Substance Abuse Counselor

Millions of Americans deal with substance abuse on a daily basis. Whether they struggle with alcohol addiction, drug addiction, or other forms of addiction, dealing with substance abuse and addiction can have a toll on daily life. Waking up in the morning becomes harder when fighting addiction, and having a good night of sleep can be tough when the mind is stuck on a particular addiction. For the many people suffering from substance abuse, help is often necessary. Dealing with addiction on your own is tough, so seeking help is recommended.

Help with substance abuse can come in many different forms. Some individuals may choose to seek help through family and friends, while others may seek help in hypnotherapy or psychologists. However, many people are beginning to utilize the services of a substance abuse counselor as a cheaper, effective alternative.

A substance abuse counselor helps people struggling with substance abuse. That is, a substance abuse counselor works with individuals to help them overcome problems related to their substance abuse. Often times, a substance abuse counselor will work with a group in recovery programs. Other times, a substance abuse counselor will work with the individual to develop a personalized recovery program that includes working to fix substance abuse and all of the social, emotional, and mental problems that may come with it. In essence, a substance abuse counselor works to understand how substance abuse affects a person and the people around him or her.

Similar to a substance abuse counselor, an addiction counselor works with groups or individuals to develop a recovery program for a particular addiction. This addiction may include addition to substances such as alcohol and drugs, and for that reason addiction counselors are often substance abuse counselors as well. However, an addiction counselor generally focuses on behavioral disorders such as gambling, sex, or other forms of addiction. They may also work with individuals struggling with eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia nervosa.

Job opportunities for both a substance abuse counselor and addiction counselor are very positive. Government economists predict that jobs for this career will grow much faster than the average for all other jobs. In fact, substance abuse and addiction counseling is one of the 20 quickest growing careers. Legislation in many states have created jobs for substance abuse and addiction counselors, leading many drug users to get treatment with a counselor, instead of going to jail. However, the pay is relatively low, and the career is very stressful and very emotionally draining. After all, to help others through their problems requires a counselor to get personal and understand the problems of their clients. This understanding helps substance abuse counselors and addiction counselors be the stable presence of support for their clients, no matter how large the problem is. Additionally, the job can be very tough, as their clientele often have only a 20 percent success rate. The recidivism of clients can be heartbreaking to both the client and the counselor.

That being said, becoming a substance abuse counselor or addiction counselor will allow an individual to help others in need. By listening to their clients’ problems and developing strategies to help their clients through a tough period of abuse or addiction, these counselors provide a service that is necessary in a world of addiction like ours.

Types of Counselor Jobs

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, counseling jobs are on the rise. The growth of counseling jobs is a result of many different factors, ranging from changes in culture to court decisions about substance abuse. For the many people who decide that they want to help people for a living, counseling jobs are very attractive. Becoming a counselor allows you to help people through their issues and problems through conflict resolution, strategy building, and often something as simple as lending an ear to listen to their problems. That being said, counseling jobs also require a large amount of emotional commitment, especially in the case of school or guidance counselors.

Generally speaking, counselor jobs consist of working in a community and providing counseling services, rehabilitation services, and support services. Depending on the type of counselor job (and there are many), responsibilities may range from dealing with couples, children, and families to working with professionals seeking career advice. Counselor jobs require the counselor to recognize the problems of their clientele and discover and recommend ways to fix these problems.

As mentioned earlier, there are many different types of counselor jobs. Here are some of the most common types:

1. School or Guidance Counselors

These counselor jobs generally deal with students and their future career. Guidance counselors also counsel students in their personal, social, and educational lives. They are responsible for promoting the talent and potential of each student, while evaluating the abilities, interests, and personalities of students.

2. Career Counselors

For the many people requiring career counseling, a number that continues to grow today, career counselors work to help individuals with their career decisions. They may also evaluate their client’s education, work history, interests, and personality traits to find a job or career that best fits them.

3. Rehabilitation Counselors

Rehabilitation counselor jobs are seeing high levels of growth. Generally speaking, rehabilitation counselors help people with both physical and emotional disabilities. They help their client’s ability to live independently by using a number of different strategies and working with other service providers, such as a physical therapist.

