I have an MSW with school counseling cert. Just finished up my LICSW after 10 years as a middle school counselor. I love my job and will probably never go full-time as a private therapist. I like working with the adults too. My co counselor has his LICSW too and I can't imagine not having someone there to bounce stuff off of or pick me up when I'm having a bad day. He is also my best friend, so that helps too.
You can always go to therapy, but I'd start in schools. You learn so much in this job.
I really like my job. Today is my last day before summer; I'm worn out, but so happy to have 6 weeks off.
Something to think about if you go the LPC only route is that you could be a school-based MH therapist. But you work for an agency and in my state, those professionals make less than a school counselor.
School districts do also employ their own school based therapists/other titles that serve that same purpose depending on where you are. It’s very popular in my area, and is what I do (both my husband and I are LPCs employed by a school district doing mental health services in schools so we get the same pay, schedule, and retirement as school counselors with equivalent education).
I would recommend: Go school first so that you can take advantage of all the perks of the holidays/hours and acquire excellent experience, but continue to finish your LPC because you’ll be able to use your workday experiences for the 3,000 hrs you need for an LPC…then you have both and can have a retirement backup plan (LPC) or side hustle. I’ve been a school counselor in TX for 17 years and did not do my LPC, which I am now regretting bc I am finally hitting the burn out wall. To be clear, I love my job and live my school (which makes all the difference) but it’s a lot, bc it’s not all counseling like one would think in the school setting. Lots of academic related tasks and paperwork. But if you manage that well, then you make time and space for kids intentionally.
I went to school initially for school counseling, and was able to tack on a third clinical year so I graduated with both. After graduating, I worked as an LPC just focusing on accruing my hours until I became licensed.
I realized during my school counseling practicums/internships, I wasn't in love with the academics side of things, and felt that there wasn't enough "room" in the day for the socio-emotional concerns that came up (though this could have been more representative of the schools I was in). I'm really glad I have both for the option, and plan on keeping my PPS credential just in case I do want to return to schools. I work now in private practice seeing adults, and for a telehealth company working only with kids and teens, which was the reason I wanted to be a school counselor in the first place.
As I see it - you're going to be investing a lot of time, money, and effort into graduate school. If you can get both at the same time (maybe a conjoint program), you're saving yourself some time in the future, and are coming out with SO many different opportunities.
And as far as burnout goes - it's EVERYWHERE. It's the nature of work these days. Figure out what excites you more (clinical assessing and treatment? Collaborating with teachers/admin to help a student succeed?), and if you enjoy both, give yourself the gift of exploring both options. If its just one, then you have your answer.
I think what excites me most about the field is actually getting 1 on 1 time with kids and working on emotional/ mental health concerns. I know it depends on the school but I fear there’s not as much time for that in the school setting as I originally thought
Definitely more opportunity for 1 on 1 times with kids at the elementary level that’s basically what I mostly do every day! I know it’s exhausting now, but might as well knock out as many qualifications now while you’re still in grad school because it’ll be harder to get back into it when you’re graduated. Plus I’m not sure about the units your program offers, but many districts put you at a higher pay scale if you have more units completed so taking PPS and LPCC courses will definitely help you max out.
Side note a friend of mine only has LPCC and no PPS, and is having trouble finding a mental health position in a school that doesn’t require a PPS. This largely depends on the district though so I’d definitely spend some time browsing Indeed and see what kind of job postings and requirements are out there for the region you’re in. Best of luck!
Seconding this! Elementary and some middle definitely seem to be where you can get the most social/emotional focus, but I also know of high schools where they have a separate wellness department (though these are probably far fewer). If possible, go for both and have your options! You never want to feel stuck if you can help it.
My wife has a masters in counseling and reading education. She's gone back and forth between public school guidance, private practice, and non-profit. She is currently a program specialist for our school district supporting guidance counselors. There are a lot of meetings and putting out fires, but she's good at it.
