Your CV should reflect the best of you.
If you’re after a career in counselling, you’ve got to write a CV that clearly defines the experience, skills, and qualifications required for the role. That’s not all, you’ve got to do this with 15 seconds, as that’s all a recruiter initially gives each job application.
Counsellors work in a variety of places such as mental health facilities, hospitals, and schools. They assist service users to overcome mental health problems and overcome emotional issues.
Because the role covers such as wide field, a one size fits all CV will not work. Instead for the best results you’ve got to submit a document that is aimed at the exact role you are applying for.
On this page, we’ll not only describe in detail how to write an outstanding Counsellor CV, but also provide pre-written examples you can use as guides.
By: Iejaz Uddin – 23 April 2024
Page overview:
- Counsellor CV examples
- Guide to writing a Counsellor CV
- CV Structure
- Write a Counsellor CV personal summary
- List your Counsellor work experience
- Describe your Counsellor skills
- Include an Education section
Counsellor CV example
Maxine Corry
Address
T: 0044 123 456 7890
E: info@dayjob.com
PERSONAL SUMMARY
A compassionate, easy to talk to and courageous counsellor who has a track record of making a real positive difference to people’s lives. Maxine has experience of helping clients explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. She is fully accredited and has knowledge of using the very latest counselling monitoring and evaluation systems.
An expert at developing personalised plans based on a clients’ goals and objectives. A superb communicator who can listen carefully to people, ask questions, and then check to ensure that she properly understands a situation. A true professional who is committed to staying updated on the latest research, techniques, and best practices in counselling.
In her current role she has had a meaningful impact on the lives of individuals seeking support. At work she has a reputation for maintaining accurate and confidential client records in compliance with strict legal and ethical standards.
As part of her duties, she has created a confidential environment where service users can feel comfortable and relaxed. Through her career she has gained extensive knowledge of a wide range of approaches, activities and exercises designed to promote personal wellbeing.
On a personal level she has strong communication skills along with the ability to guide and motivate clients towards positive change. Right now, she is eager to be part of an organisation that prides itself on helping vulnerable people and where she will get endless job satisfaction.
CAREER HISTORY
COUNSELLOR – Start Date – Present
Employers name – Location
Responsible for working with people who are experiencing a wide range of emotional and psychological problems such as such as depression, anxiety, stress and relationship breakdowns.
Duties;
- Providing counselling to service users face to face, over the telephone, or online.
- Communicating effectively with clients to assess their needs and progress.
- Providing targeted counselling and emotional support to both individuals and couples in need of assistance.
- Keeping up to date and accurate administrative records of client interactions and appointments.
- Ensuring the confidentiality of sensitive records relating to service users.
- Liaising with backroom admin staff over new clients, and other administrative issues.
- Referring clients to appropriate third party external partners.
- Delivering counselling assessments to identify the individual’s support needs.
- Attending team meetings and making contributions to any discussions taking place.
- Assisting people who have drug addiction or alcohol related problems.
- Working with clients who have mild to moderate mental health problems.
- Monitoring client progress and adjusting their treatment plans accordingly.
- Helping people to deal with challenges and make positive changes to their lives.
- Passing on and referring clients to other sources of help, as and when is appropriate.
- Can establish rapport with people from all backgrounds and to gain their trust.
- Have experience of working as part of a multidisciplinary team.
- Liaising with other healthcare providers, agencies, and community resources to put together client care plans.
- Assess clients for their suitability for counselling.
- Attending multi-disciplinary meetings relating to clients’ referrals.
- Keeping accurate and coherent records of all clinical activity in line with service protocols.
JOB TITLE – Start Date – End Date
Employers name – Location
KEY SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES
Professional
- Delivering high quality therapeutic support to substance misusing clients.
- Familiar with specialist counselling software and data management systems.
- Experience of working in partnership with a range of statutory and non-statutory agencies.
- Ability to develop plans tailored to individual needs and goals.
- Helping clients to talk about issues they feel they are not able to normally share with others.
- Working with children and young people both on an individual level and as part of a group.
- Empathetic, non-judgmental, and willing to listen to all sides before making a decision.
- Keeping up to date with advances in evidence based psychological therapies and mental health.
- Ability to manage own caseload and time.
- Experience of writing clear reports and letters to referrers, authority figures and regulatory bodies.
Personal
- Ability to read a situation and then adapt my communication style to suit a wide range of people or circumstances.
- Delivering counselling services in a responsive, efficient, ethical, and professional manner.
- Good communication and inter-personal skills.
- Superb social skills and able to build relationships with people from all backgrounds.
- Maintaining a non-judgemental, congruent, and respectful approach towards clients.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Administrative records
Mental health
Trauma
Empowering individuals
Listening skills
Reporting tools
Depression
Interpersonal Psychotherapy
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
University name – Degree details Study Dates
College name – Qualifications Study Dates
School name – Subjects / Grades Study Dates
REFERENCES
Available on request.
