What can you do with a diploma in counselling?

A diploma in counselling is a gateway to a range of rich and rewarding careers.

Counsellors are more in demand than ever before, following the effects of the pandemic; they play a crucial role within society, helping to improve the health and wellbeing of communities.

With a range of specialisms to explore and a number of different settings in which to work, a diploma in counselling is an exciting opportunity to progress into a career in mental health.

What do counsellors do?

Counsellors help people to address and resolve issues that may affect them emotionally or physically, and that may have had a significant impact on their relationships, personal life or work life.

Typically, counselling involves engaging with a client or patient over a series of formal sessions, giving the client or patient a safe outlet to discuss their feeling and issues in a non-judgemental, non-biased setting.

As a counsellor, you aren’t required to give advice or opinions, your primary role is to help the client or patient understand their feelings and find ways to resolve or cope with their current situation.

Employed counsellor

Counsellors are often employed by rehabilitation centres, health clinics, crisis centres, schools, and correctional facilities. As an employed counsellor, you’ll tend to work as part of a wider health management team, supporting assigned clients with emotional, mental health and lifestyle needs. Some employed counsellor opportunities include:

• Drug and alcohol counsellor
• Student counsellor
• Youth counsellor
• Family and marriage counsellor
• Refugee counsellor
• Suicide or grief counsellor

Self-employed or independent counsellor

With a diploma in counselling, you can choose to set up your own counselling business. From this, you could choose to specialise in an area of particular interest to you, such as domestic violence, substance abuse or supporting victims of sexual assault.

You may also choose to set up dedicated support groups or offer consultancy services.

Other counselling careers

Completing a diploma in counselling provides you with a unique set of highly desirable, transferrable skills. While many who complete a counselling diploma choose to stick with a career that is close to their qualification, there are other opportunities where a diploma in counselling may prove beneficial, such as:

• NHS psychological wellbeing practitioner
• Careers advisor
• Children’s play therapist
• Mediator
• Support worker
• Social worker
• Crisis centre worker
• Rehabilitation support
• Probation officer
• HR
• Occupational health therapist
• Customer relations
• Fundraising

Qualified counsellors are trained to address issues with empathy, logic and understanding. Many of the skills acquired during your diploma are also highly transferrable and desirable across industries and roles of all shapes and sizes, so no matter what you choose, you’ll complete your counselling diploma with a wealth of knowledge and expertise that you can carry forward to a successful and rewarding career.

If you’re interested in finding out more about studying counselling with Chrysalis Courses, visit our dedicated counselling courses page to find out more, or request a prospectus today.