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Career Outcomes: Where an Online Graduate Degree in Counseling Can Take You

Earning an online graduate degree in counseling offers students significant advantages, including essential training and education, professional growth, networking connections and practical experience. This comprehensive preparation leads to expanded career prospects, all while providing the convenience and accessibility of remote learning. Earning a counseling degree online could help you advance your career with the opportunity to pursue mental health positions in a variety of counseling career paths and workplace settings.

The Value of an Online Graduate Degree in Counseling

A master's degree is a requirement for counseling licensure. Pursuing continuing education opportunities, additional certifications or even an advanced doctoral degree online could create opportunities for you to qualify for the highest-paying counseling jobs while enjoying the benefits of studying remotely.

Flexibility and Accessibility for Working Professionals

Earning a master's degree in counseling online is an excellent option for aspiring counselors who are also busy professionals. Online degree programs are designed to accommodate students who are also working professionals. Most online programs offer flexibility in scheduling with asynchronous classes and course loads intended for individuals who may already be working 40 hours a week in addition to other family and personal obligations.

With online study, you can learn on your own time, from any location, while selecting courses to meet your state's licensure requirements.

Preparing for Licensure and Real-World Practice

When you understand how to become a licensed counselor, you'll see that, although counseling certification requirements vary from state to state, earning a master's degree in counseling or a closely related field is a required part of the basic, five-step process:

Earn a bachelor's degree.
Earn a master's degree in counseling, psychology or social work.
Complete supervised clinical experience hours.
Apply for licensure with your state board.
Pass the national licensing examination.

Earning your master's degree online satisfies the education requirement. It can also help you complete your supervised clinical experience hours by providing you with real-world counseling experience and opening up opportunities for internships and supervised clinical work.

Career Paths for Counseling Graduates

So, what can you do with a counseling degree? There are lots of career options for mental health professionals. Some of the most popular counseling career paths include:

Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)

A licensed professional counselor is a type of mental health professional. These counselors use individual, family and group therapy to address a wide array of behavioral, emotional and mental health challenges, including:

Anxiety
Depression
Stress
Relationship issues
Professional concerns

LPCs work with clients to teach communication skills, develop healthy coping strategies and improve clients' mental and emotional well-being.

School Counselor

School counselors are certified professional counselors who work in schools with students to support their academic careers, emotional development, social wellness, goal-setting and future planning. School counselors also collaborate with parents, guardians, teachers and administrators to create safe, supportive and productive learning environments while developing and implementing programs designed to meet the students' needs.

Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT)

Mental health professionals who choose the marriage and family therapist career path receive special training and education focusing on family systems. LMFTs are trained, licensed and experienced in diagnosing and treating mental and emotional disorders within the context of the family, a marriage or a couple. These professionals work with individuals, couples and family groups to address emotional and relational challenges through psychotherapy, communication training and conflict resolution coaching.

Substance Abuse Counselor

Also known as addiction counselors, substance abuse counselors are mental health professionals specially trained to help individuals and families struggling with substance use disorders (SUDs) or behavioral addictions. They are qualified to assess, diagnose and coordinate treatment for addictive behavior patterns, including relapse prevention. Substance abuse counselors conduct individual and group therapy in addition to family education.

Mental Health Clinician

Mental health clinicians work with a variety of patients and specialize in different therapeutic methods, practices and approaches to addressing mental health disorders. They provide psychotherapeutic treatment and are qualified to assess, diagnose, counsel and coordinate care for their clients, including children, adults, couples, families and other groups.

The term mental health clinician can be used to refer to a variety of mental health professionals with various credentials, levels of education, experience and areas of specialty. Mental health clinicians can include psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical mental health counselors and licensed social workers (LSWs).

Workplace Settings for Counseling Professionals

When you think about counselors, you likely picture the classic setting, like a cozy office, a patient reclined on a comfy sofa, a cupboard of fresh tissue boxes, a lit candle, bookshelves and a counselor ready to listen with a pen and notebook in hand. This impression is pretty accurate for many mental health professionals, but careers with a master's in counseling can be set in a variety of diverse workplaces.

