School for School Counselors Podcast

Should School Counselors Get Their LPC?

• School for School Counselors • Episode 155

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More and more school counselors are saying, “I’m getting my LPC and getting out.”

But is licensure really the answer- or just a new kind of stress?

In this episode, we take a candid look at what licensure changes, what it doesn’t, and why your next move deserves more than burnout logic.

Plus, I’ll walk you through the hidden costs, the unexpected trade-offs, and what clinical work actually involves (spoiler: it’s not school counseling in a cozier office).

We’ll talk salary.
We’ll talk supervision.
We’ll talk what it really feels like to carry clinical liability.

And most importantly, we’ll ask:
Are you chasing licensure because it aligns with your goals…
Or because you’re trying to escape something no one ever taught you how to fix?

If you’ve ever wondered whether you should get your LPC, this one’s for you.


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⭐️ Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! ⭐️

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Our goal at School for School Counselors is to help school counselors stay on fire, make huge impacts for students, and catalyze change for our roles through grassroots advocacy and collaboration. Listen to get to know more about us and our mission, feel empowered and inspired, and set yourself up for success in the wonderful world of school counseling.

Speaker 1:

More and more these days, I feel like I'm seeing online social media posts from school counselors saying I'm done, I'm getting my LPC and I'm getting out. I'm working on my licensure because schools are not for me anymore. And hey, listen, I get it. When you are dismissed by your administration, your abilities are ignored by your school district or you feel like you're getting shoved into every crisis and coverage duty on your campus, it's only natural to think about escaping all of that baloney and heading to the promised land. You start imagining what life would be like if you just ran that cozy, peaceful private practice and got to wear jeans or leggings every day and only talk to people who actually wanted to be in your office. But before you get too deep in that fantasy, let's pump the brakes just a little bit. Today we're going to look at the LPC decision and we're going to look at it beyond the lens of burnout and through the lens of reality. We're going to look at the pros, the cons and all the hidden costs and realizations that no one's talking about, because leaving your school counseling job might solve some problems, but it just might create a whole bunch of new ones too. Hey, my friend, welcome back. I'm Steph Johnson, a licensed professional counselor and full-time school counselor, just like you. If you're tired of school counseling advice that sounds like it came from Pinterest, you're in the right place. Around here, we're keeping it real, we're keeping it grounded, and I'm giving you tools and ideas that actually work, because you deserve more than pretty graphics and empty promises.

Speaker 1:

There is a growing group of school counselors who are sort of treating clinical licensure like a parachute. You'll see them post things that say I'm so sick of being micromanaged so I'm just going to jump into clinical practice, or I want more time freedom, or I just need to leave education and becoming an LPC is my way out. And for some folks that might be true. But here's the thing Most of those posts that you see were written in a moment of frustration. They most often are not written in a moment of clarity. And here's something else that I've noticed about those situations For all the talk about leaving schools, I rarely see posts from former school counselors after they make the leap. I'm in school counseling groups, I'm in therapist groups and I know a lot of people in real life on both sides of that aisle, and I have never seen or heard a flood of best decision I ever made updates. Maybe they're off living their dream I hope so or maybe, just maybe, the dream isn't quite what they expected, and if that's true, shouldn't we be asking why? This is a conversation that matters, because what looks like your parachute could actually just be a trade-off.

Speaker 1:

So as I'm talking about this, you're going to hear me using the term LPC. I'm sure you already know that that stands for licensed professional counselor. States use all kinds of clinical designations, but we're going to use LPC as a catch-all for all of those in this episode, really just meaning the licensure that allows you to work and serve as a state-licensed counselor in a clinical capacity. All right, so what does that path to licensure really involve? It's complicated and it varies by state, but here's the short version. First, it's not a direct path.

Speaker 1:

Most school counseling programs do not meet the coursework requirements for an LPC. You're likely going to need some additional classes, maybe some additional internship hours and lots and lots of supervised clinical hours. For instance, in my home state of Texas, in order to gain my LPC licensure, I had to complete 3,000 supervised hours of practice. Secondly, you need to know you pay for those supervised hours. In most places supervision is not free and in many states you'll pay somewhere between $75 and $125 per hour for supervision over a span of several years. Going back to Texas, just because that's my best frame of reference, minimum supervision time in Texas is 18 months, which means that supervision at a rate between $75 and $125 an hour is going to run you between $6,000 and $10,000. Sometimes you can sign up to work within a counseling practice that tells you that they're going to provide free supervision in exchange for you working there, but most often they're taking a bigger cut of what you are charging clients. So beware.