4. Mental Health Counselors

Mental health counselor jobs consist of working with individuals or families to treat mental and emotional disorders such as depression, substance abuse, stress, and sadness. In addition, they may help with career issues and mental health issues.

5. Family Counselors

Family counselors often work with couples, individuals, or entire families. They utilize specific techniques and theories treat disorders. They may also work with spouses in couples therapy or with children of a family to work out family problems.

6. Substance Abuse Counselors

Substance abuse counselors do not only work with individuals on issues with alcohol or drug addiction, but may also work with behavioral disorders such as gambling problems or eating disorders. Their job outlook is growing at a rate much higher than average, likely due to the increased awareness of substance addiction and insurance companies’ preference for counseling over psychologist or psychiatrists.

Christian Counselor

Christians live in a secular world. Every day, believers struggle with outside temptations to commit sins, bringing these Christians a set of worries that secular people do not struggle with. With their set of beliefs, Christians experience problems unique to people of the same religion. While secular individuals may struggle with problems dealing with social, mental health, and family issues, Christians struggle with all of the same problems, and spiritual problems as well. It is because of this fact that Christian Counselors exist.

Christian counselors, similar to normal counselors, have a goal of helping their patients overcome their problems, find meaning in life, and grow to become healthy productive individuals. Similarly, Christian counselors are also required to obtain a graduate degree and gain experience with counseling. A Christian counselor, like other counselors, aim to resolve conflicts between people and their society. If a counselor is Christian, he or she is not necessarily a Christian counselor. The distinction is made through the job description of the counselor.

Christian counselors are different for a number of reasons. This difference is mostly due to their clientele, consisting of Christians. As mentioned earlier, Christians struggle with a unique set of problems and, as such, Christian counselors use different methods and values to help their patients deal with those problems. Some other differences include:

• Christian counselors aims to recognize the areas where a Christian may be living against God’s will, and help the individual properly submit to God’s will. This allows the Christian to live life as God intended them to, instead of living “in the world”.

• Christian counselors work with a standard set by the Bible. To them, the Bible is the ultimate truth, and all work done by the Christian counselor and all advice given to Christians must meet this standard.

• A Christian counselor may function as part of a church or a certain denomination. They may also serve the wider community as a public service

• A Christian counselor may also utilize motivational speaking. These counselors may write a book or preach to a larger amount of people, reaching more lives.

• A Christian counselor must apply the basic teachings of Christianity to psychotherapy to create an experience that is mentally, physically, and spiritually beneficial for the patient

Whether a Christian counselor holds sessions one-on-one with patients in private practice or works in a church, Christian counseling can offer support and healing for Christians requiring help with certain issues. Living in a world designed for them to fail, Christians often have a need for a specific type of counseling. Through biblical standards, basic teachings of Christianity, and the love of Christ, a Christian counselor can offer the spiritual counseling that a Christian needs in a sinful world. Seeking the help of a professional may at first seem unnecessary, but counseling can be beneficial to all individuals, Christian or not. Christian counselors, however, provide a shoulder to rely on, especially when belief and faith are in question.

Professional Counselor

People face many issues on a daily basis. These issues, or problems, can be issues with the family, issues with mental health, issues with a professional career and direction, or many more. Some of these people will choose to find a counselor to help them through these issues. However, there are many counselors that claim to be professional counselors, yet do not hold the accreditation of being a licensed professional counselor.

If you choose to find a counselor to help you through your problems, whether it be for martial issues or mental health issues, be sure to find a licensed professional counselor. This distinction is a specific license given to mental health professionals, and separates professionally licensed counselors with counselors that practice without a professional license. To find a counselor that is a licensed professional counselor is to ensure that the counseling you receive is coming from a licensed professional, an individual who has met the requirements of the Licensed Professional Counselor Board.

The requirements of obtaining the license vary from state to state depending on the jurisdiction, but generally includes requirements of:

• A master’s or doctoral degree in a counseling field, or related field

• Completion of course work such as human growth development, human behavior, counseling theories, counseling methods, and social, family, or cultural issues.

