Where to focus
March 22, 2018
During our master’s program (which in itself is a specialty, Clinical Mental Health) we are exposed to several other specialties.
- Couples and families
- Children
- Lifestyle and career
- Community mental health
- Addiction
After listening to several podcasts and reading several books and blogs the message I received was counselors should specialize, pick a niche, or find a focus. What happens when you don’t know what to do or in which direction you should go?
In a perfect world a counselor would already know the population with whom they want to work and would apply to be an intern in an organization who serves their desired population. Or after graduation working with that population over the following three years.
That doesn’t always work…
Internship: Take whatever placement you can get to stay enrolled in class and graduate on time.
3 year work period: Passed the test and would like to apply for full license as soon as possible. Not yet set on a population. Apply for all the jobs! Take whatever is offered!
Now that my LPC application can be submitted in about the next 80 days. Where do I apply? What path do I take? With whom should I place my focus?
Options:
- Continue to work for the organization where I am currently employed.
- Brainstorm with supervisor to determine which topics are most important or where interests naturally lie.
- Open business or join a group practice and just see clients until I figure it out.
- Find old textbooks and try to remember which class I found most interesting.
- Use continuing education requirement as a means to find interesting topics to include conferences and lectures.
I have done most of these things and based on my current employment and other degrees the logical field for me to go into is Lifestyle and Career.
When I sit and try to visualize myself as a career counselor I worry for two reasons: (1) will I spend all day reviewing resumes; and (2) shouldn’t I be focusing my efforts on a path where my state license is required?
What to do, what to do?