Rehab Counsellor Hub

Rehabilitation Counsellors facilitate social, educational and economic inclusion for people experiencing illness, injury, disability or disadvantage.

The pathway to secure qualifications as a Rehab Counsellor is to complete a degree in Health Science or an Allied Health field at university and then undertake a Masters in Rehabilitation Counselling. This takes 4 years of full-time equivelent study. 

The ATAR requirements to study Rehab Counselling are generally 65+.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

Rehab Counsellors have 2 professional bodies in Australia that you can register with. They are: 

• RCAA: RCAA is the only peak professional body that self-regulates the profession and provides membership services exclusively to tertiary qualified Rehabilitation Counsellors in the Australasian Region. www.rcaa.org.au

• ASORC: ASORC is the peak professional body representing Rehabilitation Counsellors throughout Australia. www.asorc.org.au

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

As a Rehab Counsellor, you can work:

• Full time,
• Part time
• As a Contractor.

Your role could be:

• Community-based,
• Office-based,
• FIFO,
• Work from home or
• a combination of some of the above. 

Face-to-face and Telehealth options are widely available in most roles. This offers Rc’s the flexibility to schedule work around their life, as opposed to the other way around.

As a Rehab Counsellor, you can work anywhere in Australia. You are in exceptionally high demand in metro, rural, regional or remote locations Australia-wide. Check out some of our jobs available for Rehab Counsellors right now. 

Rehab Counsellors can also use their degree to support them in their travels. There are many other countries where Rehab Counselling is a highly regarded profession. We highly recommend you make sure to check what the requirements are to practise in each country. 

• Graduates: $65,000 – $75,000 base + super
• 1-2 years’ experience: $75,000 – $85,000 base + super
• 3-5 Years: $85,000 – $100,000 base + super
• 5+ Years experience: $100,000 base + super and above. This is when Specialist, Team Leader or Management level roles start to appear as well.

Keep in mind that the above are general indicators. There are always exceptions to the rule and unique circumstances. For example, specialisations, location, industry, role depth, employer salary band-widths, work arrangement etc that also determine the wages offered to Rehab Counsellors.

If you would like to discuss your salary, feel free to contact us.

Our Rehab Counsellors are offered and/or we negotiate a range of benefits for them. Benefits differ between industries, roles and organisations. Employers do their best to customise benefits to suit job-seekers. 

$: Regular Salary Reviews | Performance Bonus | Extra Superannuation Contributions | Salary sacrifice or Salary Packaging arrangements | Corporate Discounts – one of our NFP clients gives their team discounted Medical and Health Insurance.

Tools of Trade: Mobile | Laptop | Tablet  | Speech to Text Software

Admin & Reception Support: Free up time by dictating your reports and let the admin team do the rest

Travel: Pool Car Access | Novated Lease | Per km reimbursement | GoGet Car Access | Set amount per timeframe | Petrol Card (one of our clients gives their team members petrol card access for work and personal use – booya!)

Knowledge & Assessment Suitcase: Subscriptions, both hard-copy and soft-copy | Professional Development $, Comprehensive induction | On-going mentoring and in-services by subject matter experts.

“When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can! ‘ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” -Theodore Roosevelt

Extra Leave: One of our clients is a school and they give their staff 7 weeks’ leave. Other clients give their staff reservist leave, doona days, volunteer, pet and birthday leave. 

Parental Leave: One of our clients gives their staff the difference between their wage and the government mandated parental leave subsidy for the full 16 weeks – Now read that again.

Social and team building: Paid for by the company. One of our clients paid for their whole team to do axe-throwing and a cooking class – not on the same day….

Health, Wellness & EAP: Pool, yoga  or gym access or contribution | Confidential EAP to assist you when you need a hand. 

Career Mapping: Our clients spend a lot of time and money training and supporting you. They would like to see you mutually thrive. Your success and growth = their success and growth. 

“Do your job and demand your compensation – but in that order.” – Cary Grant

These are anecdotal observations based on our conversations with thousands of RCs:

1. KPI: Some of our RCs say they find the idea of billable targets challenging as it associates their work with a dollar amount. 
2. Too specialised: Some RCs feel that they would like to be able to apply their skills in more industries or in more roles within existing industries that recruit for them.