• A graduate program that includes a practicum experience that is primarily counseling. The practicum is required to be at least 300 clock hours and at least 100 clock hours of client contact.

• The passing of the National Counselor Exam and a state jurisprudence exam.

• An internship with 3,000 clock hours and 1,500 direct client contact clock hours, usually completed in a period of time extending past 18 months.

So how can you find a counselor that is considered a licensed professional? Try these steps to find a counselor that fits your needs:

• Visit the American Counseling Association’s website and search for their directory to find a licensed professional counselor.

• You can contact your state’s counselor licensing board on the American Counseling Association’s website and ask for accredited counselors in your area and the field that you are seeking counseling in.

• Search on the Internet for counselors in your field of interest and within driving distance. Also remember to check for reviews of a particular counselor, and make sure that you confirm that the counselor is a licensed professional counselor.

• Others choose to find a counselor by asking their friends and family for recommendations. Doing so will allow you to get a personal opinion of the counselor from a source that you trust.

Finding a counselor is relatively simple. The key is finding a counselor that fits your specific needs, and is accessible for a counseling session when you are in need. Choosing a licensed professional counselor ensures that you are receiving counseling from a licensed professional specializing in the counseling of people just like yourself!

Guidance Counselor

Students, when going through middle school and high school, are often focused on issues that they themselves consider important. Students may focus on their relationships or popularity among their peers, stress over their sports performance, or worry about their grades. While each of these issues seem important to the student, none are as important as their future. Many students possess the personal drive and ambition to plan ahead and think about their professional future. However, most students require guidance in the matter. For these students, each school employs a number of guidance counselors.

A guidance counselor, also known as a school counselor, is responsible for the development and growth of students. Generally speaking, students will be required to visit their guidance counselor several times a school year, to ensure that they are moving in the right direction, that they are keeping out of trouble, and that they are focusing on school and their future. Students, however, are very sensitive. Many students may think that a guidance counselor is intruding on their personal space, and that they have no right to impede on their personal life. Guidance counselors are expected to understand this fact, and have to continue to do their job despite what their students may think of them.

Guidance counselors play a large role in the development of students as intellectual, productive human beings. As such, few careers are as rewarding, and frustrating at the same time, as the job of a guidance counselor. Guiding and structuring the lives of students leads to an emotional commitment that many other jobs do not experience. Because of this emotional commitment job requirement, guidance counselors require a significant amount of patience in dealing with their students. Generally speaking, guidance counselors are responsible for:

• Managing the organizational process the reflect the needs of the school and its students

• Working to provide their students with the skills they will need to succeed in college and into the real world

• Encourage their students to work towards their maximum educational and professional potential

• Encourage students to work hard in school and stay out of trouble

• Match colleges or programs with students to meet their specific talent and potential

• Preventing violence by working with students and faculty

• Prepare students through adjustments and skill development to match the dynamic society of today

A typical guidance counselor spends one third of his or her time counseling with students and their parents. As such, guidance counselors are required to be proficient in communication, especially with teenagers. They also spend a large amount of their time with tests aimed at evaluating the educational potential and specific needs of a student. While guidance counselors are an asset to the students they serve, the students also offer much to their counselors, leading to an overall job satisfaction among guidance counselors that ranks among the highest of all professions. Certainly a rewarding career, the job of a guidance counselor is one that allows an individual to help many others through guidance and encouragement.

Job Counselors

Counselors are professionals that work in many different community settings, offering counseling and support for many different areas. Some counselors may work exclusively with children, while others may work primarily with couples therapy. Other counselors may work with mental health disorders and addiction, while others still may work with professional and career counseling for adults and young professionals. Counseling has become a large part of American society, as having a professional offer support and advice on serious life issues can be of great benefit.

Generally speaking, counselors are required to obtain a master’s degree to become a licensed counselor. These professionals typically work in their own offices, offering confidentiality to their patients. This confidentiality allows their patients to confidently voice their real feelings, issues, and problems, and helps counselors do their job the way it was meant to be done: with complete honesty.