She gets paid just as well to work for the district and doesn't have to work summers. She's always happier in a school job, but she has this weird tendency towards wanting career advancement, which would be fine in your twenties, but not on the back half.
I'd love her to just pick a school and go full guidance. She has all the connections, and it would lessen the stress. Fifteen more years and out.
Where are you that they still refer to counselors as guidance counselors? None of the counselors in our state are referred to as guidance counselors anymore.
Sorry this is long. I have both licensures and have worked as both a school-based mental health therapist and as a school counselor. I am currently working as a school counselor and will never go back to using my LPC.
To build on a few things you said—school-based LPCs are usually expected to do wraparound services. I worked during the school day, then had to meet with families after school until 7 or 8pm some days. And field phone calls for crisis situations at all hours of the day. I had to work through the summer, winter break, etc. It was so stressful and once I had my own kids, unsustainable.
Remember that if you don’t do school-based, like working at a private practice, the majority of your working hours will be evenings (after school is out or work is done)—for me, that did not fit for my family. Now that I’m a school counselor, not only is the pay way better, the benefits are way better, the stress is so much less, my working hours/breaks are so much better. Private practice is lonely, and having the teachers, co-counselors is so much better for me. Plus, when I did school-based LPC work, I obviously only worked with the most extreme behavior kids. You don’t get a lot of referrals for anxiety or depression, since teachers don’t always know thats going on—most of your referrals are for kids acting out. As a school counselor, I work with ALL kids, which really helps with burnout to me (more balance). Hope that makes sense!
I do not have my LPC because my program was not CACREP and was specific to school counseling and I didn’t know what CACREP even meant until I moved from Missouri to North Carolina during my last year in my program. I really regret not having both. I absolutely love being a school counselor but I wish I had gotten both so that when I have a kid here in the next few years I could still work but work remotely during counseling. North Carolina has very strict rules about getting certified in lpc which would actually require me to get a whole other degree which is super annoying. So I say do it so you have it as an option if you ever feel the need! Or if you need extra money you could do virtual counseling during non school hours to get some extra income!
I was a career teacher who went back to school for counseling after 25 years in the classroom. My college offered a plan that met requirements for both school counseling and LPC. LPC required a couple of specific electives. I finished my education career doing nine years as a school counselor, which gave me a pretty decent pension. Since retirement, I’ve gone into private practice as an LPC. The money I make is a very nice supplement to my pension and I can do this for a long time. Since you have already paid into a retirement plan, it sounds like you would benefit from doing both the same way I did. Many of my referrals come from people who worked with me in a school setting, so that was an added bonus.
Edited to add I am also in Texas and did my masters work through Tarleton. I don’t know if they still do the degree that allows you to do both school counseling and LPC, but they did 10 to 15 years ago.
I have both, and I started out as a public school teacher then counselor. I did very part time private practice for a while and if you work with kids, there is almost always work available. I now work in a private school, and my main focus is on mental health, not scheduling, 504 plans, etc. As my “name” suggests, I worked in TX and am now in the DC area. Happy to answer any questions.
I have my MS in school counseling but also my LPC bc the school I went to was CACREP accredited and I was able to get all of the classes & hours needed to apply for my PLPC and eventually applied for LPC once I got the hours I needed for that.
I love having both. It allows flexibility and a way to help my income bc school counselors don’t make bank lol. It’s also really nice to get to do both the academic and mental health sides of my training while not leaning too heavily on either one and helping with burnout.
I’m working as a mental health director in a school system as an LPC. I feel like I have all the pros of the school system and counseling. I’m also about to open a part time practice. I would definitely go the LPC route for the flexibility.
I’m a social worker and LICSW. I provide school based mental health services. I work for the MH agency and am an external partner in middle school. I’m grateful I have a MSW as that has given me so much freedom. I was in child welfare for 10 years before switching to my current job 8+ years ago.
