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Intake counselor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Andrew Wiley Ph.D.,

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical intake counselor skills. We ranked the top skills for intake counselors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 21.3% of intake counselor resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an intake counselor needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 intake counselor skills for your resume and career

2. Patients

Here's how intake counselors use patients:

Access, organize and utilize available collateral and community resources to determine most appropriate disposition for patients.
Contacted patients' insurance provider to provide information necessary to authorize patients' hospitalization for psychiatric care.

3. Crisis Intervention

Here's how intake counselors use crisis intervention:

Provided individual and group therapy on an ongoing basis, crisis intervention and facilitated recovery orientated groups for men and women.
Provide comprehensive service delivery including counseling, regular follow-up, and crisis intervention to a caseload of approximately 25-35 clients.

4. Triage

Triage is a method of prioritizing a patient or a group depending on the severity, diagnosis, and condition of the disease needing immediate medical care. It is often to determine a condition and identifying the appropriate destination before assessing where the patient will be going. A triage nurse commonly performs it.

Here's how intake counselors use triage:

Collaborated with doctors to triage and assess participants in pharmaceutical clinical trials.
Performed telephonic assessment and triage.

5. 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 intake counselors use community resources:

Interacted and cooperated with other youth agencies to effectively utilize community resources to serve the population
Identified outside resources, utilized the guide for community resources in Chicago metropolitan area.

6. Phone Calls

Phone calls are a wireless or wired connection made over a telephone or a mobile phone between two people. Two parties are involved in a phone call, the caller and the receiver. A caller dials the number of the one he wants to call, and the recipient hears a bell or a tune to which he picks up the call. The call establishes a connection between them through which they can communicate. The voice is converted into signals and is transmitted through wired or wireless technology.

Here's how intake counselors use phone calls:

Answered telephone calls from the community concerning treatment for themselves or their loved ones as well as crisis calls.
Handle inbound and outbound telephone calls to assist future and current students with general questions about the program.

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7. Admission Process

Here's how intake counselors use admission process:

Facilitated admission process for inpatient and outpatient substance abuse services.
Assessed clients for program eligibility and coordinated the admission process.

8. Chemical Dependency

Chemical dependency is a medical condition where a person relies on a chemical or drug in order to continue day-to-day activities. The condition can begin as abuse - where a person displays a clear pattern of substance use, commonly drugs or alcohol - and continue to dependency in which the person continues abusing substances even after problematic events have occurred.

Here's how intake counselors use chemical dependency:

Conducted risk assessment, reviewed mental health benefits, authorized in and out-patient psychiatric/chemical dependency treatment.
Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor / Clinical Supervisor; supervising Interns, A/D

9. 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 intake counselors use mental health:

Conducted emergency clinical evaluations for mental health and substance abuse issues, consulting with medical staff for determination of appropriate intervention/treatment.
Identify cases of domestic abuse or other family problems and encourage residents to seek additional assistance from mental health professionals.

10. Insurance Benefits

Here's how intake counselors use insurance benefits:

Take all pertinent insurance information and contact third party payers to verify insurance benefits and/or eligibility.
Provided explanations of behavioral health insurance benefits and authorizations to callers, including EAP benefits.

11. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how intake counselors use patient care:

Provided knowledgeable consultation with staff psychiatrists about patient care.
Work cooperatively with the psychiatric department, medical floors, psychiatrists and physicians involved with patient care needs.

12. Intake Assessments

Here's how intake counselors use intake assessments:

Charged with full intake assessment / integration operations for potential clients, determining suitability for admission to program.
Conducted initial intake assessments to determine appropriateness for admission and appropriate treatment level of care.

13. Risk Assessments

The process of analyzing and identifying the acts or events that have the potential to negatively affect an individual, asset, or business is called risk assessment. Risk assessments are important because they form an integral part of an organization as well as occupational safety plans

Here's how intake counselors use risk assessments:

Perform risk assessments and facilitate appropriate disposition.
Responded to crisis situations by conducting phone or face to face assessments, completed risk assessments and facilitated the appropriate disposition.

14. Rehabilitation

Here's how intake counselors use rehabilitation:

Provided Vocational Coaching and Rehabilitation Counseling
Developed goals for vocational rehabilitation, providing each client multiple realistic objectives; followed through to assess progress.

