Lisa Corbin, PhD, LPC, NCC, always wanted to be a therapist. She intended to pursue a PsyD, but then took a job in higher education that set her on a new career path.
“I realized the important work counselors do and I could finish the degree in only two years,” she said. “It allowed me to do exactly what I wanted to do: provide counseling, consulting, and supervision.”
Mental health counselors are licensed professionals who assess and treat the emotional, mental, and behavioral health of people seeking services.
“Counselors often have lived experiences that made them want to get into this purposeful and meaningful field of helping,” Corbin explained.
As a mental health counselor, Corbin has a small private practice in which she helps clients deal with the challenges they face.
“I run my private practice through the license I earned from my MS in Counseling degree. There is no doctoral-level licensure for counselors,” she explained. “So, I would not be able to counsel if it wasn’t for the license I earned from receiving my master's in counseling.”
By the time she began her MS in Counseling program, Corbin had completed enough workshops to know that she had the right qualities to be a strong teacher.
“So, I went on for the PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision,” she recounted. Now, in addition to seeing clients, Corbin teaches and is the chair and director of PCOM’s mental health counseling program.
As an educator, Corbin has the opportunity to share her passion for counseling with her students and to help them develop the core skills needed to succeed as counselors.
“I want the students in the MS in Counseling program to possess the skills of self-reflection, self-awareness, self-care, active listening, and advocating,” she said. “We are not perfect; we don’t know what we don’t know; we all have biases. Being able to care for ourselves and reflect on the information we are gathering allows us to advocate for our clients, self, and groups of individuals, and attend to the biases we are exhibiting while keeping an open mind motivated by lifelong learning.”
According to Corbin, an MS in Counseling is worth the time, effort and money it takes to attain the degree.
“The degree is so versatile, affordable, and allows recipients of the degree to impact the lives of many people,” she said.
PCOM’s MS in Counseling takes just two years to complete. Students go through the program as a cohort which, Corbin added, allows students to bond and create life-long friendships with people who turn out to be colleagues.
“The degree is often a degree in yourself in that you learn so much about yourself throughout your courses,” she said.
Another benefit of the degree is that it prepares graduates to work in a variety of roles.
“People with an MS in Counseling go on to do a variety of jobs such as clinician, consultant, human resources manager, researcher, program evaluator, adjunct teacher at a college, insurance reviewer, crisis worker, individual student support person, and many more,” Corbin explained. “There is just so much one can do with an MS in Counseling.”
For Corbin, her counseling degree not only provided a way to help clients now, but also a way to help people in the future by training the next generation of providers.
“I chose to enter the field because I’ve always had the gift of reading, listening, and helping people. I too wanted to give people the support I did not receive,” Corbin said. “I choose to stay in the field because of how rewarding it is to help people and students become the best they can become.”
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