Rehabilitation Counsellor

A Rehabilitation Counsellor works with individuals who have sustained injury, illness, or disability to facilitate their return to work and social participation. They assess functional capacity, develop individualised rehabilitation plans, coordinate services across multiple providers, and provide ongoing counselling and support aligned with frameworks such as the NDIS and workers compensation schemes. The role operates in settings including hospitals, community health services, rehabilitation facilities, and private practice.

Conduct comprehensive functional capacity assessments and vocational evaluations to determine work-related abilities and rehabilitation potential. Develop individualised rehabilitation and return-to-work plans in consultation with the client, medical practitioners, and employers. Facilitate and coordinate access to rehabilitation services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and psychological support. Liaise with treating medical practitioners and specialists to obtain clinical information and align rehabilitation goals with medical management. Provide counselling and motivational interviewing to address psychological barriers to rehabilitation and employment. Negotiate workplace accommodations and modified duties with employers to support graduated return-to-work programs. Document rehabilitation progress, outcomes, and case notes in compliance with disability insurance and workers compensation requirements. Coordinate with Australian workplace injury management and return-to-work legislation including workers compensation and superannuation insurance clauses.

The standard entry pathway requires a bachelor degree or higher (ABS Skill Level 1). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.

You'll spend a lot of time fighting with insurance companies and employers over what they'll fund and accept. The emotional weight is real too: you're managing people's trauma, grief about lost capacity, and sometimes their anger at you when recovery doesn't go the way they hoped. Pay is modest and won't match what you might earn in other counselling fields.

Jobs concentrate in major cities where there are more rehabilitation facilities, private insurers, and NDIS providers. Regional areas have fewer positions and often require travel between clients. Most work is office and site-based, not remote. Workers compensation schemes and large employers in each state are the main employers.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 2721, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Active Listeningcore
• Case Note Documentationcore
• Confidentiality and Privacy Compliancecore
• Cultural Awareness and Sensitivitycore
• Eligibility Assessmentcore
• Empathy and Emotional Intelligencecore
• Goal Setting and Planningcore
• Participant or Client Advocacycore
• Professional Boundaries Maintenancecore
• Report Writingcore
• Risk Identificationcore
• Service Navigation and Referralcore
• Trauma-Informed Communicationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Written Communicationcore
• Continuous Learning and Upskilling
• Disability Awareness and Inclusion
• Health Terminology Literacy
• Inclusive Practice
• Interpreter and Accessibility Coordination
• Referral Coordination
• Regulatory and Legislative Awareness
• Stakeholder Communication
• WorkCover Administration
• Workload Self-Management

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

Last updated: 30 October 2026