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Peer counselor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted experts
Kacie Blalock Ph.D.,
Kacie Blalock Ph.D.
Peer counselor example skills
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical peer counselor skills. We ranked the top skills for peer counselors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 14.5% of peer counselor resumes contained peer support as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a peer counselor needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 peer counselor skills for your resume and career

1. Peer Support

Peer support occurs when people come into contact with the specific purpose of giving and receiving knowledge, experience, emotional, social, or practical support related to their common goals. Peer support offers a personal level of insight by sharing similar life experiences. The general objective is to bring people together to exchange experiences to support each other.

Here's how peer counselors use peer support:
  • Provided crisis intervention services, short-term peer support, information, and referrals to campus and community resources/organizations.
  • Provide peer support to veterans transitioning from homelessness.

2. Substance Abuse

Here's how peer counselors use substance abuse:
  • Provide community based substance abuse prevention counseling to culturally diverse population giving referrals and advocating for senior citizens.
  • Provided counseling services to Mental Health/Substance abuse population.

3. WIC Program

Here's how peer counselors use wic program:
  • Provided breastfeeding education and hands on practices and services to a diverse population who participated in the WIC program.
  • Act as liaison between NYS WIC program, local agency and the community to ensure proper representation for participants.

4. Crisis Intervention

Here's how peer counselors use crisis intervention:
  • Skilled in effective communication and assessing crisis interventions including: minor-age, manipulative, abusive, and mental health emergencies.
  • Conducted Individual and Group Counseling Sessions Implementing Behavior Management Systems and Conducting Crisis Intervention Counseling As Necessary.

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 peer counselors use community resources:
  • Maintained knowledge of and communicating with available community resources and providing referrals for clients as appropriate.
  • Disseminated information regarding community resources including information regarding campus policies and the community at large.

6. Mental Illness

Here's how peer counselors use mental illness:
  • Developed community and center volunteer activities for individuals with severe and persistent mental illnesses.
  • Raise awareness and facilitate discussions about mental illness.

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7. Support Services

Support services are services that support the organization internally and are usually non-revenue generating. Examples include, IT, admin, HR, etc.

Here's how peer counselors use support services:
  • Assist and support breastfeeding mothers through counseling and support services.
  • Provide a range of support services to children and parents.

8. Financial Aid

Financial aid refers to cash released to an educational institution to help a student pay the school fee. The issuance of financial aid, whether scholarships, grants, or loans, aims to make access to education affordable to all students irrespective of their backgrounds.

Here's how peer counselors use financial aid:
  • Interacted with students and parents regularly via telephone and in-person in effort to alleviate issues regarding financial aid information.
  • Worked closely with financial specialists to create financial aid packages for students interested in attending Purdue University.

9. Role Model

A role model is a person with desirable qualities who inspires other people to emulate their example.

Here's how peer counselors use role model:
  • Peer Counseling and Advising* Duties include but not limited to providing a positive active role model for students.
  • Served as a role model and resource for 16 students throughout their preliminary phase of higher education.

10. Mental Health Issues

Here's how peer counselors use mental health issues:
  • Organized and hosted a variety of mental health related events to increase campus awareness of mental health issues.
  • Created and executed a marketing plan that increased student knowledge and awareness of mental health issues.

11. Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is an often necessary skill in business, employed for processes such as contract negotiations, legal matters, and even personal, emotional situations and conflicts. It is the ability to find and create an appropriate and peaceful solution to some sort of dilemma or argument in which two or more parties are involved. The resolution itself must benefit and satisfy all parties and this is what makes it so difficult to reach a peaceful point sometimes.

Here's how peer counselors use conflict resolution:
  • Front Desk*Resource Allocation*Intuitive Movement Group*Art Therapy*Kitchen/Urban Food Drive*Street Outreach*Jail Mail Support*Conflict Resolution*Veterans Assistance*Camp Welfare Checks*Clinic Referrals*Gang Relations
  • Spearheaded the development of group arbitration and conflict resolution seminars.

12. Community Outreach

Here's how peer counselors use community outreach:
  • Collaborated with members of a multidisciplinary team to provide community outreach and advocacy for at risk veterans.
  • Collaborated with local health care providers to organize community outreach events.

13. Pregnant Women

Here's how peer counselors use pregnant women:
  • Develop workshops that influenced self-health care management geared specifically towards HIV-positive pregnant women and preparing for motherhood.
  • Educate pregnant women on the benefits of breastfeeding, teach parenting classes, perform assessments, make home visits intermittently as needed

14. Group Sessions

Here's how peer counselors use group sessions:
  • Conducted individual and group sessions through active listening and open- ended questions demonstrating empathy.
  • Lived on LSU Campus for 6 weeks in dorms, held nightly group sessions, participated in daily activities on campus.

15. Emotional Support

At its core, emotional support involves providing support, reassurance, acceptance, love, and encouragement. It is especially important in a time of stress/sadness as it stabilizes an individual and provides a positive foundation for trust. Honing this skill is important for individuals who want to pursue the career of caregivers and emotional support nurses. Their job includes monitoring mental health and helping patients to handle any mental challenge.

Here's how peer counselors use emotional support:
  • Offered emotional support and helped students devise practical solutions for personal problems.
  • Volunteer counselor with specialized training focus on meeting with people in the local community to provide mental health and/or emotional support.
top-skills

What skills help Peer Counselors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on peer counselor resumes?

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Master of Counseling, Louisiana State University at Shreveport

Skills that stand out on Counselor resumes include multilingual, critical thinking, conflict resolution, and leadership skills.

What soft skills should all peer counselors possess?

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Master of Counseling, Louisiana State University at Shreveport

Soft skills that are essential for counselors include emotional intelligence, empathy, multicultural competency, interpersonal abilities, and authenticity.

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

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Master of Counseling, Louisiana State University at Shreveport

It is important that counselors are able to effectively take notes and summarize progress, interpret assessments, memorize and recall information, and keep clear yet concise records.

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

Leigh Ann Tipton-Fisler, PhD, BCBA

Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Specialist in School Psychology and Clinical/ Community Mental Health Graduate Programs, Western Illinois University

- The best I can give to graduates is to focus on taking small steps at first. Often the first year in the field can be exciting and overwhelming at the same time. The system we work in (the helping profession broadly) often has a lot of challenges, and new professionals want to re-envision a path for changes. This is tangible, but at first, it is important to understand the roles and functions in the workplace before flipping everything upside down. I suggest taking one small change at a time in an area that is important to you and build relationships and trust with your professional colleagues before overloading yourself with the new job and new goals.

What type of skills will young peer counselors need?

Chris Hennington Ph.D.Chris Hennington Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

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.
Do you want to know more?
Read more about what experts have to say about peer counselor

List of peer counselor skills to add to your resume

Peer counselor skills

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

  • Peer Support
  • Substance Abuse
  • WIC Program
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Community Resources
  • Mental Illness
  • Support Services
  • Financial Aid
  • Role Model
  • Mental Health Issues
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Community Outreach
  • Pregnant Women
  • Group Sessions
  • Emotional Support
  • Community Services
  • Schedule Appointments
  • Educational Programs
  • Front Desk
  • Crisis Situations
  • Mathematics
  • Breast Pumps
  • Independent Living
  • Academic Support
  • Hippa
  • Sexual Assault
  • PowerPoint
  • Training Sessions
  • Domestic Violence
  • Stress Management
  • Summer Program
  • Suicide Prevention
  • Community Events
  • Social Issues
  • Eating Disorders
  • FAFSA
  • Study
  • Sexual Health
  • Student Body
  • Received Training
  • Peer Pressure

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
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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