Counsellor CV layout
Guide to writing a Counsellor CV
If you enjoy helping people with psychological or emotional problems, then counselling could be the ideal job for you.
What’s more, you could find employment opportunities across a variety of sectors such as social services, education, human resource departments and charities. Meaning that with the right counsellor CV, you can literally get a job anywhere.
Counsellors are tasked with resolving the personal issues of service users experiencing difficult and distressing events in their lives. They must meet with people to identify their problems and then through a series of formal sessions talk about the issues and feeling their facing. Putting all of this down on a piece of paper is no easy feat!
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could? Well, you can, read on to find out how.
Guide overview:
- CV Structure
- Write a Counsellor CV personal summary
- List your Counsellor work experience
- Describe your Counsellor skills
- Include an Education section
CV Structure
The layout of your CV is essentially it’s blueprint. It’s about how information is presented and how it looks.
There are three main formats job seekers can choose from, they are chronological, functional and combination (also known as hybrid). Each of these are useful for a particular type of candidate with their own set of circumstances. The differences between them revolve around what information employers want to see first and how much they want to see.
Irrespective of which design you go for, your CV should include all of the below sections;
- Contact details
- Personal summary
- Work experience
- Skill sets
- Education
Here’s an outline of the most used formats, along with their pros and cons.
Chronological CV
This is everyone’s favourite. Both jobseekers and recruiters like it because of its simplistic design which allows information to be easily scanned. It puts more emphasis on a person’s rich work history and is perfect for those with long steady careers and tons of achievements.
Functional CV
Also known as a skills based CV, this is a format that concentrates more on your professional competencies rather than work experience. Ideal for entry level job seeker with little real life experience, graduates and people re-entering the jobs market. It’s also good for people changing careers and not much exposure of the position they’re applying for.
Combination or hybrid CV
As its name implies this design combines elements of both the Chronological and Functional formats. It places equal emphasis on an individual’s work experience and skill sets. It’s the go to layout for people with lots of relevant skills that the employer wants.
Write a Counsellor CV personal summary
This short bit of text sits at the top of your CV and is an introduction to everything below it.
Being the first thing that’s usually read, it’s a great opportunity to grab the recruiter’s attention and pull them towards your application.
Also known as personal statements, it’s a small paragraph of no more than a handful of sentences that should get straight to the point. A good way to do this is to use keywords from the job description in your CV. So, before you start writing it, make a list of your most relevant points that match the job requirements and then build your summary around these strengths.
In a role like this, immediately stress your ability to give emotional and mental support to vulnerable people and assist them to navigate difficult situations in their life. If possible, back up your claims with figures and mention any awards you’ve received.
A well written one will get you noticed and give prospective employers a good understanding of how you would fit into their organization.
List your Counsellor work experience
If you have work experience from previous counselling or non counselling roles, this is where you put it. It could be anything from caring for people with mental health issues, to supporting those with addictions.
Demonstrate your experience of working in the real world and practical hands on expertise. Through concise sentences describe your work duties and back these up with quantifiable achievements and statistics.
Layout your career history in reverse-chronological order, beginning with the current or recent position first and backwards through all the others.
Avoid stuffing your sections with unrelated previous roles or old positions from 15 years ago. Instead place most emphasis on those jobs related to the vacancy and your present or most current roles. If one of your previous positions is relevant to the position you’re applying to, unashamedly highlight that more than the others. Employers are more interested in the here and now rather than the past.
Describe your Counsellor skills
Support your job application further by including a broad range of technical and interpersonal skills in your CV. The key to doing this properly is relevancy, which you can do by matching your abilities to the requirements of the job.
As each job you apply for varies from others, it’s important to read the job description to identify the phrases and wording used to describe the roles requirements. Once you have these you should mimic those precise keywords into your skills section. For instance, is an applicant is required to be able to listen, empathise and maintain confidentiality, then insert these exact words in your CV.
Give employers a further snapshot of your competencies, by having dedicated headings for both soft and hard skills. This will make it easier for them to quickly scan spot your highly valued abilities.
Areas to focus on in a counsellor CV
- How you can establish a relationship of trust with clients.
- Help clients to make decisions about their circumstances.
- Keeping accurate administrative records.
- Your ability to empathize with your clients.
- Your listening skills.
- Ability to cope with emotional situations.
- Show your patient and calm manner
- How you can identify behavioural issues and provides solutions to tackle them.
- Your communication skills.
Include an Education section
The jobs market can be tough.
It’s even tougher if you’re up against equally experienced candidates. One way to beat these is through your academic qualifications. If you have more sought-after ones than the competition, then it can be what makes you stand out from the others. Not only can they reinforce your suitability for a role, but they can also complement your life experience and professional skills.
At a minimum, counsellors need degrees in counselling, social work, or related fields. Further licenses or certifications may also be required. As with all the other CV sections, only include those that relate to the job vacancy and list them in reverse chronological order, with your most recent first.
Give the name of the qualification as well as the institution, awarding body and the date of completion.
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