How Long Does It Take To Become A Counselor
Becoming a counselor is not easy. There are many things required. Here we will discuss how long does it take to become a counselor. The amount of time it takes to be a counselor depends upon the kind of degree or an educational background one has. For instance, if a person wants to become a professional counselor in his/her life, then it is extremely important for that person to have a degree in psychology. If a person has not studied psychology before, then that person should do atleast some courses in psychology that would help that person professionally in becoming a counselor.How long does it takes to become a counselor also depends upon the kind of courses one has taken and the amount of study one is putting in a specific course as well. For instance, a course study of atleast 18 hours is extremely important before getting admitted to a masters program of psychology.
Therefore, in order to become a counselor, one must have a masters degree in psychology with a good GPA because many people who go into the field of counseling attain a master’s degree for themselves and also a Ph.D degree for themselves in order to be a master of the subject.Therefore, how long does it take to become a counselor also depends upon the kind of counselor one wants to become. For instance, many people want to become either a mental health counselor or a school counselor which requires the person to have a Ph.D degree in psychology for sure. However, a counselor may not only provide counseling services to a person but also provide the person with some kind of a medication so that person can be relieved from his worries.
How long does it take to become a counselor also depends upon many factors such as course requirements of a program or if a student is a full-time or a part-time student or if a student has taken a summer break between his/her course program. How long does it take to become a counselor also depends upon the number of internship hours one has invested during a masters program. Therefore, it is extremely necessary for a person who wants to become a psychologist to have gone through an internship program plus that person should also have atleast two years of a clinical experience with him/herself. However, during the clinical experience, the person would also be supervised by an academic supervisor where the academic supervisor would check if the student has the skills or competencies to become a professional counselor. However, only then, that student would be given a license to practice as a professional counselor.
However, in order to gain a license for becoming a professional counselor, one must sit in licensure exam as well. The licensure exam is a mixture or a combination of the whole study which a student has done over the years of his/her master’s degree.The test would be difficult for some people but if a student has studied through out his/her master’s program without any gap, then that student would not face any kind of difficulty in solving that exam.
To sum up the argument for how long does it take to become a counselor, it is easy to say that while it does take a lot of time and patience but in the end, it is very beneficial for those people who want to become a professional counselor in their lives.