Licensed Professional Counseling Careers in Texas
Begin Your Counseling Career in Texas
Ready to become a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas? An LPC credential opens doors to meaningful work across the entire state, from Dallas and Houston to small Hill Country towns and West Texas communities. Texas has a serious need for mental health professionals right now. Your master’s degree in counseling gets you started on the path to licensure, qualifying you for clinical work, supervision, private practice, and specialized services in settings where Texans need mental health support.
Broad Spectrum of Opportunities
Licensed counseling in Texas offers tons of variety. Some counselors love the autonomy of private practice. Others prefer the structure and benefits of working for hospitals or agencies. You might work with one specific population your entire career or switch it up every few years. Want to specialize in trauma? Work with Spanish-speaking clients? Focus on adolescents? Help people navigate chronic illness? Texas is big enough that you can carve out pretty much any niche that interests you.
Build Your Professional Path
Texas LPCs work everywhere. School districts need counselors for students dealing with anxiety, family problems, and academic stress. Medical centers want counselors who understand health psychology and can support patients with chronic conditions. Veterans need counselors who get military culture. Immigrant communities need bilingual providers. Your career takes shape based on what you choose: clinical specialization in specific treatment modalities, leadership roles or building a private practice.
Work With Diverse Professionals
Counselors in Texas partner with all kinds of other professionals. In integrated care clinics, you’re coordinating daily with physicians and nurses. In schools, you’re teaming up with teachers, special ed staff, and administrators. In hospitals, you work alongside social workers, psychiatrists, and case managers. Private practitioners build referral networks with other therapists, doctors, and community resources. Urban areas like Austin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth typically have more specialists to collaborate with, while rural Texas often needs counselors who can handle a wider range of issues independently.
An Essential Helping Profession
Texas is huge and diverse, which means LPCs serve incredibly varied populations. You might work with oil field workers dealing with isolation and addiction, tech employees burning out in Austin, border communities navigating immigration stress, ranching families facing financial pressure, or suburban parents worried about their kids. You’ll provide services in community clinics, hospitals, private offices, schools, correctional facilities, telehealth platforms, and nonprofit organizations. You’re there when people hit crisis points and when they’re ready to work on long-term growth.
Choose Your Specialty Area
From perinatal mental health to geriatric counseling, from working in prisons to supporting first responders, your LPC license qualifies you for specialized practice areas throughout Texas. Your direction depends on additional training and what draws you in: direct clinical work providing therapy to individuals, couples, families, and groups, supervisory roles helping LPC Associates complete their hours, or administrative positions running counseling programs and clinics.
Bilingual/Bicultural Counselor
Bilingual counselors provide therapy in Spanish and English, understanding cultural context that shapes mental health in Latino communities.
Trauma Therapist
Trauma therapists specialize in helping people heal from PTSD, childhood abuse, sexual assault, combat trauma, and other traumatic experiences.
Perinatal Mental Health Counselor
Perinatal counselors support people during pregnancy, postpartum, and early parenthood, treating postpartum depression and anxiety.
Telehealth Counselor
Telehealth counselors provide therapy entirely online, which has exploded in Texas. You can see clients anywhere in the state from your home office.
Faith-Based Counselor
Faith-based counselors integrate spirituality and religious beliefs into therapy, often working with churches or Christian counseling centers.
Chronic Pain and Health Psychology Counselor
Health psychology counselors work with people managing chronic pain, terminal illness, diabetes, heart disease, and other medical conditions.
LGBTQ+ Affirming Counselor
LGBTQ+ counselors specialize in supporting queer and trans clients, understanding unique challenges around coming out, gender transition, discrimination, family rejection, and finding community.
First Responder and Law Enforcement Counselor
First responder counselors work specifically with police, firefighters, EMTs, and other emergency personnel dealing with trauma.
Becoming fully licensed in Texas takes time but it’s worth it. You need a master’s degree in counseling from a CACREP-accredited program or equivalent, passing scores on the NCE or NCMHCE exam, and 3,000 supervised clinical hours as an LPC Associate. That supervision period usually takes about two years working full-time. Once you get your LPC, you can practice independently, open a private practice, and supervise Associates yourself. The LPC-S credential requires additional training and lets you provide clinical supervision officially.
Join a Growing Professional Community
Texas has active counseling organizations like the Texas Counseling Association and local chapters in major cities where you can network, get continuing education, and stay connected to the field. Mental health awareness is increasing across Texas, more insurance plans cover therapy, and telehealth has made services accessible to people who couldn’t reach them before. The state needs way more counselors than it currently has, especially in rural areas and for specialized populations.
Consider Private Practice Options
Lots of Texas LPCs eventually open private practices. You get control over your caseload, specialization, rates, and schedule. Some counselors go completely solo, others join group practices where you share office space and administrative costs. Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio have competitive private practice markets but also lots of potential clients. Smaller cities like Lubbock, Amarillo, College Station, and Waco have less competition and real need for services. Private practice isn’t easy, there’s billing, marketing, and business management on top of clinical work, but many counselors find it’s the most rewarding way to practice.