Mental health counselors work toward promoting the best possible level of mental health for both individuals and groups. They may work with children, adults, families, individuals, groups, etc. They may also range in several specializations such as substance abuse counseling, grief counseling or stress management counseling.
Mental health counselors fall into the area of social occupations. Social occupations are usually along the lines of helping people and offering services to people in need. Mental health counselors are skilled in various proficiencies, especially those dealing with communication. The various skills that they must encompass are active listening, social perceptiveness, critical thinking, service orientation, active learning, learning strategies and public speaking.
These positions have many more responsibilities, though, than just “counseling” the client. The counselor must first interview and evaluate the client. The next step would be to set up a treatment plan and may modify this treatment plan if need be for the client’s sake. The counselor may also work with other professionals to evaluate clients and set up treatment plans. They may even supervise other counselors and help them in the right direction with counseling clients.
A bachelor’s degree is the minimum level of education needed for this line of work. Although most of the opportunities do require a master’s degree and some more advanced opportunities even require a Ph.D., M.D. , Ed.D, or Psy.D. The training involves knowledge of psychology, therapy and counseling, proper use of the English language, education and training, sociology and anthropology, customer and personal service, and administration and management.
