Answers to Consumer Questions

Question 7: "Where I can find information on schools with degree programs for people who wish to become counselors? I'm not sure where else to look. What are the requirements in Washington State for being a counselor? Do you think it matters whether one pursues an AA degree or an AS before they start on the road toward becoming a counselor? Thank you for any knowledge you can provide! Sincerely, LB"

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Dear LB:

With regard to training to be a counselor. My personal opinion is that the best counselors have held other jobs and worked in other fields before becoming counselors. It is simply because real life experience is extremely valuable in counseling others.

I was 43 when I returned to college to obtain my masters degree in counseling. (I don't recommend that all potential counselors wait that long, only that you don't need to rush your counselor training.) Working full-time nights and going to school days, it took me four years going year around to obtain what would normally be a two year Masters Degree.

In my own case, I have held many full and part-time jobs (professor's classroom assistant, farm laborer, nursing unit clerk, resume writer, etc) to help pay expenses while I attended college. My bachelor’s degree was in secondary education and I worked for three years as a junior high school special education teacher. I also worked two years as a legal clerk while in the army, a year as an industrial engineer schedule planner in aerospace, three years as a management trainee and bank operations manager, and five years as coordinator and director of a non-profit organization. While I am not recommending that any potential counselor hold that many different jobs, I am saying that real-world experience (outside the counseling field) is extremely valuable in counseling others.

Life experience in just living life is also valuable. Getting older and passing through some of the life experiences that your clients are experiencing enriches you and gives you depth. Imagine a 45 year old business woman, mother of three, who needs mental health counseling for some disturbing problem who finds herself discussing her problems with a 23 year old young man or woman with a bachelor’s degree. How much confidence will she feel in her professional counselor?

Getting an Associates of Arts degree is not necessary when your objective is to obtain your Bachelor of Arts degree. However, having a degree--whatever it is--is preferable to not having one. Many people complete three years of college and then are forced by circumstances to drop out. They can say that they have three years of college, but no one can quite be sure what that means. Three years of college that you took 10 years ago may be completely discounted by universities or employers, but a degree is forever. The degree means that you had the organization and discipline to pursue a recognized course of study and complete it.

The AA degree is especially valuable when it qualifies you for professional employment so you can get a job and generate more income in support of further education.

People enter counseling through many degree fields. In Washington State, persons from any degree background can register and work as counselors in private practice. Washington and most other states have higher requirements, usually a Masters Degree, a supervised internship, two or three years of supervised work, and then passing a three hour examination--to become a “licensed counselor.”

I don't know the current psychology program at the U of W, but when I looked into it years ago I found that they had a graduate program leading to a doctor’s degree (PhD) but no master’s degree program. They also told me that the graduate psychology program was not clinical (working with people) but was oriented around animal behavior studies. That was not something I wanted to study. Ask questions the programs offered by universities--the focus and content of classes.

The psychology degree is only one of many fields that prepare students to be counselors. Within a university there are many "colleges," each offering their own degree. Counselors may attend the school of social work and graduate with a BSW or continue for a MSW or Masters Degree in Social Work (but it is important to find out whether the program emphasis is on clinical work or on training administrators). The college of education often has degree programs for a variety of counseling specialties such as vocational counseling, substance abuse counseling, and school counseling.

The University of Washington, like many universities today, has come to depend on our excellent community college system. Most university students now complete the first two years of study at a community college before transferring to the university. This permits the university to focus their resources on upper-level classes and it permits students to stay closer to home and save tuition in their first two years of college study. If you are planning to transfer to a university, it is extremely important to work closely with a community college academic advisor to insure that all classes you take will be accepted by the university.

Finally, I believe many people get caught up in studying psychology and never consider whether it is a field of employment that they have a genuine aptitude for or whether there are job available in the field. Unfortunately, too many people are just fascinated and want to study psychology and human behavior. Most disturbing are those seeking answers to their own emotional problems instead of getting therapy. They seek knowledge for the wrong reasons and even though they get the degree, they may be psychologically inappropriate for work as therapists.

It is my impression that (just as in law school or journalism studies) many more people are training to be counselors than will ever find employment in the field. Others will find a counseling job and then spend their careers complaining that they (along with almost everyone else in the social services or human services field) are underpaid and under-appreciated. I spent seventeen years working as a chemical dependency counselor for the county public health department in a large inpatient treatment program and in two jails.  Would you enjoy working with chronic alcoholics and addicts in a jail setting?

Many graduates will try to make a living in private practice. Pick up the Yellow Pages in any major city and look for listings under "counselors," "social workers," and "hypnotherapists." There are pages of them! Starting a private practice is an extremely slow and discouraging process. Seldom, if ever, is there a steady supply of clients.

Being in private practice is running your own small business.  It requires business knowledge and business skills beyond those taught in counseling classes.  Many beginners start with the mistaken belief that having a yellow-pages business telephone listing, business cards and an office is enough.  Client will start coming in the door.  Won't they......?

You are on the right track. Good career planning requires you to ask questions of people who actually work in the field. Call up a few counselors in various areas of counseling; tell them that you are interest in finding out the advantages and disadvantages of their career field. Offer to meet them for a cup of coffee to talk about their work. Sure they are busy, but they spend so much time listening--they might enjoy a chance to talk for a change.

Sincerely,

Floyd Else, MA, LMHC, NCC, MAC

Discussion of difference between PhD and PsyD programs.

Requirements for becoming licensed or certified as a counselor: Information about the laws and procedures governing the practice of counseling.

Also see mental health counseling jobs and chemical dependency jobs.

All Psychology Schools is a site that features all the colleges and universities in the country that offer different kinds of degrees in psychology.  Remember, however, these schools will not include those offering degrees in counselor education, social work or other areas that prepare counselors.

           

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