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Family counselor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Kim Jones Ph.D.,

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical family counselor skills. We ranked the top skills for family counselors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 22.3% of family counselor resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a family counselor needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 family counselor skills for your resume and career

2. 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 family counselors use community resources:

Served as primary service provider of comprehensive services to include assessment, family therapy and linkage to community resources.
Developed and implemented Marketing strategies for community resources and coordinated Admissions with Insurance companies and arranging financial obligations.

3. POC

A Proof of Concept (POC), also called Proof of Principle is the confirmation or evidence related to a design concept of sales engineering. It confirms that the concept is viable and will be successful on application.

Here's how family counselors use poc:

Developed a working relationship with the installation/facility POC.
Communicated regularly with Regional Supervisor and POC and participated in individual and group supervision.

4. Family Support

Family support refers to assistance provided or offered to a family with a child, adult, or elderly person living in their home with a disability. However, family support may also be offered to families experiencing domestic issues, such as abusive parents or poor living conditions. Individual family support plans may be developed in order to help a family better understand how to reach a healthy family status.

Here's how family counselors use family support:

Engaged community organizations and community groups in informational presentations about Family Support Project and The Women's Center.
Worked with internal / external partners to extend family support and maximize effectiveness.

5. Family Therapy

Here's how family counselors use family therapy:

Worked with children and families providing individual and family therapy to families participating in a treatment facility for school aged children.
Master's level internship working alongside family court services providing individual and family therapy to adolescents and families with criminal involvement.

6. DOD

Definition of Done (DoD) is a set of deliverables that are needed to devise software. These deliverables are valuable to the system and can be exemplified by writing code, coding comments, unit testing, integration testing, design documents, release notes, and so on.

Here's how family counselors use dod:

Warned and reported restricted reporting situations according to DoD protocol and staff the cases with Regional Supervisor/Regional Director.
Conducted psycho-social groups and DOD approved presentations.

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7. Group Supervision

Here's how family counselors use group supervision:

Supervised multiple graduate level interns in individual and group supervision.
Provided individual and group supervision to Case Managers.

8. Action Planning

Here's how family counselors use action planning:

Service includes assessment, brief counseling and consultation, action planning, referral to resources and follow-up as indicated.
Provide brief counseling and consultation, action planning, referral to resources, and follow-up as necessary.

9. Behavior Management

Here's how family counselors use behavior management:

Delivered solution focused counseling, to parents, advising them in child behavior management and military related issues.
Educate children on appropriate interactions and provide behavior management as needed.

10. Substance Abuse

Here's how family counselors use substance abuse:

Provided substance abuse counseling for chemically dependent individuals in a residential setting, as well as facilitate individual and group therapy.
Counseled identified clients and family regarding psychological and emotional problems such as stress, substance abuse and family situations.

11. Child Development

Here's how family counselors use child development:

Consult with administration and staff members at military affiliated child development centers regarding classroom management and child behavioral/emotional issues.
Facilitate Home base socialization to enhance parenting techniques through teachings of child development and support parent networking/collaboration.

12. Health Fairs

Here's how family counselors use health fairs:

Deliver training and health and wellness presentations, participates in health fairs and other base/installation activities as requested/ directed.
Provide training and health and wellness presentations; participate in health fairs and other base/installation activities focused on children and youth.

13. 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 family counselors use stress management:

Deliver educational presentations on stress management/relaxation, reintegration and a large variety of topics.
Offer services regarding stress management, anger management, depression, relational problems, self-care and deployment.

14. Family Life

Here's how family counselors use family life:

Provided family life counseling for re-unification families involved with Wayne County Child Protective Services.
Competed a six month contract as a Military and Family Life Counselor at Fort Hood, Texas.

15. Group Therapy

Group psychotherapy or group therapy is the practice of treating a group of clients together in one sitting throughout multiple sessions. This practice allows people to receive encouragement and support from their peers who are taking the same group therapy.

Here's how family counselors use group therapy:

Provided group therapy for family members recovering from codependency, and coordinated and prepared family members for an Intervention on patients.
Provided individual and family counseling Facilitated educational and group therapy sessions Advocated for individuals in court.

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What skills help 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 family counselor resumes?

