Almost all the fields these days require proper counselling and hence, there are great career options in counselling available for you in India.
If you have ever given any useful advice to your friend or relative in any of his academic, career or personal life problems due to which that person has successfully solved his problem and his life has been filled with new hope, confidence and enthusiasm, then you can become a successful counselor. Effective counseling is needed in every work field for the sustainable development and proper functioning of all the businesses in the whole world including India because only a qualified counselor can prove to be a well-wisher of his clients like their parents, teachers, friends and advisors and hence, there are many great career options available for you in the field of counseling in India. Let us gain important information about the promising career prospects in counseling by reading this article further.
Academic Courses and Eligibility Criteria for Counselling in India
In our country, students who pass their 12th class in any stream from any educational board can pursue various certificate, diploma and undergraduate/postgraduate degree courses such as:
- Certificate – Counselling
- Diploma in Educational Counselling
- BA/ BSc – Psychology/ Applied Psychology
- MA/MSc – Psychology/Applied Psychology/Counselling Psychology
- M.Ed. – Guidance Psychology
- MSc – Psychological Counselling/ Counselling and Psychotherapy
- MPhil – Guidance and Counselling
- PG Diploma – Counselling Psychology/ Guidance and Counselling/ Psychological Counselling
- PhD – Counselling / Counselling Psychology
Note: Students can also pursue some educational courses in the field of counseling through correspondence or distance learning.
Do various counselling courses from these leading educational institutes of India
- Delhi University, Delhi
- Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development, New Delhi
- National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi
- Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak
- Banaras Hindu University, Banaras
- Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
- Punjab University, Chandigarh
- Aligarh University, Aligarh
- Christ University, Bangalore
Working skills required for counselors
If you want to succeed in the counseling profession, you must have the following working skills:
- The counselor can listen to the conversation and problems of his clients or patients with great attention and concentration.
- Counselors can write their client or patient’s case in very clear words and communicate it to other people or important agencies.
- A counselor must have excellent interviewing skills to ask his or her clients or patients a variety of questions about their problems.
- Empathy is the basis of the counseling profession, that is, while dealing with his clients and patients, the counselor should consider their pain and problems as his own.
- The counselor should be able to clearly explain the problems or health issues to his or her clients and/or patients.
- Dealing with people suffering from depression or suicidal tendencies on a professional and humane basis is an important working skill for these professionals.
- Counselling is a confidential service and these professionals must take full care of confidentiality while dealing with their clients’ cases.
- Similarly, a career counselor should acquire information from various career resources from time to time.
- The counselor must have the latest career updates.
These are the career options available for counselors in India
The job of a professional counselor is to provide advice to different people according to their needs and/or problems.
Major Job Profiles/Career Options for Counselors in India
- Educational and Career Guidance Counselor – These professionals provide guidance to students in various schools, colleges and universities regarding education, subject courses and future career goals. These counselors also provide useful advice to students to deal with their personal problems, academic problems, social or behavior problems efficiently.
- Career Counselor – These professionals give important advice to fresh graduates, students and professionals regarding their jobs and career. These professionals give useful advice to these students, freshers and various professionals to choose the right career option according to their talent, educational qualification and interest and solve various career related problems of these professionals and students.
- Marriage and Family Counselor – These professionals provide necessary and useful advice to their clients or people from different sections of the society to solve all the problems related to marriage and family.
- Health Counselor – Just like doctors treat various diseases, health counselors provide all the necessary advice to various patients and their caretakers regarding various diseases, medicine dosage, diet, etc. These professionals also provide important health tips to healthy clients such as diet plans or necessary advice about physical fitness.
- Mental Health Counselor – These professionals study the emotions and behavior of mentally ill or mentally unstable people accurately and give necessary instructions and advice. These professionals give useful advice for life to people suffering from depression, stress, anxiety and suicidal tendencies.
- Rehabilitation Counselor – These professionals play a vital role in the rehabilitation of people who are physically handicapped or mentally distressed due to birth, illness, accident or any other reason and these professionals keep giving useful advice from time to time to solve every problem of the disabled.
- Drug Abuse Counselor – These professionals work in various de-addiction centers and help people through their useful counseling to quit health and life-threatening addictions like drugs, smoking or alcohol.
Top Recruiters for Counselors in India
If you want to pursue the profession of a counselor then you can apply to the following major recruiting institutes in India such as:
- Schools, colleges and universities
- Online Guidance Portals
- Skill training centers
- Professional Institutes
- Drug Addiction Treatment Center
- Social and Family Issues Related Units
- Rehabilitation Centers
- Career Counselling Centres/ Agencies
- Placement Service Institutes
- Private Practice
Salary Package of Counselors in India
In our country, you can earn an average of 30-40 thousand rupees per month in the field of counseling. According to the educational qualification and work experience of these professionals, their salary keeps increasing year after year. Counselors doing private practice get a fee of at least Rs 500 to Rs 2000 for each counseling session. Top expert counselors in this field can earn 70-80 thousand rupees per month or even more.