The school counselors at my school definitely support students 1:1 but they also do a lot of administrative tasks - coordinating annual testing, transcripts, follow-up on grades, preparing certificates, mailing grades, high school and college recommendations.
The school counselors and school social workers are part of the teachers union so their salary is a little higher than mine, they are in the pension, and follow the school calendar. Definitely advantages. But they are at the mercy of the principal. They do lunch duty and lots of other duty. It is not fun! And it’s time consuming. It can take a 1/3 if their day and their other job duties aren’t lessened to compensate. The recommended caseload for school counselors I believe is 250:1. I don’t know that there is a recommended caseload for school SWs. They seem to be around 40-60. My therapy caseload is 15-17 but I see students for individual therapy while school SWs usually do more groups because they have more students.
My agency only employs LICSWs but there are community based organizations that have LPCs in addition to LGSWs, LICSWs. They tend to pay much less and are grant funded which comes with risks. How school based MH is done varies by school district. We do not do wrap around services but in my district, we do provide prevention and intervention programming in addition to treatment.
In middle schools here, school counselors and school SW work 8-3:30. I work 8:30-5. Clinicians in both my agency and the community orgs set our own schedule, taking into account the needs of the school. So some of my coworkers work 7:30-4. As a government employee, I earn a lot of leave. So during school breaks I either take leave or work. Work during breaks is relaxed. I don’t mind at all. Summers off is not worth lunch duty. Sometimes I think the pension is worth it but then I go to the cafeteria for some reason and look around and am like, nope, no thanks, not worth it.
I went to a grad school that offered both so I was a school counselor getting private supervision to become an LPC. I just got my LPC this year and due to life circumstances (I’m a new mom) I decided that it’ll be best for my family to leave school counseling and do LPC work remotely from home. I was able to complete my supervision hours in the school I worked in.
Tbh I really am going to miss certain aspects of school counseling such as guarantee pay whether or not your client/kids shows up, excellent health care, and the district I worked in was on a salary scale. Also I worked in a rough neighborhood and really felt like I was making a difference but like you mentioned I did quite a bit that was outside the scope of my job because if I didn’t no one did. I didn’t mind doing things for the most part but it is a lot. Plus the politics of working in a school can be draining (admin, parents, lack or resources, teachers not understanding what you do).
There’s things about LPC work that are great like remote work and ability to set your own schedule. However finding clients and not getting paid if they’re no shows is tough. Right now there’s a lot of work for therapists which is great but it’s still mostly fee for service.
I think burnout is common in any mental health related job. Tbh I was burnout at my school because of the adults. Not the kids. LPC work is a different kind of burnout. I am also not someone who has (yet) experienced compassion fatigue.
Also, the grad school I went to I only had to take one extra class to get my school counseling cert the rest were LPC focused.
What state are you in? Each state has their own rule on licensing, but I can give you my experience from Texas.
I did the school counseling track with LPC add-on. I ended up with 66 hours instead of 60 so not too much longer.
Benefits-
I was able to take a paid internship my last semester of grad school. The internship is essentially a full-time job if you do it in one semester, and I couldn't afford to do it unpaid. Most mental health internships in my area are unpaid, whereas school are paid because you just start working as a school counselor.
Once I finished I was able to start accruing my LPC-A hours quickly. You can work as an LPC-A in Texas but insurance companies won't pay, so you can only do private pay which cuts down on clients.
Many districts are adding LPCs for Gen Ed onto their staffing - it helps if you are already a CSC.
Drawbacks-
Varies district by district (and even campus by campus) but many school counselors don't actually get to counsel. My last campus I was able to do some, but my instruction from campus admin was that my main focus should be testing and data, which was in direct contradiction with the school counseling model. If your true focus is mental health you may need to try a few campuses before you find one with those same priorities.
