So, you're the kind of person who likes to
help other people.
And you want to make a helping profession
your career.
There are several great options, but the differences
between them can be a little confusing.
Maybe school counseling seems like a good
fit for you, but what about school psychology?
And what's the difference between them anyhow?
On the other hand, how about clinical mental
health counseling or would applied behavior
analysis be a better choice for you?
Let us help you break it down.
If you think you'd like to work in a school
setting and you want some variety working
with individuals at times, with groups and
others and you like helping students and teachers
take proactive steps to prevent problems,
along with helping students select the right
classes or colleges - school counseling might
be the right choice for you.
I think, in being a school counselor, you really
want to have this desire to listen to others,
really care about these students and focus more kind of on the personal and social issues
that a student is struggling with.
Seeing students individually, running groups,
doing classroom guidance lessons,
doing prevention programming.
School counselors also deal a lot with academic
advising. If you're in the high school, you'll
be doing college planning and college advising,
as a key part of your role as well.
And I think that's one of the unique aspects
of the school counselor is that you have so
many different roles in the school, not just
the individual work.
On the other hand, maybe you enjoy testing
and analysis, observing classroom behaviors
and developing plans to help students with
special needs like learning or behavioral disorders.
You're a more analytical thinker.
If so, school psychology might be the best
fit for you.
The person who's great for the field of school
psychology is someone who likes to work with
numbers, who likes to write and is a people
person.
We look at children who are having learning
and behavioral disorders.
We try to figure out how best we can structure
the environment to help those students be successful.
It can be anything you want it to be in here Noah. "OK"
I chose school psychology because I want to
go into schools and be that person that can
be there for kids and get them into the appropriate
sections and places that they need to be.
When I'm in my practicum site, seeing a student
getting something correct and seeing how happy
she is, that's the best feeling because I'm
doing my job right and I'm making a difference.
I think one of the greatest pleasures is when
I have a child who is having difficulty learning
to read and we help that child crack the code
and put it all together and then that child
sits down and reads a book.
I find that part rewarding and exciting.
Maybe you prefer a more data driven approach,
you'd like to help clients with disorders
like autism or ADHD overcome problem behaviors
or skill deficits using a lot of one-on-one therapy.
You are more focused on helping people change
behaviors, rather than their thoughts and feelings.
If so, applied behavior analysis is a good
choice.
I think a good fit for behavior analysis is
a person who really wants to help people and
really likes that science behind the behavior
and how we can improve it.
I got my current job, which is working at
Eden Autism Services, performing direct care.
I want to learn more about the approach that
we currently use to shaping their behaviors,
evaluate the behaviors, so that's why I decided
to come back to Rider to complete my master's program.
Good boy, nice job counting.
I work with individuals with autism.
There's a lot of things that you can do with
ADA.
It allows you to work in the private school
setting, public school setting, corporate
world - you want to go into government, there's
a lot of career opportunities which you can
actually go in to.
When you can sort of analyze the situation
and put interventions into place and change
socially significant behavior for these individuals,
they become more independent.
They're able to do things that they weren't
able to do before and I think that's what
makes it so exciting.
Maybe you take a more holistic view.
You're empathetic and nonjudgemental, you
prefer a traditional counseling approach
listening to a client's thoughts and feelings.
If so, clinical mental health counseling could
be the right career for you.
I decided to go into the clinic mental health
counseling program because I was always the
friend who people went to for advice, or they
went to to just talk about their problems
and that's what I found the counseling program was.
You are sitting face-to-face with a client
and trying to help them through their problems.
Ultimately ending up helping people and making
people's lives better and that's the goal
that I want to achieve.
There's a lot of different job opportunities,
it's kind of one of the nice parts of the
degree because different organizations, agencies
employ clinical mental health counselors.
I always feel honored when I'm working with
a client in terms of being part of their story.
Sometimes clients will tell you things that
they don't tell anyone else.
So I think it's rewarding as a clinical mental
health counselor to create that safe space
clients can come to and feel completely accepted.
I think that's a really valuable thing that
people don't get in many other places in their
life, but the counseling office can be a place
where they get that.
The options in counseling and psychology can
be confusing, but the right career for you
is out there.
If you have questions about any of these careers
or programs, please visit Rider's website
at the URL below or call us at 609-896-5036.
