Career advice please - counsellors/psychiatrists & similar

[CateJW]

Hi All,
I am very interested in a later in life career change.
I would ideally like to end up working working with vunerable children (fosters etc) and children with low self esteem as a counsellor etc.

I am literally just staring to look into it and wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction.
Specific jobs that do as i stated, qualifications required, etc. The quickest/cheapest route to being able to start earning?? (whilst still being decent training obviously) I would consider on online degree in Psychology, but if there is a more direct route, would love to know.

I took ALevel Psychology (got a B) but went down a total different non acdemic route. However do have a lot of experience working with children, all be it fun, extra-curricular classes.

I figured with all the people on here, someone would be able to let me know where/what to start researching.

Thanks in advance

There's quite a big difference between being a counsellor and being a psychiatrist!

I'm a psychologist and the qualification route takes about a million years. Not recommended.

I wonder if you'd consider mental health nursing, which now attracts funding? It's a really interesting role. Or maybe a part time OU psychology degree and then the psychological well-being practitioner training?

If you are interested in working with children in care, social work is a profession with lots of interesting roles beyond the public perception of it all being frontline child protection. Lots of interesting more therapeutic roles.

A psychiatrist is a doctor, so you need 5 years at university and 2 years as a foundation doctor. You can then specialise in psychiatry and become a trainee. At a minimum of 6 years later , and after passing 2 sets of postgraduate exams you can apply for consultant psychiatrist posts .

Thanks for your replies. Yes I know there is a massive jump qualifications wise from counsellor - psychologist - psychiatrist, I just wondered if there was a route where you could start as a counselor and add study/qualifications as you go, or whether they are totally different routes, if that makes sense.
I will have a look at mental health nursing and see what that entails as not something I know loads about, not wanting the social work route so much.

I’m a mental health social worker and it’s great but you could consider nursing or Occupational therapy.

There are often quite a lot of support worker roles too, both ward based and community based. Sometimes employers will support your professional training but this tends to be more common in social work than health based posts.

Counselling or coaching, you can pretty much do a course and set yourself up to go.

Psychology is soooo much more complex than just doing the qualifications as the training posts are very competitive.

Psychiatry, as another poster said, you’ve got to want to be a doctor and go to medical school etc.

@CateJW

Thanks for your replies. Yes I know there is a massive jump qualifications wise from counsellor - psychologist - psychiatrist, I just wondered if there was a route where you could start as a counselor and add study/qualifications as you go, or whether they are totally different routes, if that makes sense. I will have a look at mental health nursing and see what that entails as not something I know loads about, not wanting the social work route so much.

Those are all totally different routes / professions.

Counselling and psychotherapy - courses from the likes of CPCAB and BACP for adults. IATE does child psychotherapy but is very expensive.

Psychologists have studied psychology (as a degree or a graduate conversion course) and gone on to do a doctorate (DPsych) in clinical or counselling psychology.

Psychiatrists are medical doctors who have specialised in mental health medicine.

You can’t start as a counsellor and end up as a psychiatrist.

Have a look at Place2Be, they train school counsellors.

Big tip: beware of the quickest cheapest route as it is rarely the best one in this area. If anything, this kind of work tends to be slow and expensive!

The OU Psychology degree is really good and meshes well with existing life demands.

I would ideally like to end up working working with vunerable children (fosters etc)

Please, please, don't underestimate just how fucked-up children who've been subjected to abuse can be; that bear scars that will never heal. That will never connect, that will display challenging behaviour. Be sure you're confident your mental health can endure the saddest and most horrific experiences these children have suffered.

@SimplySteveRedux

The OU Psychology degree is really good and meshes well with existing life demands.

I would ideally like to end up working working with vunerable children (fosters etc)

Please, please, don't underestimate just how fucked-up children who've been subjected to abuse can be; that bear scars that will never heal. That will never connect, that will display challenging behaviour. Be sure you're confident your mental health can endure the saddest and most horrific experiences these children have suffered.

Further to which: be prepared to have your own therapy.

What does a mental health social worker involve? Is that more working one to one with children rather than assessing/removing/placing them with families?

I have a number of friends who foster, and have had many a discussion about what some of these poor kids have been through (they obviously don't go into personal details about any current fosters) I also currently have regular students who are foster children and have had in the past some with, what usually get written off at "very bad behaviour" but am aware it is a much deeper result of trauma. it is some of those students that have led me to want to be able to help on a deeper level.

