What is a Counselor Internship?

Counselor internship performs and supervises individual and group counseling. As a counselor intern, you can work in schools and universities. Your work revolves around supervision, consultations, crisis intervention, and providing psychological assessment, appropriate referrals, and intakes. You are allowed to provide clinical supervision to a practicum student, maintain supervision notes, provide lectures and outreach workshops to the campus community.

You are also in charge of representing the department at public relations events, attend staff meetings, training seminars, and supervision weekly. As a counselor internship, you will be required to interact professionally with students and staff and participate in the training and supervision of students, with an open mind for growth. You must also utilize psychodiagnostic assessment procedures.

Strong knowledge of basic skills in counseling is essential for this role as well as the ability to communicate excellently well, remain calm in a psychological situation, stress management, and time management. The average salary of a counselor internship yearly is $28,000. The educational qualification is a bachelor's degree in psychology or other related disciplines.

What Does a Counselor Internship Do

There are certain skills that many counselor interns have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed compassion, interpersonal skills and listening skills.

Learn more about what a Counselor Internship does

How To Become a Counselor Internship

If you're interested in becoming a counselor internship, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 68.6% of counselor interns have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 19.5% of counselor interns have master's degrees. Even though most counselor interns have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Counselor Internship

Top Counselor Internship Jobs Near You

Counselor Internship Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a counselor internship can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as counselor, progress to a title such as therapist and then eventually end up with the title director of social services.

Top Careers Before Counselor Internship

Internship (51,064 Jobs)

19.9 %

Volunteer (9,583 Jobs)

9.4 %

Research Assistant (51,080 Jobs)

6.8 %

Top Careers After Counselor Internship

Counselor (77,536 Jobs)

13.8 %

Internship (51,064 Jobs)

11.2 %

Therapist (159,770 Jobs)

10.8 %

Average Salary for a Counselor Internship

Counselor Interns in America make an average salary of $45,500 per year or $22 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $65,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $31,000 per year.

Average Counselor Internship Salary

$45,500 Yearly

$21.88 hourly

$31,00010%

$45,000Median

$65,00090%

See More Salary Information

What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Counselor Internship

The role of a counselor internship includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general counselor internship responsibilities:

1 intake interview / psychosocial assessments with prospective members inform members of door programs
Direct supervision of clients, screening and assessing clients for residential services,
Direct supervision of clients, screening and assessing clients for residential services,

There are several types of counselor internship, including:

Counselor

Role:

While there are several different types of counselors, in general they spend their time helping people overcome and understand specific problems. Although, not every counselor is going to have a couch, as depicted by TV, most do work in private office settings.

The scope of the types of counselors seems to be never-ending. From school counselors to family and marriage counselors, and even mental health counselors, people who go into this field have a range of what area they want to focus on.

Average Salary: $36,225
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Residential Counselor

Role:

Residential counselors work in social care facilities such as homeless shelters, rehabilitation centers, retirement homes, and the like. Their main responsibility is to maintain the structure of the environment or program and oversee the residents' daily activities.

Residential counselors are typically expected to have a degree in psychology, social work, or a related field. They keep an eye on the mental and emotional state of the people under their care and make sure everyone lives by the rules of the facility. They give a hand with transportation and come up with fun and engaging activities for the residents to do while spending quality time together.

As a residential counselor, your responsibilities do not revolve around generating profit, and this is reflected in the median annual salary of the position, which is $29,592. This is a bit less than half of what the average yearly living expenses amount to across the U.S. Caring for each other apparently is not the most lucrative business. It is, however, very rewarding on a personal level.

Average Salary: $34,117
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Youth Counselor

Role:

Becoming a youth counselor may be one of the hardest things you ever do in life. But not because the educational road to get there is long and strenuous. Rather, it's the day-to-day stuff that may get you down.

As a youth counselor, you'll spend a lot of your day interacting with children and teenagers. More times than not, these kids have been put through the emotional ringer. You'll have cases that deal with childhood depression, ADHD, and even abuse.

While it's a tough career, the work you're doing is so important. Watching those kids' mental health improve and being a support for them is especially rewarding.

Average Salary: $36,754
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Counselor Internship Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active counselor internship jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where counselor interns earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Counselor Internship Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	California	3,165	$47,725
2	Massachusetts	2,621	$42,446
3	New York	1,600	$44,404
4	Texas	1,419	$40,127
5	Pennsylvania	1,410	$42,143
6	Florida	1,375	$36,557
7	Illinois	1,108	$49,266
8	Washington	898	$51,908
9	New Jersey	867	$39,705
10	Georgia	793	$45,119
11	Michigan	688	$36,631
12	Ohio	684	$44,451
13	Virginia	666	$43,898
14	Maryland	662	$39,929
15	Minnesota	638	$38,550
16	Arizona	612	$37,431
17	Colorado	561	$43,426
18	North Carolina	509	$34,620
19	Indiana	488	$35,785
20	Oregon	429	$43,795
21	South Carolina	420	$39,693
22	Tennessee	407	$46,276
23	Missouri	401	$37,494
24	Connecticut	397	$42,281
25	Wisconsin	346	$44,072
26	Iowa	277	$40,807
27	Louisiana	269	$42,604
28	Arkansas	237	$34,159
29	Utah	219	$44,804
30	Kentucky	213	$36,742
31	Alabama	202	$40,315
32	Oklahoma	199	$34,695
33	Maine	193	$43,172
34	Nebraska	191	$43,705
35	Kansas	175	$44,685
36	New Mexico	173	$46,470
37	Nevada	159	$41,814
38	Idaho	149	$37,616
39	Mississippi	134	$35,390
40	Montana	133	$38,219
41	New Hampshire	127	$40,973
42	Alaska	111	$46,255
43	Delaware	110	$37,983
44	Hawaii	97	$44,124
45	Rhode Island	92	$45,409
46	West Virginia	77	$47,948
47	North Dakota	68	$47,120
48	South Dakota	65	$37,262
49	Vermont	57	$42,967
50	Wyoming	54	$37,241

