What Is Something Anyone Considering Studying Counseling Should Know?

Video Transcript

Host Question: What is one thing that every person considering studying in counseling should know about the career before they make that choice?

Guest Answer: A lot of people go into counseling with the notion that they want to either help people or that they’re told they’re a good listener. And counseling is a lot more than just helping and listening. It’s a big part of the job. But there are a lot of other skills that need to go into counseling to be an effective counselor. There’s a science behind the practices that you may use in your counseling. There needs to be a lot of removal of yourself through the counseling process. And a lot of patients.

Guest Answer: It may look different place to place, especially for school counseling. It depends on your demographic. It depends on things going on around you. It depends, even in a school setting, it even depends on the principal that you work under, because some principals have very different ideas of what should be the school counselors responsibility. And if you’re not careful, it can take away from the reasons that likely Drew you to the career in the first place.

Guest Answer: One thing that is really important to know about the career before choosing a master’s in counseling is recognizing that it’s a profession that has a lot of career opportunities. I think there’s a lot of ways to pivot what you’re doing from one space into another. And I think a lot of clinical mental health roles have a lot of addiction counseling roles, like have a pretty high burnout rate. The pay across certain spaces is a not as lucrative as perhaps it should be, given the amount of care and attention you’re giving to people. And I think that really at the end of the day, if you want to pursue a degree in counseling, you need to really people and believe in people’s capacity to change.

Guest Answer: Well, there’s a couple of things: I think in school I never thought about the possibility of what am I going to do if this doesn’t work out? And I learned that when I ran into some difficulties completing my thesis, like, you can complete your coursework but not graduate if you don’t complete the thesis part, which is the most difficult part of any program. And then I would say, considering like financially in the long run, you’re going to be able to manage that because it’s definitely starting out, one of the fields where you don’t get paid as much as you expect you’re going to do, and then preparing yourself for navigating a very like messy field when it comes to your peers.