If you have a genuine passion for helping people and are the person in your group of friends who offers unbiased advice, regardless whether it’s about relationships, life decisions or even dressing up choices, there is a way you can make a career out of that passion. Having a career in counseling can be a very rewarding profession, both financially and mentally.
However, you can’t just proclaim yourself a counselor and start having sessions with patients. You can’t just rely on your gift of looking at things from a certain perspective, you need to go through either an online course or traditional schooling in order to get a certificate. The certificate does not only assure patients that you are qualified to be a counselor, you need to have it for legal reasons as well. In every state, you simply cannot practice counseling without having a certificate.
As aforementioned, there are two ways to acquire a counseling certificate – online and traditionally. In this article, I’m going to compare both, and give you some information so you can decide which one is a better option for you.
Online courses are a newer trend, but they have quickly become very popular for multiple justifying reasons. They are generally a cheaper way to get a certificate and obtain the skills required to become available on the job market. In other words – you won’t be “slaving” off to the banks due to big college loans.
Furthermore, online courses are flexible, meaning that you can take them whenever you want and have the time. This also means that you can either finish a course in 6 months, for example, up to 12. This is important when choosing, because you might already be employed or engaged in many other activities, so you will have the freedom to do them while parallely studying.
Traditional education on the other hand, is costlier than online education, but includes some benefits that the online one doesn’t. For example, a college degree will surely be worth more than an online certificate. But you will need to spend more time and money getting that degree, and that might simply not be possible for everyone.
There are thousands of moms and dads who are busy with their children and already work that don’t have the time to dedicate to college, so they rely on online courses. Traditional education can offer multiple courses, and therefore, broaden your employment options.
Conclusion
Whichever path you decide to go, you can get the qualifications required to start your own counseling career. However, the choice you make will be mainly dependent on many personal factors like your budget, your spare time and your end-goal. Invest in yourself, you certainly won’t regret it.
Save
Save
