Make Your Passion for Helping Others Your Career
If you are in graduate school, pursuing your masters degree in counseling, there’s little doubt that you are passionate about helping others. As you move closer to graduation, it’s time to begin exploring your career opportunities. A masters in counseling can open more doors than you may think. Here are just some of the fantastic careers in counseling that you will find enriching :
1.Child Abuse Counselor
As a child abuse counselor, you’ll work with children in a variety of settings, using several different types of interventions. Counseling abused children can be emotionally taxing, eventually taking its toll on your spirit. If you are the type of person that can remain positive no matter what you are faced with, and if you love children, this career may be exactly what you’re looking for. Once you become familiar with the child, the abuse that has taken place and the issues that the child is facing, you will be responsible for educating the child’s caregivers. You may be required to provide continuing support to the entire family as they struggle to cope with what has happened to their child.
2.Geriatric Counselor
At the other end of the age spectrum, the elderly need counselors who can help them meet the cognitive and physical changes that come with age. As a geriatric counselor, you will help older adults choose the best social and health services available to them in the local area. You may also be asked to help find senior citizens programs that can help meet their particular needs. Providing counseling services to older adults can be a personally fulfilling career path.
3.Life Coach
Though you don’t have to have a counseling degree to become a life coach, you may want to make your degree work for you and branch out on your own. If you want to combine your passion for helping people with your desire to be your own boss, life coaching can be both lucrative and rewarding. As a life coach, you’ll teach people new skills, help them rethink their current options and help them create satisfying futures.
4.Transformational Coach
Much like a life coach, transformational coach’s help people discover their dreams and follow them to fulfillment. A transformational coach is a professional that helps people who are depressed, struggling with feelings of hopelessness or those who are experiencing a traumatic life event that has caused them to give up the pursuit of their dreams. As a transformational coach, you may utilize talk therapy as a means of helping your client explore their feelings and issues. You’ll help your client create and follow a personal plan that will help them develop a renewed interest in their own life.
5.Career Counselor
As a career counselor, you may find yourself employed by a college or a private practice. It will be your duty to get to know your clients, understand their hopes, dreams and skills, and help guide them towards careers that they are best suited for. Once you have helped your client decide what type of job is right for him or her, you will help them enroll in school, build a resume or anything else that is necessary to land a job in that field.
If you have a passion for helping people and a great listening ear, becoming a counselor will be very rewarding. Not only will you be asked to help people when they are at their seemingly worst, but you will enjoy the benefit of being able to share in their successes. If you want to spend the rest of your working life making a difference in the lives of others, a career as a counselor is the perfect choice.
Amie Gottschalk is an avid blogger who writes often for health sites. You can follow her on Twitter @amiegottschalk.