a particular field, such as marriage, addiction or sexual abuse.
The qualifications and training needed to become a fully-fledged counselor depends on the area(s) they want to specialize in. However, it usually involves passing a bachelor’s degree in counseling, psychology or other related fields.
If you are short on time, then TSA’s diploma of counselling is a great option as it can be completed over a 12-month period.
In your work as a counselor, you may help people who are struggling with issues related to any number of areas. These include:
During your sessions with them, as a counselor, you will encourage your clients to express their concerns and support them without criticizing, belittling or judging them.
It’s not your place to give advice per se, but rather help them to create healthy solutions to their issues, which will enable them to live their lives with more inner peace and happiness.
Does this sound like a profession you would love to do? Well, here are 8 reasons to learn counseling as a career
A very common reason why most people choose to enter counselling as a profession is because they possess a strong innate desire to help others in their time of need.
There is no doubt counseling improves lives.
Throughout the work they do with them, the expertise and demeanor of a counselor can create a positive change in the lives of all the people they help.
Counselors get to work with all different types of people in a face-to-face capacity.
So, if you are a real people person you will be able to use that trait to develop trust, credibility and close relationships with your clients. Which in turn will help them open up to you more.
Perhaps you required counseling previously, and were so impressed and grateful, with the service you received, you just want to give back.
If counseling transformed the path of your life, what better thing to do than be the person who helps others achieve the same?
It is a sad reflection of our current society that some people go through horrible and traumatic experiences in their lives.
For vulnerable people, especially those who have been the victim of sustained abuse over a prolonged period of time, often what they need most is a safe space.
Providing them with this is the first step in helping them come to terms with their situation, and assisting them to develop methods to cope, and be less affected by it moving forward.
You might not have been aware of this but being a counsellor can be a very flexible profession.
In general, counsellors work just 34 hours a week. So it is an excellent career option for those who need to juggle home responsibilities with work. Or simply just have the work/life balance they are after.
In addition, Covid-19 introduced concepts like work from home and web calls into daily work practices.
So, there may be the potential to work from home if your client is happy to have sessions via web calls. Or if you are a private practice, and they are happy to partake in face-to-face appointments at your home-based office.
Counseling services are high in demand across all areas of society, so future job prospects are very good right now for those who embark on a career in this type of help service.
As people increasingly become aware of the need to seek professional help to work through their issues, opportunities for career progression will naturally present themselves to you.
One of the great things about counselling is that it is a job you can do anywhere. Both in terms of geographical location in your home country, and in terms of the specific places you can operate.
You could for instance work in a hospital, a school, a prison, a professional sports club or even corporate organizations. So, it offers plenty of variety, and the potential for no two days to ever be the same.
We hope these 8 reasons have whetted your appetite to become a counsellor.
If you are excited by the thought of helping others, and you are serious about taking the steps to do so, the best thing for you to do now is check out available courses in your area.
If you do, it could be a life changing decision. Not just for you, but for many other people.
Note: we use two spellings: counseling and counseling to accommodate our many English speaking audiences.
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