Someone mentioned my mental health, I am very lucky to have very healthy self esteem and have had no mental health problems in my life. Outside of normal stressful periods of life (2 toddlers, a part time business and military unaccompanied causes quite a few! 🤯) I am a generally very happy and content person and I am happy with the fact courses usually expect you to have your own counseling. 🙂

The counselling route would involve a counselling degree or diploma, I'm in Scotland so not 100% sure of the English qualifications but you normally do levels 2, 3 and 4. You need to do 100 hours placement hours to qualify and most courses insist on 40 hours of personal therapy (paid by you!) each year.

As far as I know, there are no specific qualifications for child counsellors, Place 2 Be do offer placements, their training is meant to be good but the way they treat trainees can be pretty bad. I'm not sure how many paid jobs there are for paid child counsellors as P2B rely on volunteers and offer very few paid roles and they seem to have taken over as the default for school counselling. If you went into private practice it would be unlikely that many of the traumatised kids would have parents willing or able to pay the fees.

The group Counselling Tutor on Facebook will be able to give you a lot more detail than me.

There really are no quick or cheap ways into this, unless you want to start calling yourself a counsellor today and hang out your shingle - technically this is legal but please please please DO NOT do that.

To be a counsellor you'd normally start with a Level 2 course (usually a year), then do a level 3 (usually a year), then do a level 4 diploma (usually 2 years). The level 2 & 3 cost a few hundred pounds each, the level 4 will cost a couple of thousand in tuition, plus books and costs associated with the 100 hours' placement (membership of a professional body, insurance if not covered by the placement, Clinical Supervision). Most level 4 diplomas don't specialise in children, which really does require specialist training - so you may have to do another year after that to train to work with children (especially those who have experienced trauma). Paid employment is very hard to get - most counsellors earn under £10k, and employers almost always ask you to be accredited - that takes a minimum of another 2 years, ongoing professional body membership costs, application costs, and 350 hours' experience plus the 100 hours from your placement. There's a good chance you would end up working unpaid for a few years to get that experience (please note, Place2Be charges schools for services but the counsellors are unpaid - but they do provide training).

I'm sorry for sounding so very negative, I don't mean it to sound like I'm trying to put you off but it's a long and costly thing to get into. It's worth looking at a variety of jobs in this area which interest you.

Yes, I forgot to say you'd also have to pay for your own therapy for quite a while (usually 40+ sessions), and a lot of the places you'd get volunteer experience after finishing a level 4 won't pay for the Clinical Supervision you'd be required to have.

The figure is approximately one in ten who start out doing counselling who actually see it through to the end, and that’s money you wont get back.

Someone upthread mentioned coaching, you can do this but bear in mind that it is vastly different from counselling, and while more specialised coaching does exist, the industry has very much evolved into one of those hard-sell industries where people constantly hustle for business. And while the more specialised avenues don’t go down that route, if you say you’re a coach you will very much be associated with it.

I qualified as a coach eight years ago and left the industry precisely for that reason.

Coaching also isn’t a way to work with children.

I was coming on to say consider mental health nursing also. The profession is becoming increasingly trauma informed. Whilst your training would be broad, most CAMHS services take newly qualified nurses now a days, and so you could find yourself working on children's secure, in patient or community services within three years of starting your training as a qualified nurse. You may also be interested in eating disorders where many of the client group are relatively young women.

Mental health nursing now attracts a bursary so you have some income as you train

Counselling or coaching, you can pretty much do a course and set yourself up to go

Theres a bit more to being a registered consellor than doing a course and setting up. Thank God.

Thanks guys.
I don't mind not earning mass amounts straight off the bat, as could start it off alongside what I already do., when I said quickest/cheapest I probably should have said most direct/acquires least amount of debt. I would still want quality training. 🙂
I currently run a part time business (approx 25hrs including admin) around 2 at home toddlers. My eldest will start school next September and my little one 3 days at preschool, so should have some free time for training/study.

@MajesticWol haven't taken it as negatively, this is something I have had in the back of my mind for a while, but literally just decided to start researching, so thought would be good to hear from different people about pros and cons of different routes. I want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly.
I am not massively financially driven. We have been managing fine on me earning around £15000 for the last 5yrs. It's just not very compatible long term with 2 kids in school. (A not gonna lie more money for nice extras would certainly be a bonus! 🤣)

@Restlessinthenorth thanks, I will definitely have a look into this! 😊

@shivermetimbers77 I think if I was starting out, I would find that route really appealing, but you guys are right, it's probably a bit long for someone retraining in their late 30’s

I will definitely look into the voice for the child though. Thanks!