A counselor provides support and guidance to individuals, couples, families, and groups. Counselors work in a variety of settings to help people work through or overcome their personal, social and psychological challenges. A counselor who offers primarily mental and behavioral health counseling may be known as a mental health counselor or therapist. Guidance counselors help people with their educational and career goals.
The practice of counseling varies depending on the counselor’s specialty, setting and patient. In general, a counselor may:
- Provide individual, group, family, and couples/marriage counseling
- Provide school and career planning guidance
- Advocate for patients and certain populations, such as abused women, children, and the disabled, to help them overcome institutional and social barriers
- Perform risk assessments and personality tests
- Evaluate and develop counseling plans for their patients, re-evaluating and modifying these plans as needed
- Provide coping skills and therapeutic techniques to patients, such as breathing techniques, talk therapy, and the use of visual imagery
- Collaborate, refer, and consult with other professionals, such as teachers, psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists
- Involuntarily commits patients in emergency situations
Many different types of healthcare professionals can practice counseling, including licensed counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists. Counselors may also be known by the following names: therapist, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, and guidance counselor.
There are 855 specialists practicing Counseling in Northampton, MA with an overall average rating of 3.9 stars. There is 1 hospital near Northampton, MA with affiliated Counseling specialists, including Baystate Medical Center.