If you are looking for a career where you can use your skills to be a real help to people, careers in therapy are a good choice. One of the most popular of these careers is counselling. Working as a counsellor means that you can help people get through difficult times in their lives by enabling them to deal with their issues.
If you think that counselling might be a good career for you, you need to understand what the role of a counsellor is and what qualifications are required to start working as a counsellor.
What is the role of a counsellor?
There are several different responsibilities involved with working as a counsellor. If you choose to embark on this career you can find yourself completing tasks such as meeting with clients to discuss their issues and help with assessing grief, helping clients to develop coping strategies, facilitating group counselling sessions and mediating when conflict resolution is required. You may also be required to refer people on to other healthcare professionals.
It’s worth noting that you can choose to specialise in a particular area of counselling such as relationship counselling, conflict resolution, grief counselling and drug and alcohol counselling. If you choose to do this, you should be prepared to gain specific qualifications in your chosen area.
What qualifications do you need to become a counsellor?
You will always need some form of formal qualification in order to start working as a counsellor. Once you are working as a qualified counsellor you can apply to become a member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA).
To work in counseling at an entry-level you need to have a Diploma of Counselling. Gaining this qualification allows you to take the first step in your career. It’s also a way of gaining entry into more advanced courses.
You will need to undertake one of these more advanced courses if you want to be registered as a fully qualified counsellor. This is why it makes sense to consider studying for an undergraduate degree such as a Bachelor of Counselling. You will find that this course of study gives you access to practical as well as theoretical experience.
As mentioned earlier, if you want to specialise in a specific type of counselling, you may need to go on to study for a Masters Degree in this area.
It may sound like there is a lot of work involved in embarking on a career as a counsellor. However, any studying that you need to do is worthwhile in order to be able to work in an area which allows you to help people and make a real difference in their lives. You can also get a decent salary working as a counsellor. Obviously, the salary you can expect depends on your level of experience but the average salary for a counsellor in Australia is between $AUD 65,000 and $AUD 75,900. It’s a career where you can earn a decent living and get a feeling of great satisfaction.
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Founder Dinis Guarda
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