Speaker 1:

Third, you need to know that licensure takes time. Between the leveling classes and the clinical exams, like the NCE and post-grad supervision, you're looking at a minimum of two to four years after your leveling courses before you'll be able to practice independently. And fourth, you need to realize that there are ongoing costs, that there are ongoing costs Continuing education units, licensing fees, liability insurance and all of that is before you ever see a client or engage in any practice-affiliated costs. All that to say, if you are imagining getting your clinical licensure as a quick escape hatch clinical licensure as a quick escape hatch it's more like climbing out of a window into another burning building. So before you jump, make sure you know the floor plan. For argument's sake, just for a minute, let's imagine you've made it, you are fully licensed, you can practice counseling independently and you are also exhausted, because here's what no one tells you about that scenario.

Speaker 1:

The math doesn't always work out the way it's presented online. There are a lot of people in the social media world right now trying to convince others that clinical mental health can be done on a cash-only basis and make you a millionaire in a short amount of time. I think if that were true, we would see more mental health counselors and we would not have the shortage that we currently have we currently have, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for school counselors in 2024 was $65,140. So, depending on your school district, your degree and your years of service, you could potentially end up making well into $80,000 or $90,000 as a school counselor, if not now eventually. Plus you've got health insurance, sick days and, depending on your state, you might even have a pension. Now let's compare that to a clinical role. The median salary for a clinical mental health counselor, again according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, was $59,190 in 2024, and social workers sat at $61,330. But keep in mind, even though both of those salaries are within $4,000 to $6,000 of the median salary for school counseling, they're both without summers off and without sick days. So if you don't work, you're probably not getting paid, and it's also without anyone else helping fund your retirement, but you. So not only are you building a clinical presence and perhaps a whole business from scratch, you're doing it without a lot of the benefits.

Speaker 1:

So then let's talk about insurance billing. Insurance companies often delay payments. Sometimes they'll deny the amounts that you build outright. You'll probably, as a licensed clinician, spend hours fighting rejected codes and you don't set your rates. The insurance companies do, and they're often um, oh, what's the nicest way I can say this? They are often disappointing. I actually know a lot of therapists in real life that routinely wait a year or two for a reimbursement bump from an insurance company and finally get this big grand announcement that they're getting a raise of something like 14 cents a session. Y'all 14 cents. If you think our raises in the educational world are sad, wait till you see some of these reimbursement rate increases. They're crazy. That's even before we bring into the conversation these venture capital-backed platforms.

Speaker 1:

You've probably seen commercials for them, things like BetterHelp or Cerebral. They promise flexibility and a full caseload and the ability to work from home to clinicians, but behind the scenes they've been involved in some tremendous legal battles centered around their ethics as well as their fulfillment of their promises to their clinicians. You would be pressured to meet quotas, you'd be paid far less than the market average, you might be assigned clients with little regard for whether or not they're a right fit, and you're often prohibited from building your own brand or your own practice on the side, either explicitly or just due to the time constraints. Those companies do not exist to empower clinicians and give them a path toward clinical freedom, as they often imply. They are here to extract profit. So while they might help you get started, they are no substitute for a sustainable ethical practice and they certainly are not a long-term solution.

Speaker 1:

So if your plan has been, I'll just get my LPC and then everything will be better, let's take a step back. So this far into the episode. Let me make another point very clear Clinical licensure is not the enemy. I'm not opposed to it at all. As a matter of fact, if you've been listening, you've heard me say I have my clinical licensure.

Speaker 1:

There are absolutely times when pursuing your LPC is the right move. Maybe you are passionate and want to learn more about providing deep therapeutic work like EMDR or true play therapy or family systems work. Maybe you feel a call to serve populations that you can't ethically or legally work with in the schools anymore. So many states are passing mandates that limit our capacity to help certain student populations. So if you have a burning desire to make an impact in those areas, you might want to look at clinical licensure. You may already have a clear business plan and some stable backup income to support you while you establish your clinical presence. And, most importantly, you might be making the switch just to do it for you and not as a reaction to school counselor burnout. In those cases, becoming an LPC can open doors, it can expand your skill set and it can help you serve others in ways that you could never do in the school setting.

Speaker 1:

But make no mistake about it Clinical work is a different profession. As school counselors, we often operate in short bursts within systems. We are time limited. We have a tremendous amount of variety in our day, even though sometimes we don't enjoy it. Clinical therapists operate over time, often through deep diagnosis, treatment planning and legal accountability for that client care. It is not school counseling in a different office. It is not school counseling in a different office. It is a different kind of job and it also means that you're not just accountable to your school anymore. You're assuming clinical liability when you diagnose and treat clients.

