Mental Health Counselors

Minimal Risk
14%

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Vote Comments (24)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
0.0%
(Minimal Risk)
POLLING
28%
(Low Risk, Based on 313 votes)
Average: 14%
LABOR DEMAND *
GROWTH
18.8%
by year 2033
WAGES
$53,710
or $25.82 per hour
Volume
397,880
as of 2023

Employment data isn't available specifically for this occupation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so we are using the data from Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors.

SUMMARY
What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
8.0/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

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Calculated automation risk

0.0% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): Occupations in this category have a low probability of being automated, as they typically demand complex problem-solving, creativity, strong interpersonal skills, and a high degree of manual dexterity. These jobs often involve intricate hand movements and precise coordination, making it difficult for machines to replicate the required tasks.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some very important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Social Perceptiveness

  • Assisting and Caring for Others

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Originality

  • Persuasion

  • Negotiation

User poll

28% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 0.0% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Mental Health Counselors will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

The following graph is shown where there are enough votes to produce meaningful data. It displays user poll results over time, providing a clear indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors' job openings is expected to rise 18.8% by 2033

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors' was 53.710 $, or 26 $ per hour

'Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors' were paid 11.8% higher than the national median wage, which stood at 48.060 $

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 397,880 people employed as 'Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors' within the United States.

This represents around 0.26% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 381 people are employed as 'Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors'.

Job description

Counsel and advise individuals and groups to promote optimum mental and emotional health, with an emphasis on prevention. May help individuals deal with a broad range of mental health issues, such as those associated with addictions and substance abuse; family, parenting, and marital problems; stress management; self-esteem; or aging.

SOC Code: 21-1014.00

Comments (24)

Leave a comment
paige (Uncertain)
05 Nov 2025 13:38
robots (ai) could be trained to fake care and empathy. lets just hope the pandora box doesn't open.
P (Moderate)
11 Jul 2025 21:38
A robot/AI is the ideal listener. with a proper training set and enough time, I could see them developing treatment and safety plans for clients.
LudditeCSci (Moderate)
05 Feb 2026 03:53
People here are underestimating the extent to which others are already forming attachments with and using chatbots as surrogates for counsellors/therapists, friends, and even romantic partners. Unlike most jobs, there won't be a total technological demolition within 20 years, but we can expect the market to contract, despite the alarming increases in mental illness across the Western world.
Anonymous
09 May 2023 17:13
In the United States therapists are licensed through the board of behavioral sciences in their state. Humans have to jump through several hoops, education and training, in order to get licensed. I can’t imagine that these requirements will go away for artificial intelligence. Someone has to own the technology being used, they will be liable if something goes wrong. Legal and ethical issues will arise.
Zac (Moderate)
08 Apr 2023 16:58
If therapy is primarily a reflective task, it's easy to see how a user could enter prompt text and an LLM could respond to key words to generate open-ended questions for deeper consideration. I think the optimistic view of this is that mental health treatment need not look like it does now with only periodic visits of defined length.
L (Low)
07 Jun 2025 06:42
mental health needs a personal touch to empathise & not another robot to talk too! people are too much into social media where they are not getting in touch with a human on a personal level. we need more f2f interaction than virtual
k (Highly likely)
12 May 2025 00:05
people are already using chatgpt as a therapist
Keeks (Low)
20 Mar 2023 13:27
Human witnessing with each of our senses... eyes, ears, embodied felt sense, plus empathetic responsiveness, have direct impacts on another's nervous system. Maybe one day robots will be able to emulate this (I hope not), but for now I can't see how these integral pieces to therapeutic effectiveness could be replaced by an AI bot.
Stephen Lim (Low)
07 Jun 2020 14:08
Nothing can ever replace human empathy and face-to-face interactions. Bots may give the most politically correct or evidence-based answers, but it can't provide the human touch, or when counsellors say to clients "I'm sorry about what you've gone through. I share your grief and am at a loss of words now."
Friend
21 Jan 2021 02:57
Why would I pick a human counselor who knows a limited amount little to an AI who has instant access to the breadth of human knowledge. Its hubris for us to think that AI will not pass human intelligence at some point, and then we won't even be able to tell the difference. So yes at some point all jobs are in danger.
Human
27 Jun 2022 03:29
Therapy isn't about knowledge; it's about emotional connection. When AI sheds tears, let me know.

