Mental Health Counselors
On the Job
Mental Health Counselors help people to have improved mental and emotional health. They may focus on addiction, parenting, marital problems, self-esteem, managing stress, and other issues.
Typical Work Tasks
People who work in this career often:
- Provide basic health care services.
- Refer clients to community or social service programs.
- Complete documentation required by programs or regulations.
- Develop working relationships with others to facilitate program activities.
- Maintain client records.
- Write reports or evaluations.
- Maintain professional social services knowledge.
- Collect information about clients.
- Collect information about community health needs.
- Interview clients to gather information about their backgrounds, needs, or progress.
Typical Working Conditions
- The freedom to determine tasks, priorities, and goals.
- Frequent contact with others.
- Freedom to make decisions without supervision.
- Working indoors in environmentally controlled conditions.
- Sitting.
- Meeting strict deadlines.
- Working with a group or team.
This page includes information from the O*NET 24.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Source: You can learn about our data sources in the About Us section.