The field of Rehabilitation Counseling Because of the high level of expertise required of rehabilitation counselors, professionals must achieve a master's degree in order to become fully certified practitioners in this field. This high level of academic rigor is required because of the complex nature of the work, which focuses on aiding those people with various forms of disabilities (both psychological and physical) to live more complete, "normal" lives, despite their disabilities. As such, coursework ranges from the theoretical to the practical and covers a wide range of topics in between, including therapeutic methods, scientific analysis, and certain medical issues.