Do you want to apply for a Bereavement Counselor position to help you get closer to your career goals? Applying for jobs on Seek, LinkedIn, and other job boards can be a time-consuming process, however, to streamline the process, you can ensure your resume writing helps you to stand out from the crowd, and your online profile helps you to get an interview!

If a recruiter or hiring manager are looking for a Bereavement Counselor, they are searching for specific transferable skills. With less than ten people being interviewed for the job and hundreds of people, just like you, applying, The Perfect Resume team have created Resume Writing Tips to help you stand out from the others.

What do recruiters look for in a Bereavement Counselor resume or an online profile?

Tailoring your resume to a Bereavement Counselor position is mandatory today to ensure that your application will pass Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). In doing so, your resume will be read by the prospective employer. Then, fingers crossed, you will be shortlisted as a potential candidate and be called for not one, but multiple job interviews!

Firstly, before you apply to be a Bereavement Counselor, you need to be acquainted with what a Bereavement Counselor does!

Bereavement Counselors handle the client's therapy when they are grieving the death of loved ones and other personal losses. Their role is to support clients through the stages of grief and help them resume their lives.

Hiring Managers are looking for a compassionate and dedicated Bereavement Counselor to assist in planning treatment, facilitating therapy sessions, and mobilizing community resources to support recovery.

To be successful as a Bereavement Counselor, you should have knowledge of necessary healthcare and medical procedures, be open to learning, and have strong communication skills. Ultimately, a high performing Bereavement Counselor should be able to achieve quicker recovery times for clients and perform interventions relevant to each of the stages of grief and facilitate support.

Knowing this, your resume and online profile should include the hard and soft skills that the recruiter or hiring manager is looking for in a candidate.

The Bereavement Counselor position description template will also contain pivotal information about what the candidate will need to do daily. Such as:

• Consulting referrals, interviewing clients, and compiling case histories.
• Recording clinical observations and updating client files.
• Determining clients’ intervention needs and developing treatment plans.
• Facilitating individual and group therapy sessions.
• Assisting clients to overcome the loss of loved ones and pets, as well as grief due to divorce, break-ups, and miscarriages.
• Monitoring clients’ progress and adjusting treatment plans to enable them to live fulfilling lives.
• Collaborating with medical health specialists on medication needs, when required.
• Involving other professionals, community support groups, and relevant resources in recovery plans.
• Facilitating sessions with family members and caregivers to better understand the stages of grief.
• Pursuing continued professional development and keeping up with advancements in the field.

You will also have some requirements and personal attributes that you will need to demonstrate in your resume to ensure your potential employer will take your application seriously, such as:

• CACREP-accredited masters degree in counseling with grief and bereavement coursework.
• A passing score on the National Counselor Examination.
• State-prescribed licensing to practice as a grief and bereavement counselor.
• A minimum of 3 years of experience as a Bereavement Counselor, or similar.
• Competency in electronic health record systems, such as Therabill and NextStep.
• In-depth knowledge of the psychology of loss and the stages of grief.
• Experience with co-existing physical, mental, and emotional conditions.
• Experience in collaborating with family members, healthcare professionals, and support groups in treatment.
• Ability to stay informed on developments in the field of bereavement counseling.


You may also want to do some industry research to find out what other companies want in their Bereavement Counselors.