Common professional counseling settings include:

Private Practice and Group Therapy Settings

Private practice counselors are self-employed. Private practice counseling can look a lot like the above-described image, with the counselor practicing out of a private office. However, they sometimes also work in different settings, especially when providing group counseling. So, private practice counselors might sometimes travel to different workplaces to offer team-building and professional counseling.

Private practice counselors can also provide individual and group therapy online, over the phone or through text messaging in telehealth counseling careers. Private practice counselors can offer telehealth services to their patients for increased flexibility and accessibility, helping as many patients as possible access services. Counselors providing telehealth services need to be careful that they adhere to their state's telehealth regulations.

Schools and Educational Institutions

School counselors primarily work in academic settings, such as grade schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities. Recently, virtual school counseling positions have been on the rise, and these roles enable school counselors to work from home. These positions allow individual counselors to serve several schools simultaneously. For example, a school district comprised of 10 schools could hire one or two counselors to serve the entire student body.

Hospitals, Clinics and Rehabilitation Centers

There are also several positions for counselors who wish to work in a larger setting, such as a hospital, mental health clinic or rehabilitation center. These positions tend to call for mental health clinicians, licensed professional counselors, substance abuse counselors and social workers to work with a wide array of clients. Like the workplace setting, these positions' responsibilities can vary. Some might offer counseling services to patients and families facing difficult medical diagnoses, while others will work with individuals dealing with challenging mental health disorders. Others might work with patients struggling with addiction in rehabilitation centers.

Nonprofits and Community Organizations

Licensed mental health professionals can also work for community mental health services, such as public mental health agencies, child protective services or other community health centers offering integrated care. Additionally, counselors can find positions in nonprofit organizations that provide mental health services.

Advancing Your Counseling Career

Mental health professionals never stop learning and advancing in their careers. They pursue continuing education and training, obtain additional certificates and stay ahead of the latest therapeutic methods and modalities.

Continuing Education and Certifications

Counselors can enhance their credibility, demonstrate expertise, grow professionally and access new career opportunities by pursuing continuing education by earning a doctoral degree or obtaining specialized certifications, such as:

Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC)
National Certified School Counselor (NCSC)
National Certified Counselor (NCC)
Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor (CDC)
Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC)
Certified Addiction Specialist (CAS)

Besides developing your career, continuing education helps you keep your license. Most states require mental health counselors to earn a certain number of continuing education credits annually to maintain their licenses.

Pursuing a Doctorate or Specialized Training

Pursuing a doctorate degree in psychology or counseling can help you access the highest-paying counseling jobs by receiving in-depth training and education in psychological methods and theories.

Counselors can also seek specialized training in a variety of counseling methods and approaches. Coursework and workshops commonly focus on topics like trauma-informed counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Professional Associations and Networking

Counselors can find opportunities for education, training, learning, professional development and networking with other practitioners through a wide array of professional associations in the industry, including:

American Counseling Association
American Mental Health Counselors Association
American Psychiatric Association
National Board for Certified Counselors

Additional associations exist for specific areas within mental health counseling, such as marriage and family therapy, addiction and substance abuse, school counseling and military counseling.

Take the Next Step on Your Career Path With Professional Degree Programs in Counseling

At Texas Wesleyan University, we offer a variety of educational paths in counseling, including master’s-level degree programs focused on professional counseling, marriage and family therapy and school counseling, and a doctoral program for marriage and family therapy. Online asynchronous classes for our masters-level programs mean that these degrees are within reach of working professionals who wish to accelerate their personal and professional development by earning counseling certifications with an advanced degree.

In these programs, students gain invaluable skills, training and real-world experience while learning how to start a counseling private practice or pursue clinical counseling careers in schools, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, community organizations or nonprofits.

To learn more about our continuing education for counselors, our counseling coursework and how studying at Texas Wesleyan University could help you take the next step on your career path, we invite you to explore our counseling degree programs and connect with us today or simply share this post with someone who is ready to learn more.