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Role hub · Mental Health Counselors

Mental Health Counselor: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Quick answer

Mental Health Counselors counsel and advise individuals and groups to promote optimum mental and emotional health, with an emphasis on prevention. The most commonly reported education requirement is a master's degree (89% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Preparation
Job Zone 5 of 5
extensive preparation
Most common education
Master's Degree
89% of workers
Explore the role

Every page for Mental Health Counselors

SalaryMental Health Counselor salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →How to becomeMental Health Counselor how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →ResumeMental Health Counselor resume

Keywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

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The work

What mental health counselors do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Maintain confidentiality of records relating to clients' treatment.
  2. Encourage clients to express their feelings and discuss what is happening in their lives, helping them to develop insight into themselves or their relationships.
  3. Counsel clients or patients, individually or in group sessions, to assist in overcoming dependencies, adjusting to life, or making changes.
  4. Perform crisis interventions to help ensure the safety of the patients and others.
  5. Fill out and maintain client-related paperwork, including federal- and state-mandated forms, client diagnostic records, and progress notes.
  6. Assess patients for risk of suicide attempts.
  7. Perform crisis interventions with clients.
  8. Guide clients in the development of skills or strategies for dealing with their problems.
Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Social PerceptivenesscoreActive ListeningcoreSpeakingcoreReading ComprehensionWritingJudgment and Decision MakingCritical ThinkingService OrientationComplex Problem Solving

Knowledge areas: Therapy and Counseling, Psychology, Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Sociology and Anthropology, Education and Training.

Tools and technology

Software mental health counselors use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Client information database systemsMedical software
  • Patient electronic medical record EMR softwareMedical software
  • Statistical softwareAnalytical or scientific software
  • Test interpretation softwareAnalytical or scientific software
  • Microsoft AccessData base user interface and query softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft ExcelSpreadsheet softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft Office softwareOffice suite softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft OutlookElectronic mail softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft PowerPointPresentation softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft WordWord processing softwareHot technology
  • Oracle PeopleSoftEnterprise resource planning ERP softwareHot technology
  • Database softwareData base user interface and query software

Also called: Behavior Analyst, Behavioral Health Counselor, Case Manager, Clinician, Counselor, Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC).

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.