What You'll Do

  • Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors.
  • Counsel clients on concerns, such as unsatisfactory relationships, divorce and separation, child rearing, home management, or financial difficulties.
  • Encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner.
  • Maintain case files that include activities, progress notes, evaluations, and recommendations.
  • Collect information about clients, using techniques such as testing, interviewing, discussion, or observation.
  • Determine whether clients should be counseled or referred to other specialists in such fields as medicine, psychiatry, or legal aid.
  • Confer with clients to develop plans for posttreatment activities.
  • Follow up on results of counseling programs and clients' adjustments to determine effectiveness of programs.
  • Provide instructions to clients on how to obtain help with legal, financial, and other personal issues.
  • Gather information from doctors, schools, social workers, juvenile counselors, law enforcement personnel, and others to make recommendations to courts for resolution of child custody or visitation disputes.

Essential Skills

Active Listening 4.88/5
Social Perceptiveness 4.38/5
Speaking 4.25/5
Reading Comprehension 4.0/5
Writing 4.0/5
Service Orientation 4.0/5
Complex Problem Solving 4.0/5
Judgment and Decision Making 4.0/5
Critical Thinking 3.88/5
Active Learning 3.75/5
Monitoring 3.62/5
Persuasion 3.62/5

Career Fit Overview

Use this summary to sense whether the day to day rhythm and focus of this path line up with what energizes you.

Top passions

  • Helper: Supporting people and making a difference matters to you.
  • Analyst: Investigating problems and finding patterns keeps you engaged.
  • Artist: Creating original work and expressing ideas feels natural.

Common styles

Concern for Others, Integrity, Self-Control, Dependability, Stress Tolerance

Want a personal read on fit. Take the free assessment and see your exact compatibility with this career and many related roles.

Key Abilities

This career demands strong capabilities in the following areas:

Oral Comprehension 4.25/5
Oral Expression 4.25/5
Written Comprehension 4.0/5
Written Expression 4.0/5
Problem Sensitivity 4.0/5
Deductive Reasoning 4.0/5
Inductive Reasoning 4.0/5
Speech Recognition 4.0/5

Technologies & Tools

Advantage Software Psych Advantage American Medical Billing Software PMA Anasazi Software Client Data System Beaver Creek Software The THERAPIST Blueberry Harbor Software Clinical Record Keeper Care Paths eRecord Casamba Smart Cornucopia Software Practice MAGIC DocuTrac QuicDoc eMDs Medisoft EZ2Bill Confidant EZClaim medical billing software Google Meet Hypertext preprocessor PHP Intuit QuickBooks Mdansby The PsychReport Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel Microsoft Office software Microsoft Outlook

Work Environment & Style

Common Styles for This Career

  • Concern for Others (High importance: 4.9/5)
  • Integrity (High importance: 4.9/5)
  • Self-Control (High importance: 4.8/5)
  • Dependability (High importance: 4.71/5)
  • Stress Tolerance (High importance: 4.66/5)

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How to Become One

This career requires extensive preparation, typically including a graduate degree (Master's or Doctoral) and several years of experience. Most professionals in this field have invested significant time in education and training.

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Also Known As

This career is known by many different job titles across industries. Here are all the variations:

ABA Behavior Therapist (Applied Behavior Analysis Behavior Therapist) Behavior Intervention Specialist Behavior Specialist Behavior Support Specialist Behavior Technician (Behavior Tech) Behavior Therapist Behavioral Analyst Behavioral Health Clinician Behavioral Specialist Behavioral Therapist Bilingual Clinician Child and Adolescent Therapist Child and Family Counselor Child and Family Therapist Clinical Therapist Counselor Couples Therapist Couples' Therapist Family Counselor Family Service Counselor Family Services Counselor Family Therapist Group Counselor Human Relations Counselor Licensed Clinical Therapist Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) Licensed Therapist Marriage and Family Counselor Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) Marriage Counselor Marriage Therapist Military and Family Life Counselor Outpatient Therapist Play Therapist Relationship Counselor Telehealth Counselor Therapist