Counseling Career Path: Required Education and Certifications Explained
This post contains affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.
A while back, I went to a career day at a high school and spoke about getting into the mental health private practice field. To high schoolers, the road there may have seemed long, with four years for a Bachelor’s and then two–three years for Master’s and then another two or more years to get licensed. Even though a lot of school may be involved, there are so many other skills to learn along the way and so many creative, entrepreneurial opportunities that many are not aware of.
Whether you are still in high school figuring out what road to take or already have a Master’s working in an agency, here are some basic steps to become a licensed therapist and to open a mental health private practice.
If you are looking for the best tools, websites and products that I’ve used to build a mental health private practice head over here.
Education
BACHELORS
Any major will do for a bachelors, but there are some prerequisites for getting into some Master's programs, but you don’t NEED to have a degree in psychology or a related field to get into a Master’s program for counseling.
MASTERS
There are various master's programs to choose from, depending on what you want to specialize in. For example, if you want to do couples counseling or family counseling, you may want a program for marriage and family. You can do that type of therapy by doing another program as well. I got my Master’s in School and Community Counseling. I have many coworkers that are social workers and got their Master’s in a social work program. Think of what type of demographic you want to work with when choosing a master's program.
LICENSE
After you complete your Master's program, you’ll have to work on becoming licensed. During this time, you will be working in the field as a therapist, but will need to be directly supervised by someone signing off on your face-to-face hours (usually around 3000) and getting supervision hours in. Once you get all of your face-to-face and supervision hours in, you can take a test to get licensed. Some of the most common licenses are: Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Mental Health Counselor.
You can open your own private practice after getting your license. Once you are licensed you are able to bill insurances and do therapy without a supervisor to sign off on your sessions.
APRN
As an APRN, you can prescribe medications. To go this route, you would begin this path after your Bachelor’s instead of a Master’s.
PSY. D
Doctorate level. This will open a lot of doors in your career.
Important Skills
There are a lot of important skills that are not taught in school, so it will be your job to learn them yourself. These skills are imperative, as they will either make or break you owning your own private practice. Of course, you can outsource some of them, but it’s a good idea to have a basic knowledge of the following skills below -
Marketing
Website Building
Blogging
Business Ownership
Accounting
Networking
Laws and Policy
Real Estate (renting or owning an office)
Electronic Health Records (I use Simple Practice, read my review here.)
Insurance and Liability Insurance
Lifestyle
Owning your own business and private practice is a big emotional investment, just because of the nature of this specific work. Therefore, creating a lifestyle to prevent burnout is essential.
Self-Care
Awareness of own challenges and being able to work through them
Support System (private practice can be lonely)
I built my own community with other therapists in our office suite. Having a support system has to be an intentional thing. It’s not handed to you with a supervisor and coworkers like it would be at an agency.
Benefits
I love having my own private practice and don’t regret for one day leaving my agency job. Here are some of the things I’ve really enjoyed doing on my own.
Make your own schedule
No boss
Room for creativity
No income cap
Autonomy
Pick your location and who you surround self with
Pick your specialty and the type of clients you want to work with
Choose your own training and develop your passion
Growth opportunity, having others work for you, writing books, e-courses, speaking events, retreats, etc.
The possibilities are endless!