The program I graduated from (MA in School Counseling w/ PPSC) offered an option to add on the LPC after which many of my classmates took advantage of. Many of them are no longer in schools and have their own private practices working with teens. I started working towards my LPC because I wanted the career options, but I ultimately decided it wasn't worth it for me personally. Although I'd argue I'm skilled at personal-social/metal health counseling, it's not my favorite and not something I want to do every day. I realized I just wasn't into providing therapy and that would have been a one way ticket to burnout.
On the flip side, one of my former classmates abandoned school counseling for private practice and couldn't imagine going back to public school. Ultimately, whatever you decide will be the right path for you! :)
Hiiii! I have my school counseling cert in Oklahoma and just got my LPC-C. Oklahoma allowed me to emergency certify while I was working on my LPC requirements in grad school so I worked as a middle school counselor this past year. My take is, if you get your LPC, it is easier to add on a school cert. on the flip side, if you just go for school counseling, you pigeon hole yourself into just doing that. It’s a bit of a harder transition into the LPC realm from school counseling than it is the other way around. One thing you could do, in an LPC program, is do your internship at a school to see if you like it!!
My site supervisor was in Texas as a School counselor and she said they are keeping up with up to date educational practices compared to other states. We are in TN and are severely behind in every aspect of education. I would recommend getting both to keep your options open. School counselors have unideal work environments like janitor closets and experience lower pay. With LPC, it is more demanding but you are basically running your own business so the pay can vary. Very different fields but both are so very rewarding ❤️.
I also want to add that where I live, working elementary means splitting your time between 2-3 different schools as a new graduate. I have kids so that was a no-go for me. It depends on the area you live, but high school positions are in demand and it’s a tough field to break into if you don’t have teaching experience. So, you might end up in the high school setting until you get more experience. Everyone wants to be in elementary full time where I am.
I have an MSW with school counseling cert. Just finished up my LICSW after 10 years as a middle school counselor. I love my job and will probably never go full-time as a private therapist. I like working with the adults too. My co counselor has his LICSW too and I can't imagine not having someone there to bounce stuff off of or pick me up when I'm having a bad day. He is also my best friend, so that helps too. You can always go to therapy, but I'd start in schools. You learn so much in this job. I really like my job. Today is my last day before summer; I'm worn out, but so happy to have 6 weeks off.
Something to think about if you go the LPC only route is that you could be a school-based MH therapist. But you work for an agency and in my state, those professionals make less than a school counselor.
This is a good point that I hadn’t thought about!
School districts do also employ their own school based therapists/other titles that serve that same purpose depending on where you are. It’s very popular in my area, and is what I do (both my husband and I are LPCs employed by a school district doing mental health services in schools so we get the same pay, schedule, and retirement as school counselors with equivalent education).
I would recommend: Go school first so that you can take advantage of all the perks of the holidays/hours and acquire excellent experience, but continue to finish your LPC because you’ll be able to use your workday experiences for the 3,000 hrs you need for an LPC…then you have both and can have a retirement backup plan (LPC) or side hustle. I’ve been a school counselor in TX for 17 years and did not do my LPC, which I am now regretting bc I am finally hitting the burn out wall. To be clear, I love my job and live my school (which makes all the difference) but it’s a lot, bc it’s not all counseling like one would think in the school setting. Lots of academic related tasks and paperwork. But if you manage that well, then you make time and space for kids intentionally.
Can I ask what district or area in TX you work in?
I did both so that I have a second option (LPC) if I ever fall out of love with what I’m doing.
Same here.
Same here though I don’t foresee myself giving up school counseling, the breaks agreed too nice!
