Counseling
Clinical Mental Health Counseling

General Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Career exploration guide

This guide provides tools to help you explore careers related to this specialization. Use this information to start researching this field and the opportunities in it. This research can help you make a transition into positions related to this field. Start by gaining an overview of this program and learning about the field, jobs, and employment settings that are related.

About this specialization

The General Clinical Mental Health Counseling specialization is designed for graduate program counseling learners who want to take advantage of maximum flexibility in choosing their additive course content. Learners can select any four courses within the MS Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, to including PLAY-prefixed programs*, to create their General Specialization within the 90-credit MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program. This specialization is not designed to prepare students to pursue professional licensure in the addictions field or education field.

*prerequisite requirements may apply to COUN or PLAY courses

Skills gained through this specialization:

This specialization was designed to help you gain the following skills related to this field:

  • Apply ethical, legal and professional standards in counseling activities.
  • Infuse multicultural counseling and social justice competencies into counseling activities to enhance counseling identity development.
  • Integrate knowledge of counseling theory, research, and professional literature to choose activities that promote optimal development for individuals, groups, and systems.
  • Communicate in a manner that is ethical, scholarly, professional, and consistent with the expectations for members of professional communities.

Explore this field

Professional associations, social networks, and other industry-specific resources can provide a wealth of information about a specific field or industry, including best practices, career overviews, trends and access to industry professionals. By reviewing website information, attending events, and connecting with people in the field, you can deepen your knowledge about the field. 

Professional associations

Industry information

Explore jobs and employers

In addition to exploring the field, take some time to research specific jobs and employment settings related to this program. Consider how these jobs and settings fit with your experience, skills, interests and values. This is a sample list of job titles and employment settings related to this field. To learn more, review job postings and talk with people who have these roles or work in these settings. You can find these professionals through LinkedIn, family, friends, schools, employers and community groups. Spend time researching your industry and prospective employers to decide whether this type of degree will help advance your career.

Related Job Titles to Explore*

  • Counselor
  • Mental health counselor
  • Mental health therapist
  • Mental health clinician
  • Mental health professional
  • Behavioral health case manager
  • Behavioral health therapist
  • Licensed mental health therapist
  • Behavioral health/EAP consultant

Employment Settings to Explore

  • Health care and social assistance
  • Public administration
  • Finance and insurance
  • Professional, scientific and technical services

*These are examples intended to serve as a general guide. Some positions may prefer or even require previous experience, licensure, certifications, and/or other designations along with a degree. Educational and professional requirements for faculty positions vary widely by employer. Understanding your target employers’ particular requirements is key in deciding on a program. Because many factors determine what position an individual may attain, Capella cannot guarantee that a graduate will secure any specific job title, a promotion, salary increase, or other career outcome. We encourage you to research requirements for your job target and career goals.

Job boards

This is a sample of jobs boards with positions related to this field. Use them in your research to identify additional job titles, common hiring requirements and local employers. 

Further exploration

There are a lot of factors that influence whether a career is a fit or not. These can include monetary compensation, benefits, work environment, organization culture, work/life balance, etc. As you consider your career, think about what is important to you in your employer, role and setting. These resources can help you perform this additional exploration.

For a more detailed guide on career exploration, review Capella’s Career Exploration YouTube series that helps you identify what is important to you in your career and how that aligns with the world of work. 

Accreditation

Capella University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org), an institutional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.