Counselling Courses

Counselling is one of Australia’s most trusted helping professions. Counsellors support people through grief, relationship breakdown, career change and everyday mental health struggles. Using proven talking therapies, they help clients build resilience and find a way forward. The Australian Counselling Association, or ACA, is the largest body in the field. It represents more than 23,000 registered counsellors and psychotherapists nationwide (ACA, 2026).

Demand for this kind of support keeps climbing. Jobs and Skills Australia data puts total counsellor jobs at 40,100, with around 2,800 new roles opening each year (JSA, ABS data, 2025). Counsellors work across health care, education and public services. Often they support people through some of the hardest moments in their lives. Median full-time pay sits at $2,154 a week. It tends to rise further for experienced practitioners in private practice.

Counselling remains a self-regulated job in Australia. Practitioners usually register with the ACA or the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia, known as PACFA. This is voluntary rather than a government rule. Since 2023, the government has funded work on new national standards for the field. These cover training, oversight and how complaints are handled. Most people enter through a Diploma of Counselling, which usually takes around 12 months. Others choose a bachelor’s degree for a broader grounding in the field.

If you enjoy listening and solving problems, counselling can be a genuinely rewarding career. It offers the chance to help people through hard times. Flexible online and part-time study makes it realistic to train while you keep working. Demand for skilled counsellors shows no sign of slowing down.

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