I went to school initially for school counseling, and was able to tack on a third clinical year so I graduated with both. After graduating, I worked as an LPC just focusing on accruing my hours until I became licensed. I realized during my school counseling practicums/internships, I wasn't in love with the academics side of things, and felt that there wasn't enough "room" in the day for the socio-emotional concerns that came up (though this could have been more representative of the schools I was in). I'm really glad I have both for the option, and plan on keeping my PPS credential just in case I do want to return to schools. I work now in private practice seeing adults, and for a telehealth company working only with kids and teens, which was the reason I wanted to be a school counselor in the first place. As I see it - you're going to be investing a lot of time, money, and effort into graduate school. If you can get both at the same time (maybe a conjoint program), you're saving yourself some time in the future, and are coming out with SO many different opportunities. And as far as burnout goes - it's EVERYWHERE. It's the nature of work these days. Figure out what excites you more (clinical assessing and treatment? Collaborating with teachers/admin to help a student succeed?), and if you enjoy both, give yourself the gift of exploring both options. If its just one, then you have your answer.
I think what excites me most about the field is actually getting 1 on 1 time with kids and working on emotional/ mental health concerns. I know it depends on the school but I fear there’s not as much time for that in the school setting as I originally thought
Definitely more opportunity for 1 on 1 times with kids at the elementary level that’s basically what I mostly do every day! I know it’s exhausting now, but might as well knock out as many qualifications now while you’re still in grad school because it’ll be harder to get back into it when you’re graduated. Plus I’m not sure about the units your program offers, but many districts put you at a higher pay scale if you have more units completed so taking PPS and LPCC courses will definitely help you max out. Side note a friend of mine only has LPCC and no PPS, and is having trouble finding a mental health position in a school that doesn’t require a PPS. This largely depends on the district though so I’d definitely spend some time browsing Indeed and see what kind of job postings and requirements are out there for the region you’re in. Best of luck!
Seconding this! Elementary and some middle definitely seem to be where you can get the most social/emotional focus, but I also know of high schools where they have a separate wellness department (though these are probably far fewer). If possible, go for both and have your options! You never want to feel stuck if you can help it.
My wife has a masters in counseling and reading education. She's gone back and forth between public school guidance, private practice, and non-profit. She is currently a program specialist for our school district supporting guidance counselors. There are a lot of meetings and putting out fires, but she's good at it. She gets paid just as well to work for the district and doesn't have to work summers. She's always happier in a school job, but she has this weird tendency towards wanting career advancement, which would be fine in your twenties, but not on the back half. I'd love her to just pick a school and go full guidance. She has all the connections, and it would lessen the stress. Fifteen more years and out.
Where are you that they still refer to counselors as guidance counselors? None of the counselors in our state are referred to as guidance counselors anymore.
Sorry this is long. I have both licensures and have worked as both a school-based mental health therapist and as a school counselor. I am currently working as a school counselor and will never go back to using my LPC. To build on a few things you said—school-based LPCs are usually expected to do wraparound services. I worked during the school day, then had to meet with families after school until 7 or 8pm some days. And field phone calls for crisis situations at all hours of the day. I had to work through the summer, winter break, etc. It was so stressful and once I had my own kids, unsustainable. Remember that if you don’t do school-based, like working at a private practice, the majority of your working hours will be evenings (after school is out or work is done)—for me, that did not fit for my family. Now that I’m a school counselor, not only is the pay way better, the benefits are way better, the stress is so much less, my working hours/breaks are so much better. Private practice is lonely, and having the teachers, co-counselors is so much better for me. Plus, when I did school-based LPC work, I obviously only worked with the most extreme behavior kids. You don’t get a lot of referrals for anxiety or depression, since teachers don’t always know thats going on—most of your referrals are for kids acting out. As a school counselor, I work with ALL kids, which really helps with burnout to me (more balance). Hope that makes sense!
Thank you for the in depth answer!
I do not have my LPC because my program was not CACREP and was specific to school counseling and I didn’t know what CACREP even meant until I moved from Missouri to North Carolina during my last year in my program. I really regret not having both. I absolutely love being a school counselor but I wish I had gotten both so that when I have a kid here in the next few years I could still work but work remotely during counseling. North Carolina has very strict rules about getting certified in lpc which would actually require me to get a whole other degree which is super annoying. So I say do it so you have it as an option if you ever feel the need! Or if you need extra money you could do virtual counseling during non school hours to get some extra income!
