The Perfect Mental Health Counselor Resume Writing Tips

Do you want to apply for a Mental Health 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 Mental Health 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 Mental Health Counselor resume or an online profile?

Tailoring your resume to a Mental Health 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 Mental Health Counselor, you need to be acquainted with what a Mental Health Counselor does!

Mental Health Counselors handle the psychotherapy and intervention methods to help people living with mental health challenges.

Hiring Managers are looking for a compassionate and experienced Mental Health Counselor to assist in conducting mental health evaluations, developing treatment plans, and facilitating individual and group interventions.

To be successful as a Mental Health Counselor, you should have knowledge of necessary healthcare and medical procedures, be open to learning, and have strong communication skills. Ultimately, a high performing Mental Health Counselor should be able to achieve exceptional clinical insight and be familiar with the latest developments in psychotherapy.

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

• Conducting preliminary interviews and documenting cases from the initial consultation to the end of treatment.
• Evaluating clients' mental, behavioral, and emotional health.
• Developing appropriate intervention and recovery plans for individuals, couples, families, and groups.
• Facilitating individual and group therapy sessions.
• Monitoring progress throughout the treatment plan.
• Collaborating on intervention plans with other mental health specialists, doctors, nurses, and social workers.
• Following up with psychiatrists and attending physicians for clients admitted to the hospital.
• Identifying and preventing behaviors that impede recovery.
• Assisting family members and primary caregivers to manage mental behavioral challenges.


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:

• State-approved license to practice as a mental health counselor.
• Previous experience as a mental health counselor.
• Proficiency with electronic health record systems like AVATAR.
• Experience with underlying physical and emotional health conditions, and addiction disorders.
• Familiarity with the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) best practices.
• In-depth knowledge of the effects of drugs prescribed by medical specialists.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills and sympathetic nature.



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