Kim Jones Ph.D.

Professor, Chair of Clinical Concentration, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

The necessary skills for today's market include the ability to implement evidence-informed mental health approaches, the ability to display empathy, knowledge of crisis intervention models, organizational skills, good work ethic, both verbal and written communication skills, cultural competence, and the ability to adapt to changing technology.

What soft skills should all family counselors possess?

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Associate Professor, Augustana University

Cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills are important, including openness to work with people with varying religious views. The ability to easily connect with others and put people at ease in your presence is valuable in working with clients and collaborating with a treatment team. As more and more agencies interact with the medical field, spiritual leaders, and other holistic approaches to health, counselors need to see their role in an interdisciplinary approach to healing and work effectively with other departments. With teletherapy/virtual therapy, just the simple difficulty of creating eye contact when one's camera is not directly aligned with their viewscreen can complicate important connections in the therapeutic relationship. Learning to effectively connect through screens is essential.

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

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Associate Professor, Augustana University

Obviously, mastering the technology used in teletherapy and virtual counseling is essential. Further, the use of computer programs for therapy notes, documentation, and diagnosis is also important. Assessment and psychometric abilities are also important as psychotherapy research has been very clear about the important role of outcome measurement and objective assessment in psychotherapy. When prospective clinicians demonstrate the ability to work with numbers (and the software needed to make them useful), they show an openness to the objective assessment of their work.

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

Christina Erickson Ph.D.

Professor and Director of the Bachelor of Social Work Program, Augsburg University

Gap years are welcome for students. Generally, I see a great deal of maturity as students move through the four years of college and this is necessary to prepare them for the demands of being a professional social worker. A gap year often increases the maturity level of students and can provide rich experiences that prepare them for college. A good gap year for a social work student includes human interactions that require students to work across human differences. That difference can be in a variety of forms, age, culture, gender, faith tradition, experiences, or even ways of thinking. What matters most is the student's ability to describe their own growth as they worked across those differences. Not about how other people changed because of their interaction, but how they changed to meet their goals and learn from others. Experience solving problems is helpful, too. Even learning how to take the first steps to deal with a challenge and being able to describe the steps, grows critical thinking and evaluation skills important for the most successful social work practitioners.

What type of skills will young family counselors need?

Chris Hennington Ph.D.

School Counseling Program Coordinator, Lubbock Christian University

School counselors will be tasked with the usual school counseling responsibilities while also encountering trauma that students experience outside of school and in school. Being well versed in trauma response is going to be a vital aspect of being a school counselor. Kids are experiencing more trauma, but we are getting better at recognizing and treating trauma as well.

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

Madeline Lee Ph.D.

Associate Professor, California State University San Marcos

There are technical skills that may stand out to employers, but as social workers, I think those technical skills together with "soft skills," can make an applicant really stand out to employers; social workers can combine their research skills with evidence-informed care and organizational quality improvement efforts, while being able to lead, build relationships, and think critically. In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, our graduates will need to be able to fluidly navigate between employing telehealth methods to performing their work safely in-person when engaging and helping clients. To be effective, social workers will also need to understand the reverberating effects of the deep-seated roots of racism in our country and be willing to honestly confront and address those issues in whatever role they assume. Social workers are needed now more than ever.

Do you want to know more?

List of family counselor skills to add to your resume

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

Social Work
Community Resources
POC
Family Support
Family Therapy
DOD
Group Supervision
Action Planning
Behavior Management
Substance Abuse
Child Development
Health Fairs
Stress Management
Family Life
Group Therapy
Criminal Justice
Clinical Supervision

Mental Health
Child Abuse
Mental Illness
Eating Disorders
Therapeutic Interventions
at-Risk Youth
Child Care
Support Services
MST
Crisis Intervention
Emotional Support
Parent Support
Community Agencies
Social Service Agencies
Wellness Presentations
Anger Management
Domestic Violence

Family Sessions
Intensive In-Home
Court Reports
Family Dynamics
Conflict Resolution
Medicaid
Team Supervision
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Crisis Management
Mental Health Issues
Protective Services
Family Assessments
Psychosocial Assessments
Crisis Situations
Individual Therapy
Post Deployment

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

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