What are the pros and cons of being a mental health counselor?

Pros:

• As a mental health counselor, you get to help clients

  This is often cited as a top pro of the profession. Mental health counselors provide critical mental health assistance to people in vulnerable mental states. This is a sensitive job that takes skills and compassion to perform. Clients, in general, are extremely grateful for the services they provide. This can lead to a mental health counselor feeling very fulfilled.

• Flexible work schedule

  Mental health counselors often have the opportunity to create flexible work schedules. This holds particularly true for mental health counselors that start their own private practice. Counselors with private practices can choose their own working days and hours within reason, and also determine the client load they want to take on.

• Wide variety of working environments

  While opening a private practice is perhaps the most ideal working environment for a mental health counselor they also can have the opportunity to work in many other interesting mental health spaces, such as:

  • Hospitals

  • Mental hospitals

  • Medical clinics

  • Mental health clinics

  • Rehab centers

  • Social service entities

  • Government agencies

  • Academic environments (colleges and universities)

  • Corporations and private companies

  Mental health counselors have a myriad of choices in terms of working environments, making it somewhat easy to find one where they fit best.

• Different clients

  Being a mental health counselor means you often have the opportunity to meet and help many different types of people. Your clients might have vast differences in terms of age, gender, or background. This helps keep the work interesting and also gives you the chance to expand your mental health skill set with different areas of the population.

Cons:

• Mental health counselors can experience burnout at a high rate

  Many mental health counselors have heavy client loads resulting in them feeling overwhelmed. Those who do not run their own private practice might find this element to be stressful, tiresome, and cause burnout. Some in the field often need to see a therapist of their own to help them cope with their demanding jobs.

• Loneliness issues

  Though being a mental health counselor is certainly a profession with a lot of interaction with people, one-on-one, and groups, it can still be a lonely field because counselors are there for their clients. This means it can consist of a lot of one-sided communication since a counselor's clients do not get to listen to their struggles.

• Difficult and expensive education requirements

  Becoming a mental health counselor can be very challenging. You must earn a bachelor's degree which takes four years to complete and then earn a master's degree which can take anywhere from one to two additional years to complete. Not only is the schooling intense, but this can also result in having to pay a significantly large amount of money for education.