what are the Qualifications to be a councelor and how many years of school ?

Answer 1

It depends on what you mean by counselor. If you are referring to a therapist position in which you see clients and bill by the hour, you are looking at a master's degree. That typically requires a four year bachelor's degree and two years of graduate study in some sort of counseling field. If you did a bachelor's degree in social work, you could do an accelerated MSW in one year. Other masters fields that allow you to practice include counseling, counseling and guidance, psychology, etc....

Depending on the state in which you live, there are different licensing regulations and supervised internships are typically required, up to thousands of hours. School counselors are treated a bit differently, depending on the state. But since states regulate the field of counseling, I recommend you check with your state office about the requirements for being an LPC (licensed professional counselor).

To sum it up, you are probably looking at six years of college (4 undergraduate, two grad years) and a year of supervised internship at the beginning of your practice. Don't let that dissuade you - it is a rewarding career.

Answer 2

To be a counselor, you only have to have a BA. BUT this is a really limited position and you wouldn't be able to work 1-on-1 with clients. Without a higher degree, you won't be able to get licensed which means that you'll pretty much always worked in a supervised position. For example, you could supervise patients in a hospital or work for a crisis center doing intakes and stuff like that.

If you want to work 1-on-1 with clients, you'll have to have *at least* a masters in either social work or psychology. This is typically a 2 year degree. A degree in social work may be better because not all states allow someone with a masters degree in psychology to be licensed to provide unsupervised services.

Answer 3

Of course, you could be a school counselor after 4 years of college. Some counselors get their Masters degree in a specific field. This can be an additional one or two years of schooling.