According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in most states you must have a master's degree with 48 credit hours in counseling or counseling-related classes in order to become a licensed counselor. Examples of counseling-related classes are abnormal psychology, human growth and development, counseling techniques and theories of counseling. A full list of required courses is available on each state's credentialing board website. The focus of counselor education programs is to teach you how to communicate as a counselor, the foundations or theories of counseling and how to be an ethical counselor; the final stages of the program are spent completing a practicum or internship, which allows students to apply what has been learned by counseling clients under supervision. Additionally, states require a number of hours spent in a practicum or internship in order to gain licensure.
While in the process of completing a master's degree, courses specific to counseling children will be offered. Courses such as play therapy, counseling children at risk and art therapy are highly advisable if you want to pursue a career counseling children. You will also be required to complete a practicum or internship as part of the degree requirements; try to accomplish this with a practice (or other organization) that has counselors who treat children on-site so that you may learn from them and be able to counsel children while under their supervision.
In order to be a counselor with any specialization, you must first obtain the Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) credential. To do this, you must take the National Counselor Exam (NCE), administered by the NBCC, which is used by several states for counselor credentialing. According to the NBCC, the NCE covers eight content areas such as Human Growth and Development, Social and Cultural Foundations and Helping Relationships. The test has 200 multiple choice questions and takes four hours to complete. After passing the test, you will be granted a license to practice as an intern; an intern must find a supervisor to supervise them. The intern meets with the supervisor once a week, so the supervision is not direct, but rather a means of ensuring the counselor-intern has enough support and is following proper guidelines.
While the general certification of LPC is authority enough to counsel a variety of clients, it is advisable to pursue certification in your specialization of choice. For counseling children, there is no accredited body that administers child counseling certificates; however, you may pursue certification in different forms of therapy/counseling related to children. An example is play therapy, which you may take during your graduate program, but a certificate in play therapy would require you to take additional courses, expanding your knowledge of the techniques.