What is it Like Having a Career as a Marriage Counselor?
Jan 15, 2015 | 12:00 pm
A marriage counselor career can be a challenging one. Some days you think that you should mark off 10 paces and let them duel it out, and other days you could actually believe that you have seen a true love story. What’s the difference, the people involved mostly. You will come in with a set of priorities and standard structures and they will try to assert their correctness in the situation.
What Will I do in a Marriage Counselor Career?
The first thing that you will do is re-load your stock of patience daily! That’s patience, not patients. The couples coming in will have issues and anger that have overflowed into their lives, to the point where they literally need you to save them. Some of the issues can be trite; such as imagined infidelities or irritating quirks. Some may be huge, such as past trauma or a mental disorder. True infidelity does come into play; sometimes it’s all just a matter of the wife lamenting that the husband no longer makes her laugh. There is a variety of reasons, but the prime questions that you will deal with is, “Do they want to save the marriage and why?”
What Kind of Work Will You Do?
Most marriage counselors will work with couples; and occasionally, the extended family to help them deal with the crisis they all face. You help them deal with it either by providing group therapy or helping partners improve their communication skills. The education and training requirements for this profession is fairly extensive. Depending on the state and organization that you work for, most marriage counselors will need to complete a master’s degree in addition to two years of supervised training. If you are interested in a service-oriented career, the opportunity to help others may very well outweigh any drawbacks. Especially when there are kids involved, creating a situation where an amicable separation or reconciliation can occur is a joy to witness.
Are There Other Ways to Become a Marriage Counselor?
Pastors often act as initial stage marriage counselors. The more difficult problems are often referred to outside resources, but pastors often have a truly good service to offer, pre-marriage counseling. Looking at why you are getting married and what each of you expect out of the marriage can be illuminating and on a rare occasion, can even lead to calling off a marriage that had disaster written all over it.
The marriage counselor career can be a stressful balancing act. For those who choose it though, it can be the most rewarding career imaginable. To take people who feel betrayed and help them see a better path is truly satisfying. Also, to help a family reach a point where the parents can share and mutually raise their children even though they are apart can make lives better for many.
This is a career that has a wide variety of options, and each of these will be rewarding in terms of compensation as well as the people you get to meet and help.