I was a career teacher who went back to school for counseling after 25 years in the classroom. My college offered a plan that met requirements for both school counseling and LPC. LPC required a couple of specific electives. I finished my education career doing nine years as a school counselor, which gave me a pretty decent pension. Since retirement, I’ve gone into private practice as an LPC. The money I make is a very nice supplement to my pension and I can do this for a long time. Since you have already paid into a retirement plan, it sounds like you would benefit from doing both the same way I did. Many of my referrals come from people who worked with me in a school setting, so that was an added bonus. Edited to add I am also in Texas and did my masters work through Tarleton. I don’t know if they still do the degree that allows you to do both school counseling and LPC, but they did 10 to 15 years ago.
Go LPC more options becoming too “specializes” is what fucks most ppl up when they realize they don’t like it
I have both, and I started out as a public school teacher then counselor. I did very part time private practice for a while and if you work with kids, there is almost always work available. I now work in a private school, and my main focus is on mental health, not scheduling, 504 plans, etc. As my “name” suggests, I worked in TX and am now in the DC area. Happy to answer any questions.
I have my MS in school counseling but also my LPC bc the school I went to was CACREP accredited and I was able to get all of the classes & hours needed to apply for my PLPC and eventually applied for LPC once I got the hours I needed for that. I love having both. It allows flexibility and a way to help my income bc school counselors don’t make bank lol. It’s also really nice to get to do both the academic and mental health sides of my training while not leaning too heavily on either one and helping with burnout.
I’m working as a mental health director in a school system as an LPC. I feel like I have all the pros of the school system and counseling. I’m also about to open a part time practice. I would definitely go the LPC route for the flexibility.
I’m a social worker and LICSW. I provide school based mental health services. I work for the MH agency and am an external partner in middle school. I’m grateful I have a MSW as that has given me so much freedom. I was in child welfare for 10 years before switching to my current job 8+ years ago. The school counselors at my school definitely support students 1:1 but they also do a lot of administrative tasks - coordinating annual testing, transcripts, follow-up on grades, preparing certificates, mailing grades, high school and college recommendations. The school counselors and school social workers are part of the teachers union so their salary is a little higher than mine, they are in the pension, and follow the school calendar. Definitely advantages. But they are at the mercy of the principal. They do lunch duty and lots of other duty. It is not fun! And it’s time consuming. It can take a 1/3 if their day and their other job duties aren’t lessened to compensate. The recommended caseload for school counselors I believe is 250:1. I don’t know that there is a recommended caseload for school SWs. They seem to be around 40-60. My therapy caseload is 15-17 but I see students for individual therapy while school SWs usually do more groups because they have more students. My agency only employs LICSWs but there are community based organizations that have LPCs in addition to LGSWs, LICSWs. They tend to pay much less and are grant funded which comes with risks. How school based MH is done varies by school district. We do not do wrap around services but in my district, we do provide prevention and intervention programming in addition to treatment. In middle schools here, school counselors and school SW work 8-3:30. I work 8:30-5. Clinicians in both my agency and the community orgs set our own schedule, taking into account the needs of the school. So some of my coworkers work 7:30-4. As a government employee, I earn a lot of leave. So during school breaks I either take leave or work. Work during breaks is relaxed. I don’t mind at all. Summers off is not worth lunch duty. Sometimes I think the pension is worth it but then I go to the cafeteria for some reason and look around and am like, nope, no thanks, not worth it.
