Social work vs counseling?

I currently have been working as a Residential counselor (glorified babysitter) for the past 3 months. I have thought about moving up to be a social worker. But the issue is the obvious that the salary for a social worker isn't that high working for non-profits. And I don't feel my heart is in social work as well due to the fact I volunteered to work along side with a licensed social worker at the local VA. The only time I was remotely excited was when I could possibly diagnose what someone might have due to their behavior charts. So I like working with and counseling people, which in social work it's more paper work. Sorry for it being long but I am frustrated that the only way to really counsel people is to have an MSW which I don't think I would have enough interest to pull me through paying X amount of dollars for an increase of 10,000 a year salary. What should I do?!?!