What does a licensed professional counselor do?
A licensed professional counselor is a healthcare professional who specializes in providing therapy and counseling to patients with emotional and mental health issues. They listen to their patients and utilize various techniques to address concerns and help through the healing procedures. Their duties entail conducting interviews and evaluations, performing research and assessments, studying the patients' medical histories, providing consultations, and developing treatment plans that suit every patients' needs. Additionally, a licensed professional counselor monitors and records their patients' progress, adjusting treatments and medications as necessary.
Licensed professional counselor responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real licensed professional counselor resumes:
- Conduct group check-in and co-lead group psychotherapy sessions to help clients identify and manage problems associate with psychiatric conditions.
- Provide clinical supervision to LPC candidates, contract clinicians and counseling psychology practicum/internship students.
- Assign, direct, and provide supervision of screening assessment complete by LPC and LCSW.
- Conduct intakes and assessments on new admissions and recommend placement into services base on ASAM criteria.
- Coordinate with the patient's family, attending physician, other hospitals and agencies following HIPAA standards.
- Specialize in OCD and animal assist psychotherapy.
- Provide individual and family therapy to clients in outpatient substance abuse rehabilitation program.
- Formulate an individualize program structure for the treatment and rehabilitation of substance abuse clients.
- Facilitate and co-lead weekly girls' group that targets self-confidence/assertiveness, self-esteem, self-image/body-image, and future goals/dreams.
- Deliver comprehensive behavioral health services including assessment and individualize treatment planning for children, adolescents, and adults.
- Complete precise and comprehensive documentation of clinical and casework functions ensuring HIPAA compliance with public & private-sector reimbursement protocols.
- Provide evidence base therapy to clients primarily utilizing cognitive behavioral, acceptance and commitment and compassion focuse therapy techniques.
- Supervise clinical and para-professional staff in the hospital setting while also providing in-patient counseling services to adolescent and adult patients.
- Collaborate with other professionals in multidisciplinary staff meetings to evaluate patients' medical or physical condition and to assess client needs.
- Experience in evaluations of adults, adolescents and children, including personality, clinical symptoms, developmental disabilities and cognitive status.
Licensed professional counselor skills and personality traits
We calculated that 13% of Licensed Professional Counselors are proficient in Patients, Social Work, and LPC. They’re also known for soft skills such as Emotional skills, Communication skills, and Problem-solving skills.
We break down the percentage of Licensed Professional Counselors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 13%
Collaborated with other professionals in multidisciplinary staff meetings to evaluate patients' medical or physical condition and to assess client needs.
- Social Work, 12%
Collaborate with multidisciplinary team of clinical social workers, and psychiatrists to develop individualized treatment plans.
- LPC, 10%
Provided clinical supervision to LPC candidates and other clinical staff members as assigned by Clinical Director.
- Real Estate, 10%
Established relationships with them and real estate attorneys and CPA s who settled estate through probate, capital gains and divorce.
- Individual Therapy, 8%
Provided group and individual therapy * Coordinated clinical treatment for adolescent neurological unit * Clinical Formulations * Case Management * Family Therapy
- Crisis Intervention, 6%
Provided individual/family/Crisis Intervention and group therapy to DHS foster children placed into Therapeutic Foster Care due to severe behavior issues.