An individual deciding to become a counselor has many different options. As mentioned before, counselors work in many different fields to meet the many different emotional, professional, social, and mental health needs that people deal with on a daily basis. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 665,500 counselor jobs in 2008. The majority of counselors work as educational, vocational, and school counselors. The rest of counselors were distributed among the following fields, in order from highest employment to lowest employment: rehabilitation counselors, mental health counselors, substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and other counselor.

The employment outlook for this career is generally positive. Individuals deciding to become a counselor will likely find many job opportunities, as the growth for the job is faster than the average for all other occupations. However, certain fields are projected to grow faster than others:

• growth is found in the employment of substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors. This growth is a result of society’s increased knowledge about the significance of addiction, and that the treatment for addiction is treatment programs, not jail time.

• growth of educational, vocational, and school counselors is also expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations. This is due to the increased focus on career and professional counseling, as well as the state requirement for all schools to have school or guidance counselors.

• the largest growth is found in mental health counseling. This is likely due to insurance companies recommending counselors as a replacement for expensive psychologists and psychiatrists.

• growth for rehabilitation counselors are also expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations, likely due to the increase of the elderly population, as the elderly are more likely to become disabled, or injured.

• growth for marriage and family therapists are also experiencing a faster growth an average, likely due to the recognition of the professional world of the occupation. Family counseling and marriage counseling are becoming more popular as help for family or marital problems.

Becoming a counselor allows you to help others directly by hearing their problems and coming up with resolutions for them. Few jobs are as rewarding as a career in counseling; its attractiveness only bolstered by the positive job outlook for counseling jobs in the future.

Online Counseling

As society continues to move towards a society completely reliant on technology, more and more professionals are choosing to rely on the Internet for work. When considering the troubled state of the American economy, it becomes even more attractive to bring work to the Internet. Lawyers have made themselves available to potential clients on the Internet, offering advice free of charge for the potential of obtaining new clients. Physicians offer health advice, free of charge, to attract more patients into their clinics and hospitals. It should not be surprising, then, that many counselors have chosen to become virtual counselors.

A virtual counselor is a professional counselor, specializing in psychotherapy for a variety of different things and participating in online counseling. Online counseling with a virtual counselor has become more desirable, as it provides convenience and offers personal counseling at the privacy of your own home. Online counseling can span many different areas of counseling, including marriage, divorce, family, personal, or professional counseling. A virtual counselor, unlike other counselors, may specialize in a number of different areas to meet the many reasons people may need counseling. Finding a virtual counselor is also very simple, often only requiring a search on the Internet. There are also many benefits to using a virtual counselor instead of a traditional counselor. These benefits include:

1. Convenience

As mentioned earlier, the convenience of online counseling is unmatched. Webcam and conference technology allows you to choose from many different types of online counseling, and choose one that fits you the best. Often times, beginning an online counseling session with a virtual counselor is as simple as clicking on a button. After all, nothing is as convenient as sitting in front of your own computer in your own room receiving counseling advice from a professional counselor.

2. Price

Some virtual counselors offer a primary consulting session free of charge, and only charge a fee for further counseling. When charging a fee, many counseling services on the Internet will be much cheaper than visiting a counselor in person. This may be because of the low overhead costs associated with running a counseling service on the Internet, as opposed to having to rent an office, pay employees, and furnishing in a counselor’s office.

3. Options

Finding a specific type of counselor can be tough. However, in online counseling, you have the opportunity to quickly and easily search on the Internet for a counselor that meets your needs and that you can be comfortable with. That being said, be certain to check for legitimate reviews or ask for a primary counseling session to ensure that the virtual counselor you chose does indeed meet your needs.

4. Flexibility

Online counselors often have much more flexible hours, many even have their phone lines open at both late and early hours. As such, clients enjoy much more flexibility in their counseling appointments. This opens the opportunity for quick counseling sessions when you need it the most.

