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Mental Health Counselor Salary Ranges in Boston
If you’re looking for a growing career field with strong job mobility and diversity of options, earning your master’s in mental health counseling opens many doors. What’s the first and most important door? Being eligible to sit for the Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) exam, which is a must-have professional credential for top mental health counselor jobs with the strongest salary prospects. Several decisions can help match your salary expectations with salaries listed in mental health counselor job descriptions in the greater Boston area and across Massachusetts.
What Decisions Affect a Mental Health Counselor Salary?
The choice of a career in a caring profession isn’t one to make lightly. Oftentimes undervalued compared to other jobs today, salaries for mental health counselors with a master’s degree tend to be modest. However, the strongest salary gains for people working in human services and mental health counseling jobs become available when you choose to further your education and make the jump from frontline, entry-level staff to licensed professional.
Tuition Value and Clinical Experience
Choosing the right master’s degree program is important to your budget — while you’re in graduate school and after graduation. You may be considering other types of master’s degrees and other licensing credentials. Be sure to look at both tuition costs as well as hours of hands-on clinical mental health counseling experience. We allow students four semesters of field experience instead of the two semesters that many other institutions allow. In many cases, other human services or psychology graduate degrees are more expensive and provide little or no clinical experience. What you decide now results in greater value for your tuition dollars and can make your salary after graduation go further.
Cambridge College’s master’s in mental health counseling prepares you to sit for the Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) exam, including the degree itself and the clinical experience requirements, all for lower, more affordable tuition than similar degrees.
Another important way to increase your return on investment in earning your master’s in mental health counseling is to leverage financial aid as much as possible.
From grants and scholarships to loans and tuition assistance through state, federal, or employer programs, consider all your options to lower your out-of-pocket educational costs. Financial aid makes a difference to more than 60 percent of Cambridge College students.
Clinical Mental Health Counseling Concentration and Patient Contact Model
As you explore areas of clinical mental health counseling interest, consider how the ability to specialize or concentrate your graduate degree affects your future mental health counselor salary and work environment choices. Are there particular types of mental health issues that draw out your empathy and drive to help? Do you feel more comfortable working with individual patients or via group therapy? Are you more interested in acute care in a residential setting or preventive or treatment care in an outpatient model? Are you interested in working with the combination of medical and mental health disabilities? Your answers to all these questions will affect the mental health counselor salary you can expect to earn.
Cambridge College gives you the choice of one or more of these degree concentrations:
- Addictions Counseling
- Rehabilitation Counseling
- Trauma Studies
Learn more about mental health counselor jobs growth in Boston and beyond
Mental Health Counseling Work Experience
Your level of higher education directly correlates to how much work experience employers often expect. Employers may require more years of work experience from candidates with an associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree. When candidates for mental health counselor jobs bring a master’s degree as well as licensing eligibility or full licensure, employers recognize that additional academic achievement and its related clinical mental health counseling experience.
Typically, employers only expect one year of work experience, in addition to the master’s in mental health counseling. In many cases, these master’s-level jobs come with more clout, greater clinical responsibility, and a higher mental health counselor salary.
Designed specifically for the needs of working professionals, Cambridge College welcomes students who already work in the mental health field and those adding new credentials or even a whole new career to their lives.
Professional Connections
It’s easy to get caught up in the connections your graduate school professors can share. Cambridge College faculty members are professionally licensed and working in the field. Well-connected professors are an asset, but don’t overlook the built-in network your classmates bring.
Since many Cambridge College mental health counselor degree students already work in mental health counselor jobs, they can give you invaluable access to resources, job options, and salary insights — as well as keen perspectives into how counseling programs work within diverse patients, including from underserved populations.
Boston Mental Health Counselor Salary Breakdowns
Below you’ll find average mental health counselor salaries in Boston. Remember to factor in additional employee benefits employers provide to Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHC), which can add additional compensation as noted in these salary statistics for Boston.
To provide additional context, here are some average mental health counselor salaries in Massachusetts and nationally:
- Mental health counselor salary average in Massachusetts, across all specialties: $46,316
- Mental health counselor salary average in northwest nonmetropolitan areas of Massachusetts: $55,460
- Mental health counselor national average salary in substance abuse / psychiatric facility jobs: $55,650
- Mental health counselor national average salary in local government jobs: $55,880
- Mental health counselor national average salary in junior colleges settings: $65,090
- Mental health counselor national average salary in management, scientific, and technical consulting: $65,680**
Sources: *PayScale.com and **Bureau of Labor Statistics
Boston Mental Health Counselor Salary Breakdown by Job
Where you choose to work as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) can affect your salary. Here are a few examples:
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: $55,909 - $87,940
- Massachusetts Department of Youth Services: $51,145 - $69,855
- Private outpatient counseling center: $50,000 - $75,000
- Substance abuse rehabilitation center: $50,096 - $68,223
- Vocational rehabilitation services: $55,521 - $75,433
*Source: Indeed.com
Take the Next Step in Earning Your Mental Health Counselor Degree
Cambridge College specializes in offering affordable, flexible degrees to working professionals who want to boost their salaries and careers. Please contact the admissions team with any questions about online, evening, or weekend classes; tuition and financial aid; or transfer credit policy.