"patients," "social work," and "lpc" are among the most common skills that licensed professional counselors use at work. You can find even more licensed professional counselor responsibilities below, including:
Communication skills. Another essential skill to perform licensed professional counselor duties is communication skills. Licensed professional counselors responsibilities require that "psychologists must have strong communication skills because they spend much of their time listening to and speaking with patients or describing their research." Licensed professional counselors also use communication skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "enhance communication and cooperation between lme and jail staff regarding treatment and medication management, and 3). "
Problem-solving skills. licensed professional counselors are also known for problem-solving skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to licensed professional counselor responsibilities, because "psychologists need problem-solving skills to collect information, design research, evaluate programs, and find treatments or solutions to mental and behavioral problems." A licensed professional counselor resume example shows how problem-solving skills is used in the workplace: "provided individual and group therapy sessions to a caseload of level 3 mental health inmates utilizing brief solution-focused counseling therapeutic approach. "
Analytical skills. A commonly-found skill in licensed professional counselor job descriptions, "analytical skills" is essential to what licensed professional counselors do. Licensed professional counselor responsibilities rely on this skill because "psychologists must examine the information they collect and draw logical conclusions." You can also see how licensed professional counselor duties rely on analytical skills in this resume example: "conduct evaluations and analyze data in making clinical assessments. "
Integrity. Another skill commonly found on licensed professional counselor job descriptions is "integrity." It can come up quite often in licensed professional counselor duties, since "psychologists must keep patients’ problems in confidence, and patients must be able to trust psychologists’ expertise in treating sensitive problems." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day licensed professional counselor responsibilities: "meet with clients for ongoing individual therapy, build a strong and trusting therapeutic relationships and facilitate exploration of issues. "
The three companies that hire the most licensed professional counselors are:
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Compare different licensed professional counselors
Licensed professional counselor vs. Clinician
A clinician specializes in providing diagnosis, treatment, and direct care to patients with different illnesses. A clinician's duties mainly revolve around conducting extensive research and analysis, providing medical care through various therapies, and improving one's overall health condition. Furthermore, a clinician must obtain and analyze a patient's complete medical history, provide diagnostic tests, always monitor the effects of treatment on a patient, provide prognosis and consider the overall impact on a patient's health and well-being.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, licensed professional counselor responsibilities require skills like "lpc," "real estate," "hipaa," and "private practice." Meanwhile a typical clinician has skills in areas such as "patient care," "clinical services," "treatment services," and "clinical documentation." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
The education levels that clinicians earn slightly differ from licensed professional counselors. In particular, clinicians are 7.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a licensed professional counselor. Additionally, they're 0.6% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Licensed professional counselor vs. Primary therapist
Primary therapists are the main point of contact for patients concerning wellness and overall mental health. Those who choose this career path will be expected to supervise and manage efficient treatment according to plan, and to manage between six and eight patients at a time, keeping in constant communication with these patients and various specialists.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, licensed professional counselor responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "lpc," "real estate," "individual therapy," and "mental health." Meanwhile, a primary therapist has duties that require skills in areas such as "excellent organizational," "patient care," "treatment plan reviews," and "clinical services." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, primary therapists earn a lower salary than licensed professional counselors. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, primary therapists earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $61,326. Whereas licensed professional counselors have higher pay in the real estate industry, with an average salary of $99,425.In general, primary therapists achieve similar levels of education than licensed professional counselors. They're 1.5% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.6% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for licensed professional counselors in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Bill Buker
Associate Dean and Professor of Professional Counseling, Oral Roberts University
Licensed professional counselor vs. Mental health therapist
The job of mental health therapists is to guide individuals, groups, couples, and families with problems that are impacting their well-being and mental health. Their duties and responsibilities include encouraging clients to talk about their experiences, examining issues that may affect mental health such as substance abuse and bullying, and assisting clients in defining their goals and action plans. Mental health therapists are also responsible for developing therapeutic processes, referring clients to other services or resources like psychologists, and helping them adjust to life changes.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, licensed professional counselors are more likely to have skills like "lpc," "real estate," "individual therapy," and "hipaa." But a mental health therapist is more likely to have skills like "foster care," "community services," "excellent interpersonal," and "dsm."
Mental health therapists earn the best pay in the non profits industry, where they command an average salary of $53,528. Licensed professional counselors earn the highest pay from the real estate industry, with an average salary of $99,425.Most mental health therapists achieve a similar degree level compared to licensed professional counselors. For example, they're 1.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Licensed professional counselor vs. Marriage and family therapist
Marriage and family therapists are health professionals who are licensed to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders of married couples and families. These therapists are required to treat patients with issues such as child and adolescent behavioral problems, depression and anxiety, and marital conflicts. They must observe the interaction of people within units while evaluating and resolving their issues with relationships. Marriage and family therapists must also guide their clients to go through transitional crises such as divorce or death.
Types of licensed professional counselor
Updated January 8, 2025