Family Counselor

Families are the cornerstones of the American society. They help individuals get through the day, holding the promise of a hug from your 9-year old daughter after work. They live together in houses, supporting the economy and building communities in their local towns and cities. Families are the essential building blocks of the American population as well, being the standard for all adolescents and young adults to strive for. There is only a certain amount of satisfaction an individual can achieve on his or her own. Beyond that individual satisfaction coming from say, a job promotion, individuals may seek more satisfaction by quenching the human desire to reproduce and provide for a family.

When a family is developed, it often becomes the most important thing in the lives of the people involved. For example, if a couple decides to get married and decides to have a baby 2 years after marriage, the birth of the baby would introduce the idea of a “family.” The husband may then work harder to provide for himself, his wife, and his newborn baby. This importance also spawns pressures — pressures that often lead to the splitting of a family.

Preventing a family meltdown is no easy task. Fortunately, with demand comes supply. In this case, the demand for a family conflict resolution leads to the presence of family counselors. A family counselor is a professional type of psychotherapist specializing in the counseling of couples, children, and family units as a whole. If your family is experiencing functional difficulties, extreme emotional reactions, or a breakdown in communication, a family counselor can likely help. Family counselors are professionally trained to deal with problems common among families, as well as being well trained in developing conflict resolution strategies. Additionally, family counselors are able to effectively recognize the conflicts and problems of the family. A family counseling session can save your family in many ways, depending on the problems that your family is facing:

• The counselor can help quell your family’s excessive emotional expressions such as anger, fear, depression, or jealously

• The counselor can restore healthy communication between family members through communicative strategies

• The counselor can change tedious, burdensome activities with the family into more routine, enjoyable activities

• The counselor can help family members drifting away from the family to be restored into the family

• The counselor can help the entire family deal with problems such as substance abuse and traumatic experiences

• The counselor may help children with the specific types of problems they experience, including problems at school and among peers

Keeping your family together should be your top priority. Families represent the essence of life, being productive enough to keep yourself alive and extending that productivity to provide for, love, and protect a family — even if it means sitting through a family counseling session every once in a while to smooth out the rough patches.

Marriage Counselor

Marriages are the most common form of broken contract. While lovebirds may choose to get married while their infatuation is still present, marriage is, in fact, a binding contract. It offers both spouses benefits that would be impossible without the union of marriage, something that homosexuals are unable to take advantage of. Why is it, then, that so many marriages end up broken? Why is it that over half of the marriages taking place in the United States end up in divorce?

The easiest reason to point at would be that both the husband and the wife are humans, and as humans, we all make mistakes. It is how a couple reacts to these mistakes, and where the blame falls, that determines the compatibility of a married couple. In cases where marriage seems to be on the rocks, couples may choose to turn to a marriage counselor. While one spouse may choose to visit a marriage counselor, the other spouse may deny that they need one. It is then up to one spouse to get the other to commit to fixing the relationship, and turning to a counselor for help.

Marriage counselors are responsible for mending broken relationships between spouses. Also known as couples therapy, marriage counselers are considered a type of psychotherapists. Choosing to go to a marriage counselor is a decision that must be made between both the husband and the wife, as both are required to be present. A marriage counselor can help to solve the conflicts that may be causing problems in the marriage. A marriage counselor is generally required to have both graduate and postgraduate degrees; many marriage counselors choose to become accredited by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Generally speaking, a marriage counselor is reponsible for:

- Being able to recognize conflicts between spouses, whether it be family, work, financial, or love related

- Helping the couple resolve said conflicts and grow together in a relationship, even if they visit the marriage counselor short term

- Teaching conflict resolution skills to the couple so that they can deal with problems away from the marriage counselor office

- Working with individual spouses for personal issues such as anger management or other issues that may affect the family or marriage

- Working with entire families, offering counseling to each member of the family and bringing the family together.

Marriage counselors can show couples and families a different viewpoint on a tough situation. For example, a family may choose to visit a marriage counselor for a possible divorce. The marriage counselor would work with both the children and the couple, often separately. With the professional help of a counselor well-versed in tough family situations, a family in distress just might be saved. Through conflict resolution skills and recognition of problems, a marriage counselor can make the difference between angry miscommunication and healthy family living.