Lesson 1: never discuss your personal course, career, work details with friends. Reason: 1. People who aren't your close friends will take this as a sign you are there for them to provide free service. Also depending on your lifestyle and work they might be more willing to pester you for other supports like financial. These people exist and are opportunistic. 2. As a therapist never give out free information about yourself that could be used to access your personal life, make you open to unwanted suggestions or run ins 3. Real friends will support you, have a conversation in a passing mode as work and study material is not a topic to discuss with friends, colleagues yes, patients yes, like minded people yes. But compartmentalize never offer unwanted/free advice to a friend from a therapist point of view. Hell even if you see a friend struggling instead of diagnosing just be there bite your lip and offer them the shoulder to cry on. Or if you really worried guide them to another trusted professional. 4. build clear boundaries between friendships and client-therapist relationships. Otherwise you won't have a distinction between work and free time and you're bound to become resentful for being constantly in a mode of therapist. Maybe make a point to only discuss your passions, hobbies and interests and dry to observe which people around you constantly bring up work, career, money or ask about it early on, these people are more likely measuring and comparing and will use it against you either by putting you down for not being as good as them, or being better than them.

Urm, I was wondering if you could maybe help me. I seem to be addicted to reading FML’s

Just tell them that since they aren't paying you there's no client / therapist relationship and therefore you'll quite happily gossip the juicier details with everyone else you know.

Unlike that dumb male escort, discuss fees up front. That really should have been the first thing they teach you in therapist school: get the money first!

Interrupt them and tell them they'll need to pay you 50$ an hour if they want a session, and it's only so cheap because you haven't graduated yet. After that, it'll be standard market rate.

Surely you are aware that your future patients are going to be doing exactly that? The only difference is that you will will be paid by actual patients and that you will have been prepared by your education by then. My Dad was a repairman for much of his life. One day he told me this - “Working for friends and relatives is hard because they expect you to give them a big discount AND to be thankful for their business.” So I said “then don’t do work for relatives.” Dad’s reply was that “you have to because they are your relatives, and if you do a good job they will talk you up to their friends resulting in more business.” I get it, we all need some balance and distance in our lives between a career or profession and your private life. You cannot be “on duty” all the time or you become exhausted. And, at this point you at not fully qualified to give professional advice. On the other hand, I assume the path to becoming a counselor was something you choose because it appealed to you for some reasons. Try to remember your reasons you wanted to become a counselor - Maybe that will help you to keep things in perspective. If you think you can help your friends by listening to their problems then remember you are helping them. In the long run this early “practice” in listening will either make you a better counselor or make you decide it was not the career choice for you. Personally, while I care about people in my life and have concerns for their difficulties, it really is less personally stressful to be concerned about another person’s problems than to have them yourself. Learn to care about others while still maintaining enough personal space to protect your own mental health. I would hope that your education will prepare you to do that. In the meantime, avoid volunteering information about your career plans to any but your closest friends and family. And if these “sessions” start anyway, explain that you are not yet qualified to be a counselor and if they have serious issues they really should see a professional - I would carry on me in this case, the phone numbers for mental health professionals so you can help in that way. OP, I hope this does not discourage you from becoming a mental health counselor. It is an honorable profession and we need more good ones. But if you are unsuited for the profession, then it’s better to find out early. I suggest you might want to talk to one of your teachers or advisers and get suggestions from them on how to deal with this.

And what have we learned...?