For people who want quick fixes, they may turn to AI for a while. But as symptoms return, they'll wise up.

What's worrisome is the monetization of AI for these purposes. Research into AI therapy is almost entirely unethical, largely because it will be used for profit, not for people - and we all know it.

By the time people realize AI therapists are a sham, insurance companies may have long abandoned reimbursement for human therapy. We'll be too busy doomscrolling or consuming YouTube videos of kittens to do anything about it.
Jo
29 Dec 2022 16:48
You are correct that it is possible that AI will eventually come for everything. However, the most powerful aspect of therapy is not "how much I know and can tell you." It is the relational connection that is healing core attachment wounds.

Eventually, when the philosophical debate about what it means to be "conscious" and "alive" starts to include AI, then it will be very interesting. However, that is likely far away.
Carl (No chance)
01 Dec 2023 17:50
I don't want a counselor who knows everything, I want a counselor who knows me and cares for me and my wellbeing. A robot won't do that.
Max
08 Mar 2023 18:31
Therapy and counselling is a medical treatment of an illness, just like any other. If you're looking for human connection in your health care, you are looking in the wrong place. That needs to come from your relationships. Therapy is expensive and there are massive wait lists. Not to mention when I finally get in with a counsellor it's like rolling the dice if it will be a good fit. If an AI could provide me with free, unbiased, scientifically backed, cutting edge advice specific to my mental health situation at any time I need it, sign me the heck up.
CW
20 Jun 2025 00:53
Providing therapy is much, much more than "giving advice." Only bad therapists give advice.
Chris (Highly likely)
01 Sep 2022 22:55
The robot's memory could be erased after the session. This makes the client more comfortable telling their "darkest secrets" right away.

The client also has unlimited access to a therapist that never gets fatigued or distracted. Plus, the client can have on-demand access 24/7/365, for 5 minutes or 5 hours.

Sadly, therapists will be rare, but fortunately, society will achieve greater mental health.
Lindsey (No chance)
29 Oct 2019 18:38
Mental Health Counselling is a job that is about face to face interaction and understanding verbal and nonverbal communication. a robot cannot understand and pick up on these forms of communication the way humans were programmed to do. People have to go through multiple sessions before being able to help the person. You cannot give a robot emotions that humans are born with that are required with this job. Humans have personal experiences hearing, seeing or experiencing that can be used to help people. Robots cannot do any of this and that is why I am so confident that this profession will never be controlled by robots.
Russell Johnson (No chance)
01 Oct 2019 21:46
counseling is a human experience.
Sarah (No chance)
27 Jun 2019 18:23
I think expanding mental health counseling would be a good idea. This job shouldn't be leaving anywhere.
Collyn Wang (No chance)
25 Apr 2019 11:41
Mental Health Councilling requires face to face communication, and robots can not detect emotions and feelings as well as humans can. Psychology is a very difficult major for a robot to be able to understand as we have not been able to properly program sympathy or emotions and creativity in robots. Even if we do, humans would probably rather communicate with other humans or even people who share the same problems as them, not robots.
Makenna (Low)
10 Apr 2019 15:50
Counselling alone is about communicating to others and i think that if robots replace that job the work wont be done right.
Sarah (No chance)
23 Oct 2021 14:37
Therapy requires a personal, empathetic touch that machines may never be able to provide.
Hadit (Highly likely)
21 Mar 2023 07:19
Chatgpt has already been better and more empathetic then most therapists. Given how many can botch even simple assessments because they are too lazy to actually work, I cannot wait
Pitha gorus (Highly likely)
24 Apr 2024 02:06
Robots will understand more human mind in the future than such evil therapist who do business only for many and always ask for high costs, AI would have more evidence based answers and solutions to human problems with human like empathy they will understand humans like centuries before internet was just an imagination in 1700.
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