Since the country canceled the professional qualification examination for psychological counselors in 2017, there are no nationally certified psychological counseling certificates on the market. Whether it is training from the Chinese Academy of Sciences or other institutions, the certificate you learn is proof of training. It can only show that you have seriously studied the theory of psychological counseling during this period, but it is still quite difficult to practice.
works in an institution, and people often come to us to inquire about the employment information of psychological counselors.
Many people have misunderstandings about the work of psychological counseling. They think that as long as a psychological counselor has a good personality, can talk, has strong empathy, and is good at listening, he can do this job well.
In fact, this is not the case. There are still high barriers to employment for psychological counselors.
In institutions, the work of psychological counselors is also divided into several categories: there are those who specialize in customer service assistants. They are not directly engaged in consulting work, but are mainly responsible for reception, marketing and self-media publicity.
sometimes writes Q&A and video science popularization on social media platforms to perform tasks in this area for organizations.
Secondly, there are consultants who specialize in government projects. Their main job is to give lectures and community services, such as going to nursing homes and providing mental health education to the elderly. They focus on this aspect of tasks and do relatively little psychological counseling.
Others provide group counseling. For example, teachers in schools will provide psychological counseling to students. At the same time, they must also carry out regular tasks, provide students with group activities in class, and conduct psychological assessments to screen out students with psychological problems for evaluation. This will also be one of the tasks of psychological counselors.
In other words, the work of psychological counseling is relatively complicated. Each counselor has different positions and tasks, and the work they do is also different. It is not just sitting in a consulting room and receiving counseling as everyone imagines.
Due to the scarcity of talents in the psychological counseling industry, there are not many multi-functional talents in this industry. Sometimes the business of the organization is complicated, and many counselors may hold multiple positions. One person can do all the work, and there will be only a few who specialize in psychological counseling full-time.
So from this perspective, it is still very difficult to get a certificate as a psychological counselor and learn theoretical knowledge before getting a job. At least from an institutional perspective, they don’t really need talents who specialize in psychological counseling.
On the contrary, who do they lack? The main shortage is marketing, operations and publicity staff.
Nowadays, many consultants in many institutions do consulting, but there are still only a few who have experience in other fields. Many institutions even openly recruit, and they need some consultants who understand self-media popular science writing and can produce videos. They can do some publicity for them every day and will also pay corresponding wages.
If you have marketing skills, know how to produce self-media videos, and have good experience in this area, you can join the job quickly. Even if you have no experience and do not know how to do psychological counseling, the agency will still want you. Let you start as an assistant, while doing publicity work, and then learn the practical skills of psychological counseling. After slowly growing up, you can then see whether the individual needs can be transformed.
If newbies want to enter the industry and have a more practical experience in this industry, it is best to go to the institutions to have a look and to observe some large institutions. It is not necessary to go to a small agency. The operation model of the agency focuses on the operation of the studio. A few consultants cooperate and do some consultation with each other. There are not many opportunities for newcomers to get consultation.
Large-scale psychological counseling institutions are relatively complete. They will be like a company, with multiple positions such as a consulting group, a marketing group, and a logistics group. There will also be relatively more people, and there will be more room for novice counselors to grow in consulting skills.
The profession of psychological counselor is a labor of slow and meticulous work. The first few years are a period of growth and learning, without much income; after a certain period of time, as experience and abilities improve, you will slowly be able to gain a foothold in this industry.
