Automatically apply for jobs with Zippia

Upload your resume to get started.

Child and family counselor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Sam Terrazas Ph.D.,

Sam Terrazas Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical child and family counselor skills. We ranked the top skills for child and family counselors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 18.7% of child and family counselor resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a child and family counselor needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 child and family counselor skills for your resume and career

2. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how child and family counselors use mental health:

Conduct comprehensive mental health assessment.
Consult with additional service providers in the military and community to include mental health and social services.

3. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how child and family counselors use community resources:

Appropriate referrals and warm transfers to military and community resources according to the needs of families and service members are facilitated.
Establish and maintain working relationships with community resources both on and off the military installation.

4. Child Care

Child care means the care, supervision, or guidance of a child by a person other than the child's parent, guardian, or custodian for periods of less than 24 hours. Childcare could be either center-based such as a daycare or a nursery or home-based care such as nannies or family daycare.

Here's how child and family counselors use child care:

Contribute to and assist with the Child Care Resource & Referral database and Community Resource guides.
Research and development of procedures to continually improve child care standards within Polk County.

5. Child Development

Here's how child and family counselors use child development:

Engage with children at child development centers, assisting staff with behavioral modification, therapeutic intervention, language and skill building.
Supported and counseled military-connected school-age children during the Summer Youth Program at the Child Development Center during the summer of 2016.

6. Law Enforcement

Law enforcement is the task of certain members of the community who work together to uphold the law by identifying, preventing, rehabilitating, or prosecuting others who break society's laws and norms. The phrase refers to the police, the judiciary, and the correctional system.

Here's how child and family counselors use law enforcement:

Maintained liaisons with school personnel, law enforcement, service providers, and employers.
Worked collaboratively with community resources such as attorneys, service providers, and law enforcement.

Choose from 10+ customizable child and family counselor resume templates

Build a professional child and family counselor resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your child and family counselor resume.

7. Stress Management

Stress management can help control the amount of stress on a human mind. Stress management methods include; exercising, maintaining a proper diet, medication, carve out some time for hobbies, take enough sleep, spend time with your family, and practice meditation. These methods help people live a healthy and productive lifestyle.

Here's how child and family counselors use stress management:

Deliver educational presentations on stress management/relaxation, reintegration and a large variety of topics.
Address relationships, stress management, grief, depression, and occupational issues.

8. Family Life

Here's how child and family counselors use family life:

Provide consultation for students and families participating in the Military and Family Life Counseling Program.
Develop a plan for reducing stress within the family system and enhancing family life with specific, measurable behavioral treatment goals.

9. Therapeutic Interventions

Here's how child and family counselors use therapeutic interventions:

Worked on clinical teams, which included case management and therapeutic intervention.
Provide case management and liaison support from a multi-systemic perspective, engaging community services to provide collaborative therapeutic interventions.

11. Foster Care

Here's how child and family counselors use foster care:

Authorized consequential protective actions when necessary such as hospitalizations, foster care or protective custody.
Coordinate services to ensure the safety of children while in foster care and adoptions and towards permanency planning for the children.

12. Crisis Management

Here's how child and family counselors use crisis management:

Conducted intensive in-home family therapy and crisis management within the Richmond metropolitan area.
Direct crisis management with runaway youth in a 24-hour emergency shelter.

13. Child Abuse

When a child who is under 18 is mistreated by an adult, it is considered child abuse. There are many forms of intentional harm and mistreatment for example physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, medical abuse, and neglect in providing adequate basic life necessities.

Here's how child and family counselors use child abuse:

Investigated alleged cases of child abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect.
Managed emergency child abuse and neglect calls for children 0-18 - years.

14. Behavior Management

Here's how child and family counselors use behavior management:

Coordinated psycho-educational groups and educational classes such as parenting skills, anger management, behavior management, etc.
Provided supervision of client visitations, observation and assessment, informal counseling, behavior management, and crisis stabilization services.

15. Parent Support

Here's how child and family counselors use parent support:

Provided individual and family therapy Facilitated weekly group therapy and monthly parent support groups.
Facilitated a parent support for the Family Preservation Program.

5 Child And Family Counselor resume examples

Build a professional child and family counselor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 5+ resume templates to create your child and family counselor resume.

Create my resume

Build a professional resume in minutes using this template.

What skills help Child And Family Counselors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on child and family counselor resumes?

Sam Terrazas Ph.D.

Professor and Academic Chair Department of Social Work, The University of Texas Permian Basin

Social work is a profession rooted in professional ethics and requires a wide range of skills that vary depending upon the role a social worker holds in an organization. In general, social work skills that stand out on a resume are skills gained through specialized training and certifications, skills in culturally responsive practice, proficiency in languages, and skills in assessment and evaluation.

