Guides to Counseling Careers & Other Resources

Expressive art techniques promote mental health and wellbeing. When clients allow themselves to laugh, let go, and relax, they can experience relief from painful thoughts and sensations, which helps decrease depression, anxiety, and stress.

LGBTQ+ clients can face some unique challenges in family therapy, especially when it comes to disclosing their sexuality or gender identity, setting boundaries with intolerant family members, and helping those in their life accept who they are.

Wages for counselors vary widely based on the type of counseling services offered, the level of education completed, employers, and where the work is performed. Which state a counselor works in can have a strong effect on the average salary.

This guide to bilingual and culturally diverse counseling careers includes information on degree and certificate programs that specialize in treating diverse and underserved populations.

What can be traumatizing for some clients who experience an ambiguous loss is the uncertainty or lack of information about the lost loved one. It is this not knowing or ambiguity, which prolongs the grieving process.

A variation of VRT is known as virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), which is especially useful in cases of phobia, unrealistic fears (e.g., fear of heights), or in cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Affirmative counselors recognize how vital it is to validate a client’s sexual orientation, yet some mental health practitioners are reticent to talk about sex-positive identities and alternative sexual lifestyles like kink and BDSM. This can be very stifling for clients whose sexual journey is a foundational part of their lived experience.

Music is an effective tool to bring forth strong emotions from the past. Sometimes clients cannot find the words to express what they feel in a counseling session but can choose, sing, or play a song.

Anticipatory grief is a form of grieving before a death or loss. It can present at the end of life, during a terminal diagnosis, the end of a meaningful relationship, or a significant life shift. For some clients who have experienced trauma, anticipatory grief can appear at any time during the life cycle, being triggered by traumatic stimuli.

Nudges can be distinguished from more formal demands, such as travel bans or vaccine mandates because the latter do not involve choices. Instead, warnings about dangerous behavior can be nudges such as a sign that says no lifeguard is present and you’re swimming at your own risk. This sign provides information that “nudges” the person not to swim there but does not take away the ability to do so.