How To Become A Personal Counselor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a personal counselor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Debra Minsky-Kelly

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a personal counselor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $21.51 an hour? That's $44,740 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 32,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a personal counselor?

Debra Minsky-Kelly

Director of Field Education / Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work, Carthage College

I think there are two critical skills for social workers, whether they are first entering the workforce or seasoned professionals. These skills are humility and an appreciation for ambiguity in our work. A humble approach to our work empowers clients to become experts on their circumstances. Social workers are then positioned in a collaborative role to help clients use existing skills and resources to improve their situations. An appreciation for ambiguity is closely related to the idea of humility. It helps us to remember that practice situations we face in this field are often far more complicated than they appear on the surface. Thus, all social workers need to make a strong commitment to lifelong learning and ongoing consultation with colleagues to ensure that multiple perspectives are included as we work to solve complex problems.

ScorePersonal CounselorUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $44,740

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.0

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.62%

Asian 3.74%

Black or African American 10.64%

Hispanic or Latino 14.20%

Unknown 3.76%

White 67.03%

Gender

female 79.69%

male 20.31%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

9.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.7

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a personal counselor

Explore personal counselor education requirements

Most common personal counselor degrees

Bachelor's

57.4 %

Master's

19.8 %

Associate

13.9 %

Start to develop specific personal counselor skills

Skills	Percentages
Substance Abuse	31.45%
Crisis Intervention	13.72%
Social Work	12.70%
Community Resources	5.06%
Community Outreach	4.38%

Complete relevant personal counselor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New personal counselors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a personal counselor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real personal counselor resumes.

Research personal counselor duties and responsibilities

Conduct group check-in and co-lead group psychotherapy sessions to help clients identify and manage problems associate with psychiatric conditions.
Remain non-denominational, open, flexible and ecumenical in service to patients while also providing additional resources from local spiritual communities.
Collaborate with peers in leadership capacity at recreational summer camp leading, coordinating and organizing daily activities and weekly field trips.

Prepare your personal counselor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your personal counselor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a personal counselor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable personal counselor resume templates

Build a professional personal counselor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your personal counselor resume.