What is a Mental Health Counselor?
Missouri is a state that has long been known for its agricultural industry. The state's flat lands are known to be covered in corn, wheat, and soybeans, among other crops. Missouri only trails Texas for the greatest number of farms in the US, with over 100,000 farming operations, and the state is in the top five soybean producers. Despite these impressive facts, Missouri's economy as a whole is led by its professional and business services sector, which brings in over $42 billion in annual revenue.
A mental health counselor is a healthcare professional who specializes in the mental well-being of their patients. To help patients overcome their psychological difficulties, counseling professionals employ psychotherapy as one treatment option. This talking therapy asks patients to delve deep into their thoughts and feelings to uncover truths and to heal old wounds. There are several other treatment modalities, but this is the best-known option.
Mental health counselors typically work in offices designed for patients to feel safe and secure. However, these days counselors may conduct counseling sessions using streaming video or phone calls. The pandemic increased the number of remote counseling sessions as many were acclimated to streaming chat sessions during the lockdowns.
Counselors can work in a variety of settings. Many enter the field to establish a private practice, but they may also team up with other healthcare professionals in a shared office situation. Then there are many who work as employees of a larger healthcare system or a hospital. This sort of flexibility for one's career path can be very attractive for students.
Online Mental Health Counseling Education in Missouri
Missouri's #2 industry, manufacturing, is more closely tied to agriculture, but it's also involved with chemicals, machinery, metals, and electrical equipment. Manufacturing brings in $39 billion in annual revenue and is the 20th largest manufacturing sector in the nation. Close behind, Missouri's real estate market brings the state over $35 billion each year, with the state's education, healthcare, and social assistance sector just behind that mark with $33 billion in revenue.
The fourth strongest sector in Missouri's economy includes healthcare and social assistance, which includes mental health counseling. Even Missouri's schools are home to counseling professionals in the form of school counseling professionals. Thus, it's clear that mental health counseling is a vital part of the Missouri economy. Further, when Missouri's counselors can help workers in manufacturing, professional services, and other areas, the impact of counseling professionals is broad.
Mental health counseling is a field that demands that each practitioner hold an advanced degree and state licensure. Counselors are highly trained when they enter their career, and they need to continually update their credentials to maintain their status as counseling professionals.
Missouri's legislator's' recognize the broad impact of counseling professionals in their economy. They keep Missouri colleges and universities fully funded so that the psychology and counseling degree programs can flourish. In turn, Missouri's psychology and counseling degree programs seek out the very best instructors and professors possible.
Online Associate (AS)
Students who are interested in a career in mental healthcare may start with an associate in mental health counseling degree. While this path won't lead to the sort of credentials that allow practitioners to work as independent counselors, it’s a great way to gain exposure and practical experience. Those who study addiction counseling will be one step closer to working with substance abuse patients, though not in psychotherapeutic sessions and not one-on-one as that requires a bachelor’s degree.
Associate degree students can choose degrees such as addiction counseling, social work, psychology, or allied healthcare. Each of these are a good choice that can open doors to entry-level positions in mental healthcare. These degrees are also a strong foundation for those who transfer to four-year bachelor’s degree programs. After all, it's required that all mental health counselors hold a master’s counseling degree, which necessitates a bachelor’s degree.
Online Bachelors (BS)
Bachelor’s mental health counseling degrees are a great way to accrue a significant amount of knowledge in this field and can prepare you to work as a substance abuse counselor. During a four-year degree program, students will be introduced to the full spectrum of issues in the mental healthcare field. They will not only cover the core theories that underlie our understanding of human behavior, but they will have an opportunity to conduct studies of some facets of human behavior and development.
Bachelor’s mental health counseling degree students can also broaden their education by studying affiliated fields or completing an internship. Some students choose to study related fields such as sociology, social work, and others. When they broaden their studies with an internship with a mental rehabilitation facility, they not only gain valuable experience that looks great on a resume, but they help to solidify their resolve to become mental healthcare professionals themselves.
Online Masters (MS)
Students who are eager to become licensed mental health counseling professionals in Missouri, or any other state, will need to complete a master’s mental healthcare counseling degree program. These programs are tailored to help students achieve licensure by offering internships and other experiential learning opportunities. Student routes to licensure are limited to the choices of degree majors you can find. However, at this level, you are going to be able to find more options than at lower levels. These options might include clinical mental health counseling, school counseling or career counseling, marriage and family counseling, rehabilitation counseling, community counseling, counselor education, and other related educational programs that offer access to counseling skills.
Students may decide to pursue addiction counseling at the master’s level, or they may go a more traditional, academic route and study clinical psychology. There are also options to focus on a specific population or sort of counseling, such as marriage and family therapy or child therapy. Some decide to earn a master’s degree in social work (MSW); licensed clinical social workers can practice one-on-one therapy, much like their colleagues with psychology degrees, but they are also able to work as social workers with various governmental or non-profit agencies.
Online Doctorate (PhD)
A doctorate is not always necessary or valued in many fields. However, mental health counseling is a field that does place a high value on a doctorate. A mental health counselor with a doctorate can find work as a psychologist or psychiatrist and can charge more per hour if they are working in a counseling role. Many counseling professionals aspire to earn their PhD so that they can claim higher professional status.
Psychologists and PhD holders have other options available to them, as well. Many choose to use their credentials to teach at the graduate or undergraduate levels. Teaching can be a good addition to one's earnings and overall professional experience. They can also use their credentials to teach other counseling professionals and use that time to satisfy the state's requirements for continuing education. Finally, many psychologists open counseling practices with their name and credentials on the masthead. This helps to attract master’s level counselors while inspiring confidence in new patients.