Any counsellors on here?

[Namechangegame123]

Interested in how you got into the profession, what training you undertook, which qualifications you hold etc.

[CrispsnDips]

I initially took a ten week evening course at College “Intro to Counselling”, the following two years were Level 2 and Level 3 with the CPCAB, one evening a week, and the Level 4 Diploma was two years, one whole day a week 👍🏼
I had to volunteer at a placement during the second year of Level 4 and gain 100 client hours, as well as attend 30 hours of personal therapy, as part of the qualification 😊

[Namechangegame123]

Thank you. I have come across the CPCAB courses.

[ihatethecold]

I have followed the same path as above. I’m in my final 6 months of a level 4 diploma
I’m 65 hours into my placement hours and a student member of BACP.
Our learning went into zoom last March and it’s challenging.
I’m loving the work but it’s not easy.

[Bigwaves]

Psychology degree, then after many years of not using it... diploma in Psychotherapeutic counselling. Coming towards the end of my MSc in psychotherapy.
I volunteered on a National helpline prior and really found it rewarding and gave a good grounding for doing the course.
To become accredited with ukcp/Bacp you need 450 placement hours. Also to be psychotherapist you need a minimum of 40 hours per year for a minimum of 4 years of personal therapy. On top of that you need supervision every two weeks. It’s not cheap to train as.
I work in private practice and find it extremely rewarding but it’s hard work.
I’m limited to seeing maximum 5 clients per day and currently work 4 days. That’s my absolute maximum especially over zoom.

[Firefretted]

What do you want to get out of it? If it's largely for personal fulfillment and you don't need to worry too much about money, counselling training will be fantastically rewarding. But be warned: training is expensive, paid jobs are poorly renumerated and few and far between and the market is horribly overcrowded. Lots of people invest thousands in their training and then are gutted to find that they have to volunteer for years before having a hope of paid work. Check out the Counselling and Psychotherapy Jobs page on Facebook to get an idea of what's out there and salaries. If you decide to go down this route, make sure your course is accredited by the BACP or UKCP. What is it that attracts you to counselling? If it's an interest in mental health and helping people, it might also be worth looking into occupational therapy, mh nursing or mh social work. These have much better rates of post-qualifying employment, better salaries and, in the case of social work, paid training options. Once you've qualified in one of these and practised for two years, there are paid training opportunities in the NHS to become a CBT or DBT therapist. Definitely worth strategising a bit before plunging into anything!

[Firefretted]

What do you want to get out of it? If it's largely for personal fulfillment and you don't need to worry too much about money, counselling training will be fantastically rewarding. But be warned: training is expensive, paid jobs are poorly renumerated and few and far between and the market is horribly overcrowded. Lots of people invest thousands in their training and then are gutted to find that they have to volunteer for years before having a hope of paid work. Check out the Counselling and Psychotherapy Jobs page on Facebook to get an idea of what's out there and salaries. If you decide to go down this route, make sure your course is accredited by the BACP or UKCP. What is it that attracts you to counselling? If it's an interest in mental health and helping people, it might also be worth looking into occupational therapy, mh nursing or mh social work. These have much better rates of post-qualifying employment, better salaries and, in the case of social work, paid training options. Once you've qualified in one of these and practised for two years, there are paid training opportunities in the NHS to become a CBT or DBT therapist. Definitely worth strategising a bit before plunging into anything!

[Craftycorvid]

I also did the CPCAB route. With hindsight, I’d probably have gone for a postgraduate level course or a BACP accredited one, but on balance it was the right sort of course for me at the time. As pp say, it’s a lot of work and a lot of expense to train plus a lot of unpaid work whilst you are building up hours of practice. I’ve no regrets whatsoever as I love the work. I’d suggest looking at the BACP and UKCP websites to see what kind of training appeals to you most.

[Namechangegame123]

Basically I'm hoping to develop and grow a career I really love. Something that I can really sink my teeth into and take on further training to go into areas that I'm interested in.
Prior to working as a foster parent I worked my way up to a very dead end position in a very unfulfilling career. I love being a foster parent but I miss meeting people and having a career. I feel like a SAHM most of the time, which has lots of benefits, but I do also like working and want to do something that feels rewarding.

[ihatethecold]

Do you need to earn a living from this career?
The pay is not great and there are more and more jobs being advertised as voluntary.
The Bacp is trying to get on top of this but it’s being seen and highlighted on lots of new posts now.

My course is accredited by the BACP and my tutor has been amazing getting us through our course during a pandemic but it’s been really hard. My awarding body (Aim) have Cancelled exams, changed goalposts which has caused lots of stress for us students and tutors.

[Namechangegame123]

I don't need to earn from it, but I would like to, especially considering the amount of money it takes to become fully qualified and registered.

[Craftycorvid]

In my experience, it took some time to start earning my whole living from therapy work. It was only last summer that I gave up another job as I could afford to do so. It’s a good idea to have a second income stream for the period of time after you qualify until you have around 2 years’ experience and have either an IAPT qualification or BACP accreditation if you want paid employment. If you know you want to focus on private practice, some people start as soon as they are qualified, though it’s doing it the hard way in some respects because you lack organisational support for your work.

[Bigwaves]

It’s really difficult to make a decent living from counselling op. I would look at training as IAPT or MH nursing if I had my time again. It’s a good compromise between helping others but having the backing of an organisation and making a decent salary.
As pp mentioned above, there is so many counsellors volunteering for their accreditation that many many organisations just don’t pay for counsellors - there’s no need to. The isn’t a lot of paid counselling posts, so competition for these posts is high.

[Namechangegame123]

Thank you. I've been looking into the various courses online for a while now but hasn't come across half the info I've got from this thread.

[jendifer]

Im training in psychotherapy rather than counselling - 4yr masters and I needed a social sciences degree. I need placement hours, supervisor and my own therapy. I think it's easier to train as a counsellor though!