How to Become a Counselor for Teenagers? (Updated 2024)

Teenage life is the most challenging life for anemone. There are a lot of changes that teens go through. Changes in their environment, bullying at schools, facing anger issues, etc may make it difficult for the adolescent to open up with others. For this many parents take teen counseling. Depending upon the problem faced by teenagers, there are different types of therapists. As a teenager counsellor, you will be getting connected with the teenagers emotionally and mentally. If you are interested in becoming a teen counsellor, it is important to know how to become a Counselor for Teenagers.

Quick Takeaways

• Counsellors for teen counselling help teenagers boost their self-esteem and also help to develop skills like anger management
• To become a teen counsellor you will need to complete the education, gain the necessary experience, get the license and start practising. How to become a Counselor for Teenagers? (Updated 2023)To become a teen counsellor you will need to complete the education, gain the necessary experience, get the license and start practising. 
• There are generally different types of teen counsellors – Behavioral Counselors, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Family therapists.

However, you must read till the end so that you do not miss any important facts related to becoming a teen counseling.

What is teen counselling?

Teen counselling helps teenagers with their anxiety, depression, and other related issues. Therapists for teen counselling help teenagers boost their self-esteem and also help to develop skills like anger management. As a teenager counsellor, you will be getting connected with the teenagers emotionally and mentally. Also, you need to find out what the problems faced by them. For this, it is very important to make them open up to you. You have to be very patient and calm while treating them. You can help them by meeting them, and talking to them live on video chat or over a call. 

Types of teen Counselors

Depending upon the problem faced by teenagers, there are different types of therapists or counselors–

1. Behavioral Counselors

Behavioral therapists or Counselors are those who help teens to change their behavior against anger, anxiety, etc. As a behavioral counselor, you will not be curing the problem but will advise on how to change your behavior with the problem. There are mainly two methods that you will be using to help your patients-

2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

You will find out how the patients react to their anxiety or anger issues and will help them change their thoughts and reactions. 

3. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

It is somehow related to CBT, but in addition, this method also helps the patient to deal with how to deal with relationships.

4. Family therapists

They are the ones who are in contact with the patient’s family to help the family to communicate with the teen more effectively. You will be counseling the family members about how to communicate with the teen. Also, you will be helping them to know how to behave when they are around the teen.

5. School-based Counselors

Most high schools have counselors that help teens with the problems that they may be facing in school. As a school-based counselor, you will be dealing with problems related to bullying, or related to studying. 

6. Group therapists

Teen therapy sometimes includes Group therapy for treating the teens. In this therapy, there are one or more 1 counselors and a group of teens that are going through some difficulties. You will be helping the students to communicate with each other and make them trust other people. Group therapy is generally taken by teens which are struggling with substance abuse or eating disorders.

7. Other therapists

Many times your teen feels difficulty even opening up with the counselors. In such a case the best therapy that may help them is by appointing art therapists. Even many counselors will involve animals and any other kind of activities that help them.

How to become a Counselor for Teenagers?

To become a teen counselor you have to follow this simple guide-

1. Educational Background

To start with, obviously, you need education qualifications for becoming a teen counselor. In most cases, you have to keep your major as Psychology for your Bachelor’s. After completing a bachelor’s, you must go for a master’s. You may need to take a Master of Arts in Counseling Master in Social Work. Also today there are lots of online programs that are available related to it. You can avail of any of them to get started.

2. Gaining Experience

Having relevant experience is necessary to get a license. You would need 3000 hours of clinical practice to become LCSW whereas to become LMHCs and LMFT you need 3000-4000 hours. Try to take up voluntary projects to get some experience along with your studies. Do various internships related to your field. This will help you to get the required experience for becoming a counselor.

3. Applying for the license

There are two types of licenses that you may apply for – Provisional and State licenses. To get the provisional license you need to complete the required amount of hours but for a state license, you will have to clear exams of the Association of Exam Boards and National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination. 

4. Start legal Practise

Once you have completed all the procedures, and get the license, you can start your legal practices. You can start a private practice or else you can also go for government practice. 

 How much does a Teen counselor earn?

You will be shocked to hear that job openings in this field are expected to increase by 22% by the end of 2028 according to BSL. This means that it is one of the rapidly-growing sectors. Also, the statistics of BSL show that the median annual salary of a teen counselor is $46,240.

Conclusion

In their teenage years, many children face difficult situations to deal with. They might have anger, anxiety, or any other kind of issues. For this, it becomes important to appoint a teen counselor who can help them. You can also start your journey by earning a degree in it, and getting some experience and a license.