becoming a counsellor?

[ell]

hi, I've been thinking of becoming a counsellor, I have no idea how to go about it though, apart from the route of a degree in psychology (which I don't have the grades for). Just wondering if there any alternative routes.

[Jenny]

Hi Ell and :welcome: to the forum :)

I don't know if i'm the best person to answer this question as I'm not a counsellor, but i did do a few counselling courses.. Are you in the UK? As far as I understand you don't need a psychology degree in order to train as a counsellor. There are many different routes to training, and one of them is "Counselling Psychologist" for which you would need the psychology degree, but there are other routes too..

I think the best starting point would be to look at any local colleges and see if they're offering a course in Counselling, such as "Introduction to Counselling Skills". This could then be followed by a course such as "Level 1 in Counselling Skills", and so on. I believe there are 3 levels to take (this can be done over either 1 or 2 years) and then you can enter the diploma, which i think takes another 2 years..

There are other ways as well, for example if you know which area of counselling you want to specialise in you could go straight to that area, e.g. if you're interested in Transactional Analysis you could train with somewhere like the The Link Centre (http://www.thelinkcentre.co.uk/) and follow their training course path. Similiarly if you wanted to train in psychodynamic therapy, etc you could go straight to a specific organisation.

In my view there are pros and cons of specialising early.. i think it depends if you definitely know that that approach is the right one for you. There are many approaches out there and sometimes it can be a good idea to start with a general course so that you can get a feel for all the approaches and then make your mind up whether you want to specialise or take an integrative approach.

During training you'll need to be in your own personal counselling and towards the middle/end of the training you'll need to get a placement so that you start seeing clients and gain experience. Normally the college can help out with placement ideas.. and you'll also need to have regular supervision when you're seeing clients too. So it can be expensive and time consuming but i believe well worth it!

It's probably a good idea to make sure that the course you choose is accredited by an organisation such as the BACP - this may not seem too important at the beginning of your training but if you do go on to complete the courses and become a counsellor it may be good to have BACP accreditation from the beginning. There's a link at the BACP website of courses in the UK that are accredited by them see here (http://www.bacp.co.uk/accreditation/Accredited%20Course%20Search/index.php).

Not sure if that's all totally accurate so hope people will correct me if not, and add their own thoughts, etc.

Good luck with your decision and hope you'll let us know how it goes (if you want) :)

[Cherrypie]

Hi Ell,

When I was thinking about becoming a counsellor I often wondered how do I know if I am suited to counselling and what kind of person becomes a counsellor.. The BACP Ethical framework lays out these personal moral qualities to which counsellors and psychotherapists are strongly encouraged to aspire:

Empathy: the ability to communicate understanding of another person’s experience from that person’s perspective.

Sincerity: a personal commitment to consistency between what is professed and what is done.

Integrity: commitment to being moral in dealings with others, personal straightforwardness, honesty and coherence.

Resilience: the capacity to work with the client’s concerns without being personally diminished.

Respect: showing appropriate esteem to others and their understanding of themselves.

Humility: the ability to assess accurately and acknowledge one’s own strengths and weaknesses.

Competence: the effective deployment of the skills and knowledge needed to do what is required.

Fairness: the consistent application of appropriate criteria to inform decisions and actions.

Wisdom: possession of sound judgement that informs practice.

Courage: the capacity to act in spite of known fears, risks and uncertainty.

I don't think its a case of having them all but recognising some of these within yourself and perhaps aspiring to the rest may help you decide if you are suited..

You certainly don't need to do psychology first so no worries there. As Jenny said find a local college and speak to their counselling tutors. An introduction to counselling was my first step and whilst I felt impatient to get going I think its a good start because doing counselling is like nothing else..you are doing role plays one minute and the next you may be looking at yourself in depth in a way you may not have done before. Some people find all this self reflection quite difficult and decide not to go on any further but personally I found it fascinating.

The intro is a gentle start with some group teaching, learning basic listening skills and practising them practically with peers. At my local college previous qualifications were not relevant at all but some fairly basic english will be needed as there may well be weekly homework in the form of relaying what you have learnt practically and some self reflection through writing a personal journal. I think it is an excellent start to find out more before spending fortunes on the certificate courses..

Hope this is helpful.. good luck!!

Cherrypie

[Jenny]

Yes i'd agree with Cherrypie 110%! I was impatient thinking that it would take yeaaaaaaars before qualifiying to be a counsellor, i wanted a quicker way.. but you really can't rush self development. There is a lot of soul searching and challenging of personal behaviours/thoughts, etc. It takes years and rightly so.. :)

[Jenny]

Found this link on the BACP website that may help

http://www.bacp.co.uk/members/info_sheets/pdf/T1.pdf

[ell]

Thank you so much for your amazing replies, they were so helpful. :hug: Thanks again!

[Wanna Be Counsellor]

I would suggest calling your local colleges too (and uni's) as there are a number of colleges etc that do 'introducing counselling' courses, or similar. I am on one at the moment. It leads to a 3 year HNC/HND (higher national certificate and higher national diploma) in Counselling. These are part time courses and will once completed allow me to practise as a registered counsellor.

The local Uni does the same courses, seperately over 4 years - not sure yet why the difference but my have more information next week as the Uni 'co-ordinator' is calling me on Monday afternoon to discuss being accepted onto the list for the HNC course in Sept.

The BACP have a link to their 'Ethical Framework' and this is used in my course, so could be something for you to familiarise yourself with :) http://www.bacp.co.uk/ethical_framework/ is the link to their page with a link for a PDF download - you can buy the document from them (cheaper than it is on Amazon oddly enough).

Also the 'skilled helper' by Gerard Egan is used within the coursework, this is a book, but I haven't read it or seen it yet.

I hope you manage to find a course and wish you success! :D

[Wanna Be Counsellor]

Found this link on the BACP website that may help

http://www.bacp.co.uk/members/info_sheets/pdf/T1.pdf

This is really useful thanks Jenny :)
Great for clarification of the law and also accreditation. I had assumed that my course as it's accredited would mean I could register with BACP at the end! I'll need to keep an eye open to ensure I am up to speed with their requirements later.