Burnout can occur in behavioral health professionals as they try to meet both their patients’ and their own needs, and can threaten the therapist’s ability to make a living, which is doubly stressful. While some counselors rely on their clients to file their own insurance claims, you’ll attract more clients if you take care of the paperwork and accept co-pays. Marriage and family therapists earned $49,270. What Kind of Degree Would a Child Counselor Need. While most counselors offer their services on a regular hourly schedule, you may need to handle emergencies or other client-based issues after hours, on weekends or at night. If you take insurance or participate in managed-care programs, you must handle all billing and paperwork if you work on your own. They deal with emotionally unstable patients who may lash out at those around them. Small Business Administration: Follow These 10 Steps to Starting a Business, Internal Revenue Service: Sole Proprietorships, Counseling Today: Insurance Company Billing, Education Resources Information Center: Personal Counseling for Counselors in Training, Guidelines for Supervisors. Counselors in training also may experience this problem. Beth Greenwood is an RN and has been a writer since 2010. Clients are in intense emotional pain, and the psychologist must often suppress her own emotional reaction to what she hears and sees in order to provide support to her patients. Caring for and working with people who are mentally ill is extremely challenging. Wagner's business and marketing articles have appeared in "Home Business Journal," "Nation’s Business," "Emerging Business" and "The Mortgage Press," among others. from Eastern Illinois University. Counselors thrive on helping people with personal, mental health, educational and career problems, but the job has its disadvantages, too. Behavioral health encompasses a number of different professions, such as mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers and psychologists. Advantages include favorable salaries and job satisfaction, while disadvantages include emotional stress and the potential for physical violence in the workplace. If you prefer to spend money rather than your time, hire a billing service to handle your insurance paperwork for a percentage of the amount they collect. Health care social workers had the highest average salary of the group at $51,460. Advertising in the local media, building a website and other promotional activities take hours of time. She writes business plans for startups and established companies and teaches marketing and promotional tactics at local workshops. Social worker Linda Conroy writes in the winter 2013 issue of The New Social Worker that part of her job satisfaction comes from mentoring new social workers as they begin to practice. Clinical, counseling and school psychologists made an average of $72,220 annually. Behavioral health workers are at risk for violence and injury in the course of their work. What Does a Clinical Counselor With an MS Get Paid? Working in behavioral health is a labor of love for many therapists, according to Jason Saffer, a marriage and family therapist. Determining your estimated tax requires calculating the amount of income you expect to make, and then making contributions every quarter. A June 2011 article in The New York Times reported that a counselor in a group home was killed by a schizophrenic patient who was off his medications. Building your own practice entails setting up the legal aspects of your business, finding a location, setting up the office, buying office furniture, securing equipment and handling marketing efforts to find new clients. If part of your counseling job requires listening to people’s emotional problems day in and day out, the work may take a toll on your own mental state. Saffer notes that helping people discover who they really are or heal after various kinds of trauma is gratifying on many levels. This work could take hours of non-billable time. Mental health and substance abuse social workers took home $43,340, while those in the field of child, family and school social work earned $45,300. You may want to purchase billing software that helps simplify the process. She specializes in medical and health topics, as well as career articles about health care professions. Advantages include favorable salaries and job satisfaction, while disadvantages include emotional stress and the potential for physical violence in the workplace. This may result in less time for yourself and your family. Nancy Wagner is a marketing strategist and speaker who started writing in 1998. Characteristics of a Good Crisis Counselor. The American Psychological Association brochure, “Minimizing the Risk of Patient Violence in the Workplace,” notes that approximately one-third of practicing psychologists are concerned about the potential for patient violence, and up to 25 percent are at risk of patient assault at some time during their careers.