Help People Overcome Challenges: Become a Counsellor!
- Nela Friesen
- Mar 20, 2025
- 5 min read
Table of Contents
About Amy Hall
Amy Hall is a counsellor currently living and working in Taber. She is originally from Calgary and started her post-secondary journey there before transferring and finishing her degree at the University of Lethbridge. She worked with Safe Haven in Taber and did Substance Abuse and Recovery work in the Lethbridge area before deciding to start her own business as a counsellor. She told me it was scary to start her own business, but she had the support of counsellors in the area, which made it easier.
What is Being a Counsellor like?
An Average Day
Many days start with session preparation for the day's clients, which includes reviewing files to refresh what was done in previous sessions and planning the next session. Amy then meets with clients, around five clients a day. Paperwork and billing come after each meeting with a client.
Not included in her average day but interspersed throughout her year are days for professional development. To be a social worker in Alberta, you need a certain number of continuing education credits. Professional development opportunities will depend on your goals for the year. Opportunities to connect with other social workers, especially those with more education and experience, help her improve as well.
Pay
Amy charges $120 per hour, which is a lower price compared to others in the industry. How much you charge will depend on how much education and experience you have in your field. However, she also offers a sliding scale for people who can't pay the $120 per session or don't have insurance. She can offer them a lower price to ensure that everyone who needs it can access counselling services. As a private counsellor running her own business, she can influence her income by deciding how much she charges and how many clients she sees per day.
Work Conditions
Most of the day-to-day work as a counsellor is independent, especially in private practice, but there are opportunities for collaboration on professional development days and days when you meet with other social workers. Amy can go to more experienced social workers to get advice on more complicated issues, leading to more collaboration.
Amy can decide her hours, a benefit of running her own business. She usually works around 6 hours each day to ensure she can maintain a good work-life balance. She can use her education while still spending time with her family so she enjoys this aspect of having her own practice.
It can certainly be a stressful job because when you are listening to other people's struggles, it's important to not take the stress on. Vicarious trauma is the trauma you receive from hearing about other people's trauma, which is something to be aware of when working in this industry. It's important to be very self-aware to notice signs of burnout and vicarious trauma so that you can use tools and skills to move through it. It's important to help others while still protecting yourself.
Qualities Needed
Having a genuine interest in other people is very important in this field, as to how they are doing, and what you can do to help them move past their struggles. You also have to be committed to lifelong learning about yourself and your clients, as well as ongoing professional development for the job. It's also important to be able to understand the relationship between the counsellor and client so that you, as the counsellor, don't exert control over the client. Often, the client will believe the counsellor is the expert and expect the counsellor to tell them what to do. In reality, only the person living the life is truly the expert, and the counsellor is there to help the client use the strengths they already have to overcome challenges, not tell them exactly what to do.
Hardest and Easiest Parts
The hardest part is the flexibility that needs to come with the job. Even if you make a plan for the next session with a client, the client is ultimately the one who leads each session. Sessions might go according to your plan or they could go in a completely different direction. It's important to be comfortable with this as it can be a difficult aspect of counselling as a job.
The easiest part of this job for Amy is meeting and connecting with people. She loves meeting people in their first session with her so that she can get to know them and watch them grow as they overcome challenges.
Why choose to be a Counsellor?
This is a very rewarding career because you are really helping people. It is very rewarding to connect with people and see their progress as you encourage them to build on their strengths to overcome challenges.
Misconceptions
Social Work has a bit of a dark history with colonization in the past and things like the '60s scoop, where many Indigenous children were taken out of their homes to be put into residential schools. Some people have the misconception that Social Workers will treat people badly to this day and have the power to do that. Some people find it hard to trust Social Workers due to this, which makes sense because of what happened in the past. Amy must make sure she is working from an anti-oppressive lens and considering every story. This concept isn't quite a misconception since these bad practices did happen in the past, but building trust back can still be hard.
Post-Secondary
Amy holds two undergraduate degrees, a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology, which she completed after graduating from the University of Lethbridge, and a Bachelor of Social Work, which she completed largely online through the University of Victoria. Her first degree took her four years to complete but the second degree only took two additional years as she already held a previous undergraduate degree.
There are many options for schooling in the Social Work industry because it's such a broad field. There are 2-year diploma programs and 4-year undergraduate programs available, and you can continue on to get a Master's degree and a PhD. Amy told me that the undergraduate Bachelor of Social Work degree is a good foundation and opens up a lot of doors in the industry.
There is always room for more counsellors in the industry so there is a demand for more counsellors right now. A concern for many people regarding counsellors is the waitlist. Amy told me that for many people, it takes a lot of courage to even reach out to a counsellor, and hearing that they will have to wait before being able to see them can be really challenging. This is why more counsellors are always needed.
What can High School Students do to Prepare?
Many schools will offer Introduction to Psychology classes, which can provide an introduction and basic foundation for a career in Social Work, even though the industry as a whole is very broad and goes beyond just psychology.
Social Workers are a tight-knit group, and they want to share what they do with anyone interested. Connecting with people to do job shadows and learn more about the industry can be a great way to get an introduction to this career.
Extra! Expert Tip on Dealing with Stress!
The most important thing when dealing with stress according to Amy is to be honest with ourselves about how stressed we actually are. If we acknowledge that we are stressed, we will be better equipped to use tools to manage stress like talking to someone we trust or finding ways to unwind. Remember this expert tip from a professional counsellor the next time you feel stressed!
Thanks to Amy, I was able to learn a lot more about her career and write this blog post for you. Hopefully, you learned a lot and enjoyed the post! See you in the next post! Thanks!
Check Out Amy Hall!
Website: https://www.one-oak-counselling.com/
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