15. Community Agencies

Community agencies stand for the organizations operated to provide human service in the community.

Here's how intake counselors use community agencies:

Cultivated strong business relationships with community agencies to drive business.
Lead client and staff liaison with DMH, DCFS, criminal justice services, Public Health and other related community agencies.

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What skills help Intake Counselors find jobs?

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What skills stand out on intake counselor resumes?

Dr. Andrew Wiley Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Kent State University

Graduates from the special education program at Kent State demonstrate adaptive expertise. The "expertise" is in specially designed instruction and interventions in academics, life skills, social skills, communication - whatever the special educational needs of students with disabilities may be. The "adaptive" refers to the ability to collaborate with other professionals to solve problems. What stands out on resumes is expert training in both research-based special education practices and the ability to function within a team. Kent State's special education program provides both.

What soft skills should all intake counselors possess?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

The "change theory" used in social work practice follows several steps, including engaging, assessing, planning, intervening, evaluating, terminating, and following up. Soft skills are most likely to occur in engagement, intervention, and termination. Social workers are trained to "start wherever the client is," understanding that clients can be individuals, families, groups, communities, or organizations. Social workers are trained to respect the client as the expert in their needs, honor self-determination, use a strengths-based approach, and respect difference while using inclusion. The training turns into soft skills such as being empathetic, warm, genuine, and respectful. Social workers also develop skills in knowing when to listen and when to nudge the client toward action. Social workers are trained to intervene and, when change is completed, to terminate. Helping clients know when to end services also requires soft skills of talking about hard topics, seeing a brighter future and setting goals, recognizing when change is happening, and saying goodbye respectfully.

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

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

Hard or technical skills are most likely to occur in the stages of assessing, planning, intervening, and evaluating change theory. Social workers are trained to gather lots of information and then analyze strengths and needs. Social workers present their assessments to clients and work together to create goals and the steps that reach goals when executed. The process involves using the client's vision of what "better" looks like. Social workers then use evidence-based techniques to move the client toward the goal and define measures to know when the goal is met. The technical skills used in this process include analyzing many types of information repeatedly, knowing what resources exist and how to refer, knowing how to design effective goals and steps to achieve goals, researching current evidence-based practices, defining and measuring progress, and setting limits and timeframes.

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

Jennifer Randles Ph.D.

Chair and Associate Professor, California State University, Fresno

If students need to take a gap year, I recommend enhancing their research, writing, and critical thinking skills in the interim. These skills are beneficial for any employment field, especially for those who ultimately plan to pursue graduate school in sociology.

What type of skills will young intake counselors need?

Samantha Fletcher Ph.D.

Executive Director, National Association of Social Workers, New York State

The core skills of social work do not change over time. These skills include empathy, active listening, critical thinking, assessment, intervention, evaluation, advocacy, policy analysis, and adaptability. Social workers also need to evaluate the organizations they work in to assess for oppressive practices and policies. One of the profession's core values is social justice, which directs social workers to "pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers' social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice" (National Association of Social Workers, 2017). As a profession, social workers aim to dismantle racist, sexist, heterosexist, xenophobic, ableist, classist, and religiously biased systems and structures.

What technical skills for an intake 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 intake counselor skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for an intake counselor resume and required skills for an intake counselor to have include:

Social Work
Patients
Crisis Intervention
Triage
Community Resources
Phone Calls
Admission Process
Chemical Dependency
Mental Health
Insurance Benefits
Patient Care
Intake Assessments
Risk Assessments
Rehabilitation
Community Agencies
Mental Illness

Clinical Assessments
Intake Process
Substance Abuse Treatment
HIPAA
Outpatient Services
Hippa
Discharge Planning
Insurance Verification
Group Therapy
Mental Health Issues
Risk Factors
ASAM
Emergency Room
Computer System
Child Abuse
Crisis Calls

Assessment Appointments
Psychosocial Assessments
Eating Disorders
Crisis Situations
Intake Interviews
Intake Calls
Community Services
Law Enforcement
Intake Paperwork
at-Risk Youth
Substance Abuse Issues
Domestic Violence
Medical Issues
Discharge Summaries
Psychosis

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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