I have some experience in this department, my wife just last week finally got her LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor) after having started in school 10 years ago. We have $90,000 in student loans to payoff as a result of the Master's degree. If she wanted to work full time (we do not want her to, have a son, want her to be home when he gets off school) she could make $55K or so. Instead she works contract during the hours our son is in school. Those are the negatives. The positive is that my wife was BORN to be a counselor. She recently took a personality profile and the #1 career for her...Mental Health Counselor. If you ask her what she would do if she won $100MM in the lottery, she confidently says she would travel for a year and then be a counselor where she works today. She literally LOVES what she does and looks forward to going to work every day. That is pretty awesome.
So back to my thoughts for you. I would be quadruple sure this is what you want to do before you go to school for it. I would highly recommend you take a personality profile, see if it comes back that counseling/therapy would be a field for you. I would research where you would want to work (in school, social work type places, private practice) and if social work you could volunteer or go ahead and get a social worker job. My wife worked as a social worker and she could probably make $45-50K as director without the $90,000 Master's Degree. You won't be able to counsel people but you will be helping people. Not a huge spread between the salaries though from what I can tell.
I would also warn you that not all of the people you help will be deserving, in fact my wife has told me probably 1 out of 10 clients is truly deserving the vast majority of people receiving social services are professionals at milking the system. She does not get upset by that whereas that would INFURIATE me.
Something else, my wife started her Master's at Georgia State then when we got married and moved to Florida she lost a ton of hours. These schools don't accept each others hours, my guess is because of the liability of the worst case scenario...client suicide with a lawsuit shortly after graduation could involve the school. So that is one thing. After we moved she finished her degree at Capella University a for profit online school. Capella was MASSIVELY more expensive that Georgia State so I would warn you about Capella in that sense. Also I will say it appears there is basically no weight given to what school your degree comes from at least in the jobs we have looked at for my wife. It is a check box, do you have the degree, do you have the license? It's not like in business or law school where the school ranking matters. I would HIGHLY recommend attending a cheap, local, not for profit school. The cheapest accredited program you can find. I would hit it hard and get through it and not plan to move for ANY reason until you are finished.
Also, depending on your state licensure requirements you will have to work for several years unlicensed, in our case it was 3 whole years. My observation with that is the only places that employ unlicensed counselors are social services/court appointed type places. The really nice employers, private, non profit, VA hospitals, those sorts of folks wait for you to sort of serve your time in the dreggy places and you are licensed before they will hire you so there is that. In my wife's caase she wants to work in that sort of place so for her she has loved it, I am begging her to get out of there. There was literally a shooting in her parking lot 2 weeks ago. She has numerous clients that have committed multiple murders, brutal rapes, you name it they have done it.
Overall I would categorize the Mental Health Counseling profession as almost a calling versus a good way to earn a living. The degrees, internships, and then unlicensed work required (in our case 3 years of it) turns it into a minimum 5 year investment with mega debt before you can earn a minimal salary it is literally a losing proposition. After you are licensed you can make $50K maybe, 45 more likely you will have been accumulating interest on the $50K for several years and then it will take you several more to payoff the debt so I would say rule of thumb, it takes 10 years, a full decade to bust through the school, the internship, the pre-licensing period, and then buckle down eat beans and rice and payback the student loans (most people take 20 years to pay them back). We joke that you need to be independently wealthy to go into the counseling profession.
So all in all, I don't think slogging it out in a career you hate is mandatory. I do however think that counseling/therapy, for the most part, is a money loosing proposition. Something you make a lot of financial sacrifices to do because you love it. If my wife had not LOVED it and I had my full say I would have had her stay in social work, within a couple years she was being offered program director positions that paid $45K a year with benefits with just her undergraduate degree which was already paid for. Financially that would have been a great option to help people in non profit/service type career. She, like a lot of others, felt called to the counseling branch of the field. She loves to listen to people, sympathies with them, and analyze their thoughts and behaviors to help them find solutions to their problems.
Rambling/long post but I think my/our experience here might help you decide. If you have any questions feel free to ask.