Chrysalis or Psychodynamic?

[Issey]

I everyone. :new: Its great to find you all. I have just completed my certificate in psychodynamic counselling and want to go on. The cost is holding me back. I have found Chrysalis who do an advanced diploma in psychotherapy and they look good but are not BACP accredited and you do not need to have personal therapy. Can any one help?:book:

[Cherrypie]

Hi Issey,

I am sorry that I cannot help you specifically with your question and I hope there is someone around who has some knowledge of this course but I am interested in you saying there is a route that does not require personal counselling. At the end of this course will you be a qualified counsellor?

I always imagined that the personal counselling was quite a key part of becoming a counsellor and surely if you work with transference and your own counter transference then its especially important as a psychodynamic one?

I'd love to hear your view on it as I am only new to training myself and I can certainly empathise with the cost nightmare!

Cherrypie

[Jenny]

:groupwave: welcome to the forum.. it's good to have you here. Like Cherrypie I'm afraid I can't help much with your question but I too am a little confused as to how a course to be a qualified therapist can get away with not having personal therapy as a requirement. I guess that could be the reason it isn't BACP accredited?

From what i remember you could train with Chrysalis now and then go for BACP accreditation later, but i'm not sure of the ins and outs of this nor do i have a clue of the cost. I know counselling training costs a lot and i hope that something works out... have you tried asking a counsellor to provide a reduced fee for you as you are a student? Every little helps :)

Good luck and let us know how things are going (if you want!)
Jenny x

[Cherrypie]

Oh yes and a big fat Cherrypie welcome from me too!!

:wave:

Very glad you came to join us!!

xCherrypie

[mel]

And you do not need to have personal therapy?!
Oh dear... I dont agree with that at all,... especially in the psychodynamic approach to counselling and psychotherapy.
If anything, it is the personal therapy that is the most important work and from what clients will benefit the most in my humble opinion. The counslelors self awareness.
I believe the counsellor is only able to take the client as far as the counsellor herself/himself can go. Not any further.

[Issey]

Hi everyone. Thank you for such a warm welcome. You are all so right. My certificate course emphasised that I would need to be in personal therapy if I intended further training and I am. I started in preperation for taking the diploma in September. That is the psychodynamic model. I phoned chrysalis and was told I did not have to be in personal therapy to qualify on the advanced diploma, which is the integrated model. :taunt::taunt:I called BACP and they said you do not have to be in personal therapy for accreditation. I am so confused. What I need is someone who has done the chrysalis course and can tell me if its OK.

[mel]

Yes but the accreditation with the BACP is different to doing your diploma.
To become BACP accredited you will have to have 450 I think it is hours of client counsleling behind you plus you will have to do a case study plus some other essays on the therapeutic relatinship etc.
Those are tow different things (please correct me if I am wrong)

Also, a counsellor does not nee dto become BACP accredited. Many arent. The accreditation has nothing to do with becomeing a counsellor.
My friend who has been a counsellor for 5 years has only become accredited with the BACP this year.

Anywya, sorry to go on... but I hope you will chose to take personal therapy. There are so many counsellors out there who have less self awareness than my 12 year old son... and that is scary.

[mel]

By the way, hope I didnt come across too harsh its nothing personal. I just get really emotional lol, when it comes to therapists and personal therapy. ;)

[Issey]

Hi Mel, Thanks. That is really helpful. You have cleared up the BACP thing. Now I have to find out why personal therapy isn't required by Chrysalis. I will keep you all posted. :loopy:

[mel]

...

[Issey]

:loopy:thanks Mel. I just looked up the web site and will call them tomorrow.

[mel]

Great!
I think she is out of her office until the 27th but there is usually another man who works there called John.

Good luck with your inquieries and studies!

And I wish you lots of hard work in your personal therapy :hiya:

[andyhp]

Hi Issey,

As mel has said big difference between an accredited course and gaining personal accrediation from a governing body.

I don't have personal experience of the Chrysalis course but as a 'general rule' I would always suggest opting for a course that is accredited by say the BACP. The issue of whether a course insists on personal therapy does not affect whether it has accreditation or not. The fact is some accredited courses do and some don't. There's another thread by cherrypie on the issue of personal therapy and whether it should be compulsory or not so I'll go no further than the facts here.

It can be important later in your career whether your course was accredited or not. If you wish to apply for personal accreditation to the BACP then you will have to do more to gain that status if your course was not accredited e.g. you will have to provide a case study which you wouldn't if you had already done one as part of an accredited course. I think, but am not certain, that the number of hours you have done can be affected as well. You have to do 450 hrs post qualification for personal accreditation (and have been in supervised practice for 3 years) and if you were on an accredited course you can count the hours you did while on the course. If it's not an accredited course I'm not so sure you can. Could well be wrong so it's something to ask BACP.

In the present 'climate' with registration looming I strongly suggest you choose an accredited course. Have Chrysalis applied for it, if not, why not and if so, why didn't they get it, did they have it and has it been taken away?
There's quite a few well known places that have had accreditation taken away.

Best of luck with your training and your future.

[SJSotomayor]

When I went for my Chrysalis interview alarms bells started ringing when I asked the interviewer why they did not make personal counselling manditory, his reply (I'll give him due credit for being honest) was that it was for financial reasons - it would be costly for students and might put them off joining!!

When I asked whether there were other students from my county/area joining the course I was told catigorically yes, that there were two from a local town. Funnily enough these never materialised and I had to attend practice groups nearly 2 hours away on a weekly basis to get my (50) practice hours up.

The interviewer seemed more interested in whether I was paying for the three years up front and my methods of payment (this was brought up 4-5 times) rather than actually sussing out whether I was a suitable for the course.

I would love to hear from any current Chrysalis students who have had different more positive experiences|!

[Jenny]

Wow that's very interesting regarding Chrysalis.. I remember enquiring about a course with them ages ago and afterwards they called me regularly to try to get me to enrol but I didn't.. they seemed rather professional if a little keen lol.

I do find it worrying that people can qualify to be counsellors without having had counselling themselves.. to me it seems such a fundamental thing.. and actually if I do seek counselling again in the future I may ask who they trained with and whether they have been in therapy too!

Thanks for sharing your experience though.. would be interesting to hear from others too

:grouphug:

[Neil]

This is no doubt too late Issey - but the agency where I am doing my placement won't touch a student who is on a Chrysalis counselling course. Sounds harsh. The director apparently wrote to Chrysalis outlining her opinions and why she held them. I had approached them and they did seem cheaper than the other courses. I also was a bit surprised at the readiness they offered me a place. Not that I think I shouldn't be on a course :) but there was no real interviewing of me - it was lets look at your certificate you're got and well you've got a place. I did have the chance to ask lots of questions, but they asked very few about me. I think the old adage you get what you pay for applies. They rented a room at the local university for the monthly meetings. Quoting from their website:
Chrysalis® courses meet for one full class day per month, normally on a weekend, with extra practice sessions arranged to suit students - as SJSotomayor mentioned these extra practical sessions are with other students and there may not be any in your local area.

There are no doubt good counsellors who have come out of a Chrysalis counselling course, but my thought is that would be in spite of rather than because of. There seemed to be little practical sessions being arranged - it was all more theory and if you just wanted that you could read/study the many counselling books that are available in whatever type of therapy, etc you were interested in.

This was a couple of years back now that I applied. But the agency bit was from about a year ago. This all seems rather harsh and they have been going over 12 years their website claims. So guess they must be dong something right? Maybe things have changed?