LO
Counsellor / therapist — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers · Marriage and Family Therapists · Healthcare Social Workers · Clinical and Counseling Psychologists · Rehabilitation Counselors · Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors · Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses · Social and Human Service Assistants
In the official classification#
Mental Health Counselors
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 5: extensive preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 21-1014.00 (Mental Health Counselors). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Social PerceptivenessExtremely important
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
- Service OrientationVery important
- Complex Problem SolvingVery important
- PersuasionVery important
- CoordinationImportant
- NegotiationImportant
- InstructingImportant
Knowledge
- Therapy and CounselingExtremely important
- PsychologyExtremely important
- Customer and Personal ServiceExtremely important
- English LanguageVery important
- Sociology and AnthropologyVery important
- Education and TrainingVery important
Work activities
- Assisting and Caring for OthersExtremely important
- Getting InformationExtremely important
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal RelationshipsExtremely important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsExtremely important
- Documenting/Recording InformationExtremely important
- Thinking CreativelyVery important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionExtremely important
- Oral ExpressionExtremely important
- Problem SensitivityVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Written ExpressionVery important
- Deductive ReasoningVery important
Essential skills
- Active ListeningExtremely important
- SpeakingVery important
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- WritingVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
Tasks O*NET proposes to add#
O*NET's analysts propose new or reworded task statements for future data collection, drawing on what surveyed workers write in, research into new technologies and professional associations. They are candidates, not yet part of the rated task list, and they say nothing about whether automation is involved. This site does not fold them into its own task judgements.
- Guide clients in the development of skills or strategies for dealing with their problems and coping with triggering factors.Revised wording of an existing task · 2025-08 · from occupational experts · O*NET 31.0
- Respond to client communications by monitoring voicemail and email, returning phone calls, and making follow-up calls for missed appointments.New task · 2025-08 · from occupational experts · O*NET 31.0
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 6 task judgements are for: 2 backed by a verified event, 4 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Four kinds of source, and each block says which: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.