Speaker 1:

So if you do not have a clear plan for a clinical journey or if your expectations are based off of some sort of fantasy of clinical counseling, licensure could become a whole new form of stress. So don't mistake the promise of freedom for a lack of responsibility. You could gain a little bit of freedom in your day-to-day work, but you take on a whole new set of responsibilities and obligations as a clinical counselor. All right. So if you are looking toward becoming an LPC, I hope that I haven't dissuaded you yet.

Speaker 1:

There is an idea that doesn't get enough credit in my opinion, especially in the school counseling world. Here it is Sometimes for school counselors, just having your LPC license changes the way you show up at work because it builds confidence in your clinical thinking. You can't go through all of the courses and training and CEUs and hours of supervised practice and not build more confidence in your abilities. It's just almost virtually impossible if you're doing it right. It also gives you a depth of training and understanding that stands out even if you're not formally using that expertise in the schools, and it can signal credibility, both directly and indirectly with administrators and district leaders. I can tell you from experience I don't put my LPC credential on school paperwork. I don't advertise it or talk about it. It's not in my email signature because I don't want to confuse parents about the scope of my ability to help. But more than once I've had principals, and sometimes even parents, ask me about my training. Just based on how I explain clinical concerns, counseling, follow-up and what the next best steps are, your training will shine through and maybe most importantly, it also gives you options.

Speaker 1:

You may not want to leave schools right now, but there is a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing you could is a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing you could and sometimes having that parachute is enough to help you walk taller and be more assertive. You may never need to pull that ripcord, but knowing it's there and available changes everything. So now that we've looked at the pros and cons of clinical licensure, let's zoom back out, because most school counselors, I believe, don't really want to leave their work in schools. Often, when they head down this path of considering licensure, what they really want is to be respected, to have a clear role day to day, to use some of the skills they trained for and to have the ability to say no to some of the school-level nonsense and yes to making more of an impact. When you look at it this way, clinical licensure sort of looks like the answer, but here's where we have to pause and get really honest, because the job title alone isn't what improves your mental health. It's not what brings you back around from burnout or makes your life unicorns and rainbows. The structure of your work is what makes or breaks your well-being. Let me explain what I mean.

Speaker 1:

In school settings, you know because you're there, we often feel underutilized or misappropriated. We are shuffled between lunch duties and crisis response and these random tasks that our administrators give us that have absolutely nothing to do with our jobs, and that lack of role clarity can wear us down. It leads us down a path of stress and guilt and sometimes burnout. But it's not because we're doing the wrong job. It's because we're not being allowed to do it well. And let's be clear switching to clinical work does not magically solve that problem. Yes, it can give you more autonomy, yes that deeper therapeutic work can feel more satisfying, but it also brings a new kind of pressure the pressure of diagnosing and treating serious mental illnesses, of managing the emotional fallout from prolonged exposure to trauma cases or navigating inconsistent income exposure to trauma cases or navigating inconsistent income, maintaining documentation, handling stress and enduring professional isolation. And in a group practice, counselors can often experience some of the very same stressors that caused them to leave their school in the first place.

Speaker 1:

There is very, very little research to suggest that embarking in clinical work actually improves counselor well-being. So then, if the switch to clinical counseling doesn't change things, what does help doesn't change things. What does help? Studies show that well-being improves when counselors, regardless of their setting, have protected time for their actual counseling work, have reasonable caseloads, supportive peers and opportunities for reflection and professional autonomy. So instead of immediately jumping to do I need to leave my work in schools to feel better. You might ask what about my current work condition? Is hurting me, and are there ways to change that without walking away from the whole enchilada, instead of jumping to private practice and completely starting over.

Speaker 1:

You might just need a new structure. You might need more clarity or a different kind of support. That's exactly what we focus on in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. We use a smart school counseling framework to promote sustainable school counseling. We help you rebuild where you are with the tools and the reflection and the peer support that actually protect your mental health, because when the system won't change for you, you've got to change what you're doing within it. That's truly the heart of sustainable counseling, and you don't have to become a therapist to feel capable. You don't have to leave the school system to feel respected, but you do need to work in a way that supports your well-being, your values and your sense of professional integrity. Really, you need a model like our Smart School Counseling Framework that supports your growth from the inside out.

Speaker 1:

So should you get your LPC? Maybe, but don't do it because frustration or burnout told you to do it. Do it because you're ready, because it aligns with your long-term goals or because it gives you something you want, not just because it's a way to run away from something that feels really hard. With the right tools and support, you can thrive in the educational world and, for that matter, whether or not you have letters behind your name. You can absolutely become undeniable as a school counselor, and in the next podcast episode, I'm going to tell you exactly how to do that. So keep listening, and I'll be back soon with another episode of the School for School Counselors podcast. In the meantime, I hope you have the best week. Take care.

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