What soft skills should all child and family counselors possess?

Sam Terrazas Ph.D.

Professor and Academic Chair Department of Social Work, The University of Texas Permian Basin

Social workers need to be skillful in documentation in writing case notes, assessments, and good managers of their time. Managing a client's case requires social workers to be diligent and ensure that all required documentation is completed on time and within professional standards. Social workers must also be effective communicators understanding their own power and the multiple professional roles they hold.

What hard/technical skills are most important for child and family counselors?

Sam Terrazas Ph.D.

Professor and Academic Chair Department of Social Work, The University of Texas Permian Basin

Social workers practice in various areas of practice and organizational auspices that may differ in the hard/technical skills that are most important. In general, the hard/technical skills most important can be categorized based on the level of education-BSW (Bachelors of Social Work) versus MSW (Masters of Social Work).

BSW's practice in a range of organizations providing various types of services; however, in general practice in the realm of case management that requires that ability to demonstrate cultural responsiveness, develop an alliance with clients, apply NASW and a state's ethics and professional standards of practice, conduct assessments, and to develop plans to meet a client's goals.

MSW's practice in many areas such as administration, clinical, public policy and advocacy, child welfare, public safety, and health care. Each of these practice areas requires specific technical skills; however, in general, MSW's are trained to assess individuals, families, groups, and communities. To that end, MSW's must understand the cultural context and how socio/economic local, state, federal policies impact social welfare problems such as poverty, intimate partner violence, and mental illness. MSW's must possess strong engagement skills/therapeutic alliance-building, diagnostic/evaluation skills, ethical application of interventions and therapeutic approaches, and advocacy skills.

What child and family counselor skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Ines Jindra

Associate Professor of Social Work, BASW Program Director, Idaho State University

With a BASW in social work, you are eligible for generalist, entry-level positions. In order to maximize your salary potential, look out for training opportunities, and consider going back for an MSW degree in social work a few years down the line (since for many social work positions, you will need an MSW degree).

What type of skills will young child and family counselors need?

M Elizabeth Bowman Ph.D.

Instructor, Gallaudet University

Social work graduates will need an ongoing understanding of cultural competence, explicitly incorporating a global perspective of the social work field and systems of oppression domestically and internationally. Students should be prepared by emphasizing cultural competency training within BSW and MSW programs, with exposure to varying cultures through the international school of social work partnerships. Additionally, social workers are expected to be aware of and competent in using technology, both for record-keeping and internal agency process, and for supporting case management (i.e., internet searches for resources, research for evidence-based practice, technology education, and support of clients).

What technical skills for a child and family counselor stand out to employers?

Dr. Chantrelle Varnado-Johnson

Assistant Professor & Coordinator of School Counseling Program, Nicholls State University

In addition, recent graduates will need to be familiarized with using telehealth platforms due to more remote learning needs. Plus, recent graduates will need to familiarize themselves with their basic facilitative skills to establish rapport quickly to have brief sessions. Also, I would recommend students receive competency-based credentials and become licensed in at least one additional state. Lastly, I would recommend students familiarize themselves with crisis intervention and trauma counseling.

In sum, graduates have to be aware of how their roles may shift due to job displacement, furloughs, and restructuring. Due to new challenges presented in the COVID-19 pandemic, graduates have to be prepared to address the possibility of being faced with high caseloads, secondary traumatization, role conflict/ambiguity, and tension in the workplace. As a precautionary measure, neophytes should adopt a holistic self-care regimen and professional network to ameliorate the mental health condition.

Do you want to know more?

List of child and family counselor skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a child and family counselor resume and required skills for a child and family counselor to have include:

Social Work
Mental Health
Community Resources
Child Care
Child Development
Law Enforcement
Stress Management
Family Life
Therapeutic Interventions
Social Services
Foster Care
Crisis Management
Child Abuse
Behavior Management
Parent Support
Conflict Resolution

DCF
Group Therapy
Behavioral Issues
Family Therapy Sessions
Substance Abuse
Crisis Intervention
Group Supervision
Action Planning
Eating Disorders
Brief Therapy
Mental Illness
Domestic Violence
Risk Youth
Medicaid
Individual Therapy
Protective Services

Anger Management
Court Orders
Community Agencies
Court Hearings
Children Ages
Crisis Situations
Sexual Abuse
Service Plan
Clinical Assessments
Behavioral Techniques
Interventions
at-Risk Children
Court System
Military Children

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse community and social services jobs