Counselor Internship Education

Counselor Internship Majors

Psychology

38.5 %

School Counseling

7.5 %

Social Work

7.2 %

Counselor Internship Degrees

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Business

Social Work

Education

Communication

Rehabilitation Science

Top Skills For a Counselor Internship

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 14.1% of counselor interns listed crisis intervention on their resume, but soft skills such as compassion and interpersonal skills are important as well.

Crisis Intervention, 14.1%

Intake Assessments, 13.6%

Substance Abuse Issues, 9.8%

Mental Health Issues, 8.9%

Group Therapy Sessions, 4.0%

Other Skills, 49.6%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Counselor Internship Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Counselor Internship templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Counselor Internship resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Counselor Internship Demographics

Counselor Internship Gender Distribution

Female

76%

Male

24%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among counselor interns, 76.2% of them are women, while 23.8% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among counselor interns is White, which makes up 67.0% of all counselor interns.

The most common foreign language among counselor interns is Spanish at 61.4%.

Online Courses For Counselor Internship That You May Like

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Job type you want

Full Time

Part Time

Internship

Temporary

Best States For a Counselor Internship

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a counselor internship. The best states for people in this position are Washington, Illinois, West Virginia, and California. Counselor interns make the most in Washington with an average salary of $51,908. Whereas in Illinois and West Virginia, they would average $49,266 and $47,948, respectively. While counselor interns would only make an average of $47,725 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Washington

Total Counselor Internship Jobs: 898

Highest 10% Earn:

$69,000

Location Quotient:

1.3

$51,908

Avg. Salary

View 898 Counselor Internship Jobs In WA

2. Illinois

Total Counselor Internship Jobs: 1,108

Highest 10% Earn:

$70,000

Location Quotient:

0.98

$49,266

Avg. Salary

View 1,108 Counselor Internship Jobs In IL

3. New Mexico

Total Counselor Internship Jobs: 173

Highest 10% Earn:

$65,000

Location Quotient:

0.93

$46,470

Avg. Salary

View 173 Counselor Internship Jobs In NM

Full List Of Best States For Counselor Interns

How Do Counselor Internship Rate Their Jobs?

Top Counselor Internship Employers

Most Common Employers For Counselor Internship

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	California State University	$59,059	$28.39	16
2	Los Angeles Unified School District	$51,516	$24.77	27
3	Catholic Charities Health and Human Services	$48,655	$23.39	68
4	Chestnut Health Systems	$46,867	$22.53	18
5	Denton County Friends of the Family	$46,277	$22.25	21
6	Gateway Foundation	$46,058	$22.14	40
7	Pace Center for Girls	$45,452	$21.85	26
8	The George Washington University	$45,414	$21.83	22
9	Youth Villages	$45,022	$21.65	29
10	Family Violence Project	$44,689	$21.49	18

Becoming a Counselor Internship FAQs

How Long Does It Take To Become A Counselor Internship?

It takes 4 years of professional experience to become a counselor internship. That is the time it takes to learn specific counselor internship skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 7 to 9 years years to become a counselor internship.

Have more questions? See all answers to common community and social services questions.

Search For Counselor Internship Jobs

Updated February 6, 2023

What is a Counselor Internship?

What Does a Counselor Internship Do

How To Become a Counselor Internship

Counselor Internship Career Paths

Top Careers Before Counselor Internship

Top Careers After Counselor Internship

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a Counselor Internship

Roles and Types of Counselor Internship

Counselor

Residential Counselor

Youth Counselor

States With The Most Counselor Internship Jobs

Number Of Counselor Internship Jobs By State

Counselor Internship Education

Counselor Internship Majors

Counselor Internship Degrees

Top Colleges for Counselor Internships

1. California State University - Long Beach

2. University of Pennsylvania

3. Hunter College of the City University of New York

4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

5. Boston University

6. New York University

7. Johns Hopkins University

8. SUNY at Albany

9. San Jose State University

10. University of Southern California

Top Skills For a Counselor Internship

Choose From 10+ Customizable Counselor Internship Resume templates

Counselor Internship Demographics

Counselor Internship Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Counselor Internship That You May Like

Best States For a Counselor Internship

How Do Counselor Internship Rate Their Jobs?

Top Counselor Internship Employers

Most Common Employers For Counselor Internship

Becoming a Counselor Internship FAQs

How Long Does It Take To Become A Counselor Internship?

Search For Counselor Internship Jobs

Counselor Internship Related Careers

Counselor Internship Related Jobs

Counselor Internship Jobs By Location

Counselor Internship Jobs By Company