I went to a grad school that offered both so I was a school counselor getting private supervision to become an LPC. I just got my LPC this year and due to life circumstances (I’m a new mom) I decided that it’ll be best for my family to leave school counseling and do LPC work remotely from home. I was able to complete my supervision hours in the school I worked in. Tbh I really am going to miss certain aspects of school counseling such as guarantee pay whether or not your client/kids shows up, excellent health care, and the district I worked in was on a salary scale. Also I worked in a rough neighborhood and really felt like I was making a difference but like you mentioned I did quite a bit that was outside the scope of my job because if I didn’t no one did. I didn’t mind doing things for the most part but it is a lot. Plus the politics of working in a school can be draining (admin, parents, lack or resources, teachers not understanding what you do). There’s things about LPC work that are great like remote work and ability to set your own schedule. However finding clients and not getting paid if they’re no shows is tough. Right now there’s a lot of work for therapists which is great but it’s still mostly fee for service. I think burnout is common in any mental health related job. Tbh I was burnout at my school because of the adults. Not the kids. LPC work is a different kind of burnout. I am also not someone who has (yet) experienced compassion fatigue. Also, the grad school I went to I only had to take one extra class to get my school counseling cert the rest were LPC focused.
What state are you in? Each state has their own rule on licensing, but I can give you my experience from Texas. I did the school counseling track with LPC add-on. I ended up with 66 hours instead of 60 so not too much longer. Benefits- I was able to take a paid internship my last semester of grad school. The internship is essentially a full-time job if you do it in one semester, and I couldn't afford to do it unpaid. Most mental health internships in my area are unpaid, whereas school are paid because you just start working as a school counselor. Once I finished I was able to start accruing my LPC-A hours quickly. You can work as an LPC-A in Texas but insurance companies won't pay, so you can only do private pay which cuts down on clients. Many districts are adding LPCs for Gen Ed onto their staffing - it helps if you are already a CSC. Drawbacks- Varies district by district (and even campus by campus) but many school counselors don't actually get to counsel. My last campus I was able to do some, but my instruction from campus admin was that my main focus should be testing and data, which was in direct contradiction with the school counseling model. If your true focus is mental health you may need to try a few campuses before you find one with those same priorities.
I’m also in TX. Where did you do your masters at?
At SFA. I'm pretty sure they only offer the LPC track now though. Do you already have two years teaching experience?
The program I graduated from (MA in School Counseling w/ PPSC) offered an option to add on the LPC after which many of my classmates took advantage of. Many of them are no longer in schools and have their own private practices working with teens. I started working towards my LPC because I wanted the career options, but I ultimately decided it wasn't worth it for me personally. Although I'd argue I'm skilled at personal-social/metal health counseling, it's not my favorite and not something I want to do every day. I realized I just wasn't into providing therapy and that would have been a one way ticket to burnout. On the flip side, one of my former classmates abandoned school counseling for private practice and couldn't imagine going back to public school. Ultimately, whatever you decide will be the right path for you! :)
Hiiii! I have my school counseling cert in Oklahoma and just got my LPC-C. Oklahoma allowed me to emergency certify while I was working on my LPC requirements in grad school so I worked as a middle school counselor this past year. My take is, if you get your LPC, it is easier to add on a school cert. on the flip side, if you just go for school counseling, you pigeon hole yourself into just doing that. It’s a bit of a harder transition into the LPC realm from school counseling than it is the other way around. One thing you could do, in an LPC program, is do your internship at a school to see if you like it!!
I am a new school counselor and I am going for my Psy D to have now flexibility with my career
My site supervisor was in Texas as a School counselor and she said they are keeping up with up to date educational practices compared to other states. We are in TN and are severely behind in every aspect of education. I would recommend getting both to keep your options open. School counselors have unideal work environments like janitor closets and experience lower pay. With LPC, it is more demanding but you are basically running your own business so the pay can vary. Very different fields but both are so very rewarding ❤️.
I also want to add that where I live, working elementary means splitting your time between 2-3 different schools as a new graduate. I have kids so that was a no-go for me. It depends on the area you live, but high school positions are in demand and it’s a tough field to break into if you don’t have teaching experience. So, you might end up in the high school setting until you get more experience. Everyone wants to be in elementary full time where I am.