Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco, CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

Jean-Paul,
Please respond to some or all of these 3 questions.

What school are you attending?

Are there any specific employers that interest you?

Is it possible you can please share with us specific live job-postings that interest you?

Browse Indeed.com, http://www.vacareers.va.gov/, USAJobs.gov, etc. and find jobs that interest you, without regard to whiter you currently qualify for the jobs.

Shane Russell-Jenkins ⋅ Prescott, AZ West Yavapai Guidance Clinic, Windhaven Psychiatric Hospital ⋅ 20 years experience

As the Medical Director of a Psychiatric Hospital I recommend possibly looking at a position as a BHT, Behavioral Health Technician. You work directly with patients, Nurses, Social Work and Physicians and Psychiatric and Family Nurse Practioners. Most of my Staff started as BHTs and completed degrees in Nursing, RN, and then worked on the BSN degree.

Robert Brockman ⋅ San Diego, CA San Diego State University now Self Empl ⋅ 52 years experience

Dunno if you are still looking but I just want to echo Tracy's response. You also might want to spend some time as a volunteer in helper agencies to make connections and pad your resume with those help duties. Her point about a Master's degree is huge. An undergraduate degree in Psychology seldom qualifies someone to do therapy but helps to understand what a consumer is experiencing when they are in therapy. Even with a graduate degree behind you, more and more States are requiring licensing which necessitates additional preparations and supervised practicum. You can achieve what you are seeking but there are some more steps to be taken. Once you are looking back on them you will be greatly rewarded for the accomplishment and also feel the confidence from the achievement. These are important if you set about to perform psychological counseling and therapy.

Tracy Molina ⋅ Toppenish, WA Central Washington Comprehensive Mental Health ⋅ 14 years experience

I am a Mental Health Therapist, but I started working as a drug and alcohol counselor.

The addiction field has less educational requirements and you get a lot of good experience. (you don't have to be in recovery to work in the field, but be sure you are abusing any substances, you want to be an example of health)

With your degree you would only need to do some extra college credits to become licensed, but if you don't want that you could be a "house manager" that is what they call it here. Basically supervising inpatient people, but many of our house managers did a lot of counseling (under supervision).

Most Mental Health jobs require masters degree level, if not higher.

The very first job while going to school, I worked at the employment office as a veterans rep. It was just minimum wage, but I got good experience.

Also: Go to your nearest Vet Center, they do counseling there. If you can't get hired, I am sure they would let you volunteer. It would be great experience to put on a resume.
PS: I am a veterans too (Navy 1990-94)

*****make sure you check the usa jobs.gov for jobs in behavioral health and addiction****