Family and Relationship Counsellor
What the work is
Assists individuals, couples and families with overcoming difficulties in personal relationships and improving their overall quality of life.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Conducts counselling interviews with individuals, couples and family groups
- Undertakes intakes and assessments, including risk assessments and screening
- Assists with the understanding and adjustment of attitudes, expectations and behaviour to develop more effective interpersonal and marital relationships
- Provides a range of interventions to families post-separation who are experiencing various levels of conflict and are unable to reach agreements regarding parenting arrangements for their children and the distribution of property
- Supports the referral process while engaging with community agencies and service providers
- Facilitates relationship education courses
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a community counselling service with small, quiet rooms and a busy front desk. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A client who struggled to speak in the first session laughs about something in the fifth
- Someone leaves with a plan and a small, real sense of relief
- A referral you made connects a person with exactly the help they needed
Hard days
- Carrying other people's heavy stories home in your head after a long day
- A client stops coming and you never learn how things turned out
- A full caseload, a waiting list and a person who needs more time than you have
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 261133, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.