Clinical counselor resume examples from 2026

A resume summary is your opening statement that highlights your strongest skills and top accomplishments. It is your chance to quickly let recruiters know who you are professionally - and why they should hire you for the clinical counselor role.

Step 1: Mention your current job title or the role you're pursuing.

Step 2: Include your years of experience in clinical counselor-related roles. Consider adding relevant company and industry experience as relevant to the job listing.

Step 3: Highlight your greatest accomplishments. Here is your chance to make sure your biggest wins aren't buried in your resume.

Step 4: Again, keep it short. Your goal is to summarize your experience and highlight your accomplishments, not write a paragraph.

Hiring managers spend under a minute reviewing resumes on average. This means your summary needs to demonstrate your value quickly and show why you are the perfect fit for the clinical counselor position.

Your Skills section is a place to list all relevant skills and abilities. Here is how to make the most of your skills section and make sure you have the right keywords:

1. Start with the job listing. Frequently, the keywords looked for by recruiters will be listed. Be careful to include all skills in the job listing you have experience with.
2. Consider all the software and tools you use on a daily basis. When in doubt, list them!
3. Make sure you use accurate and up to date terms for all the skills listed.

These five steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some clinical counselor interviews.

Your employment history is arguably one of the most important parts of your resume. It shows you have experience and foundation in your field to successfully master the clinical counselor position. Here is how to most effectively structure your work experience:

1. List your most recent experience first, followed by earlier roles in reverse chronological order. Employers care about your most recent experience the most.
2. Start with your job title, company name, city, and state on the left. Align dates in month and year format on the right-hand side.
3. Include only recent, relevant jobs.

Remember, your resume is not a list of responsibilities or a job description. This is your chance to show why you're good at your job and what you accomplished.

Use the XYZ formula for your work experience bullet points. Here's how it works:

• Use strong action verbs like Led, Built, or Optimized.
• Follow up with numbers when possible to support your results. How much did performance improve? How much revenue did you drive?
• Wrap it up by explaining the actions you took to achieve the result and how you made an impact.

This creates bullet points that read Achieved X, measured by Y, by doing Z.

Here are great bullet points from clinical counselor resumes:

The education section should display your highest degree first.

Place your education section appropriately on your resume. If you graduated over 5 years ago, this section should be at the bottom of your resume. If you just graduated and lack relevant work experience, the education section should go to the top.

If you have a bachelor's or master's degree, do not list your high school education. If your graduation year is more than 15-20 years ago, it's better not to include dates in this section.

Here are some examples of good education entries from clinical counselor resumes:

If you have any additional certifications or education-like achievements, add them to the education section.

Start simple. Include the full name of the certification. It's also good to mention the organization that issued the certification. Next, specify when you obtained the certification.

Here are some of the best certifications to have on clinical counselor resumes:

1. Certified Professional Counselor
2. Pastoral Counseling Certification
3. National Certified Counselor (NCC)
4. Certified Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC)
5. Master Addictions Counselor
6. Master Addiction Counselor (MAC)
7. Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (ADC)
8. Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor
9. Certified Domestic Violence Counselor (CDVC)