Licensing requirements for counseling vary by state and country, with different degrees leading to licensure by different councils. Generally, a high number of supervised training hours and exams are required. Some types of counselors, such as psychiatrists and religious counselors, may not need a counseling license.
Most of the time when people discuss a counseling license they mean the licensure is a mental health counselor. There are other types of counselors that may or may not require licensing. This includes genetic counselors, academic counselors, vocational counselors, addiction counselors (alcohol and drugs) and many others. This explanation will focus primarily on the licensure required for mental health counseling, as the other fields of counseling are very broad and the training and/or licensure for each varies greatly.
The main requirements for a counseling license can also vary, by state or by country. People seeking licensing in a particular state or country should always check with the local licensing board. In the US, anyone wanting to obtain a counseling license should check with state and national licensing boards as there may be slight variation.
Generally, the path to obtaining a counseling license in places like the US starts with earning a bachelor’s degree, usually in psychology or social work. It is not always necessary to have a degree in one of these fields, and some people with other specialties may be accepted into master’s-level counseling programs. They may have to take some introductory courses in the first semester of a master’s program if they didn’t study psychology or counseling when completing a bachelor’s degree.
Typically, students complete at least a master’s degree in one of the following areas: psychology, marriage and family therapy, or social work. Some students complete doctoral degrees in social work or psychology, which can also prepare them to obtain a counseling license. Typically, as part of graduate school, students complete 100 or more hours of supervised practical training, and once school is complete, many students must participate in a long internship where licensed counselors supervise them. The duration of this internship is usually a minimum of 3000 hours of practice, although psychologists may have a shorter internship.
The part where it gets confusing is that different counseling degrees typically mean that people are licensed by different councils once a degree is earned and internship hours are done. For example, the California Board of Behavioral Sciences licenses someone who has a marriage and family therapist degree or master’s degree in social work in California. A California psychologist, on the other hand, obtains a counseling license through the California Board of Psychology. The different degrees that lead to licensure can lead to very different advice. The best bet for those trying to figure out which board they will need licensure on is to discuss this issue with the graduate school they attend. Graduate programs are usually experts at answering these questions.
What is common to most counseling license requirements is a high number of supervised training hours and often exams. Students will have to prepare for this. Some students must also take exams and obtain a temporary license to complete supervised training. Again, the best source for this is the graduate school a person attends.
There are some types of counselors who can practice without a “counseling license”. Psychiatrists don’t need one, although they do need a license to become a physician, and they usually take exams to be certified as a trained psychiatrist. There are several ministers who can also work as religious counselors or simply counselors. They may or may not be trained to do this, although many are, but they normally do not need a license as this may form part of their job.
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