There are several different career paths for a counselor, but most require some form of certification before you can legitimately use the word "counselor" as an official description of what you do. You can be a mental health counselor, you can be a drug counselor, or you can be a school guidance counselor. First, however, counselor certification is required. To that end, the National Board for Certified Counselors offers certification exams for all three of these types of counselors as well as a general counselor exam. The certifications are:
Before you can take the test for any of the counselor certifications in this list, a certain amount of graduate-level course work is required. For instance, the CCMHC exam requires 60 credits hours of graduate study in counseling plus counseling experience and a passing score on the National Clinical Mental Health Counselor Examination (NCMHCE). Similarly, the NCSC exam requires a master's degree in counseling and a passing score on the NCMHCE. And, the MAC requires at least 12 hours of graduate course work on addiction, three years supervised experience, and a passing score on the Examination for Master Addictions Counselors (EMAC). Once you have your counselor certification, you can call yourself a National Certified Counselor in your particular field.
Unfortunately, national licensure is not in itself sufficient to practice as a counselor in some localities. State-level licensure is sometimes necessary as well, though these certifications will help you obtain those, and in many states, the NCE is in itself adequate for local counselor certification. For specifics, you'll need to contact the agency in your state responsible for counselor licensing.
Even though you must already have an advanced education in counseling in order to take any of these exams, it is not recommended that you take the exams without preparation. Study guides are available and may be purchased on the Internet.
|