We surveyed 3,012 mental health counselors to learn what personality traits and interests make them unique. Here are the results.


Holland Codes

Mental health counselors are social and investigative

Mental health counselors tend to be predominantly social individuals, meaning that they thrive in situations where they can interact with, persuade, or help people. They also tend to be investigative, which means that they are quite inquisitive and curious people that often like to spend time alone with their thoughts.

If you are one or both of these archetypes, you may be well suited to be a mental health counselor. However, if you are realistic, this is probably not a good career for you. Unsure of where you fit in? Take the career test now.

Here’s how the Holland codes of the average mental health counselor break down:


Big Five

The top personality traits of mental health counselors are social responsibility and openness

Mental health counselors score highly on social responsibility, indicating that they desire fair outcomes and have a general concern for others. They also tend to be high on the measure of openness, which means they are usually curious, imaginative, and value variety.

Once again, let’s break down the components of the personality of an average mental health counselor: