A degree in counselling? Worth it? Posting for traffic

[Peruviandog]

DD has a strong desire to become a counsellor, she is looking at doing a BA counselling and therapeutic practice course at the university of South Wales.

We’ve looked at the course content and I’m a bit surprised that there are only 12 hours a week of lectures. Looking at the stats, the pay as a qualified counsellor isn’t that great and lots of people appear to be working in retail after their degree which doesnt fill me with a lot of confidence that she will actually find this a worthwhile degree.

Has anyone trained as a counsellor? Are there many opportunities? Any advice or insights? I didn’t go to university so have no idea whether 12 hours a week is normal or whether this will be a ‘soft’ degree that won’t be worth the cost long term.

Any input would be gratefully received- thanks

If I were her, I wouldn’t. Looking at the leavers’ destinations, it doesn’t sound promising. If she likes caring / helping would she consider other professions, OT, SALT, mental health nursing etc. There are many non counselling roles that can include a counselling element.

Failing that, follow a career in a totally different direction, with more money and prospects, then when the time is good she could consider retraining.

Sorry I’m not more positive but just giving you my honest opinion.

I trained as a counsellor, I would definitely not recommend it as a career move. I never used it. She'd be better off trying to get into IAPT training or CBT /psychotherapy . At least there are jobs and I'm sure that sector of the nhs will be expanding in the medium/long term given the trauma of covid. I'd also say she needs some experience of working with people to go alongside it
Can she register with the nurse bank and do some support work in mental health? It's probably not what she would want to do long term but it would really give her some good experience for her cv and for future interviews.

I wouldn't do it. It's usually a 2nd degree for people or something they come to later in life. What about psychology?

Nope, don't do it.

A family member retrained in counseling after years of raising children. Had to start from scratch with a foundation course, then a degree, she worked so hard. In the end, there were no real paid jobs.

She did volunteering for years, but was sad that she worked so hard to better her life financially for her & her children, and nothing came of it.

Her A Levels are in Law, RE and English. She didn’t take any science subjects as they weren’t all that strong. She loves Law and loves the ethics element of RE. Counselling or therapy seems to be what she’s really leaning towards.
Any ideas for other courses that may be suitable? I mentioned speech therapy and she really liked the idea of that too but again these are health sciences and she has no A Levels in science subjects.

Don’t do it. Too much competition and very few jobs. If interested then do psychology degree or social science degree as that gives more options. She would have to do post grad qualification anyway.

@User56770987

I wouldn't do it. It's usually a 2nd degree for people or something they come to later in life. What about psychology?

Yes, my sister turned to it in her late 30s, though through a 2year PT postgrad diploma she did while working FT. It was incredibly difficult to do the number of unpaid practice hours necessary to be accredited — people regularly didn’t show up to the room she rented, even though her services were free, and it was tough to combine doing those hours with a day job. Worth saying also that of her cohort of 27, only my sister and one other person completed the course on schedule — as well as most people combining it with jobs, you also have to undergo counselling yourself, and lots of people were asked to do more because it was felt they had stuff they needed to work on.

She now has a demanding job in a healthcare setting , is being required to top up her diploma to a degree, and is approaching burnout, she says. She’s dealing with addicts and sex offenders, and it’s tiring.

It would be quicker and more lucrative to get a science A level in addition to the ones she has already, and then go for SALT career if that’s what is needed to get on a course.

Seriously - counselling would be a big no no for all of the reasons people have already given.

What about teaching? If she is a people person.

Psychology degree may be interesting but the road to being a psychologist is long and hard and usually involves low paid, non permanent roles - but you don’t need to do the degree with that in mind. Most psych graduates go onto other careers.

I also started studying counselling later in life at the local college, the introduction to counselling is great and I would encourage anyone to do it to improve listening skills and self awareness. I gave up the next level course due to a bereavement, it was the wrong time for me, but I had already decided not to pursue the next step as it became clear there were very few paid jobs. The lecturer was working 2 jobs (one not counselling related) and doing private counselling to bring in a decent income.

It would probably be better to do an undergraduate degree in psychology that is accredited by the BPS and then do a Masters accredited by the relevant body for counselling - there are two different bodies for this so she'd have to look into which was most applicable.

My sister also trained as counsellor but couldn’t make a living from private practice — she’s now an addiction counsellor, working out of a halfway house, which is gruelling and can be dangerous. She has a panic button and security in the building. Another friend trained with her while working ft as a policeman, and now specialises in offering counselling to first responders — police, paramedics, fire service etc. Also gruelling, lots of PSTD etc.

So make sure your daughter is aware it’s not necessarily about sitting in a nice room helping someone work on their self-esteem.

Don't do it. There are so many better options for a love of psychology and/or sociology.

As everyone else has said, it’s not something I’d recommend as a first degree. I’ve done some of the training, I think the average under-30 would struggle to have the maturity for it. There’s as much time spent building a grounded sense of self as learning how to be a counsellor. Lots of related career paths out there which would keep her in a close area to then move across in later life.

What about a social work degree instead?

I think it's sensible to weigh up the professional salary in comparison to the degree costs.
I would agree with the others an alternative degree or maybe work experience / job in counselling environment may be a better option.

I was going to suggest social work too.

I agree, it's not a great career option for a 1st, (or even 2nd!) degree.

IAPT is also hard work, poor training low pay and too few jobs out there.

I was going to suggest mental health nursing. Better career prospects and could lead to some interesting opportunities like working in prisons and some counselling through that? Or even general CPN type work I’d have thought would involve counselling?

Dd has a counsellor. Her counsellor is self employed and charges £60 an hour. No idea if she makes a good living from it or has other support. But her background is a psychology degree, a cbt counselling course of some sort and other stuff like rapid eye movement therapy training for ptsd.

When we looked for a counsellor none of them had counselling degrees. But a varied range of backgrounds.....one had an occupational therapy degree.

So with a mental health nursing degree she could explore counselling part time, working for herself and see if she can build it up?

You can't judge a degree by the number of hours though. My academic degree from a top ten university was 10hrs a week in the 1st year and 6 by the last year. No reflection on the rigour of the degree I passed.

Thanks all, I’m not sure with the absence of a science qualification she can do nursing, to be honest she says she doesn’t want to do anything medical anyway. Same with social work, so doesn’t have an a level in sociology.

Law was originally her first thoughts so maybe she can look at that again. She’s put off by the fierce competition there to be honest. I’m beginning to think she should take a year out and get a job and have a think about it rather than waste money and get on the wrong course.

It’s a minefield and they are so young to have to make big choices really.

BA in education may be an option but if she goes into teaching it will be secondary only, she’s not interested in primary teaching. And then she doesn’t have a particular subject she’d like to specialise in.

She sounds very unsure about what she wants to do after university. I think I'd go for the psychology degree in her shoes and then see what she wants to do afterwards, there is a lot you can do with a psychology degree.

I think mental health nursing is worth looking at. Or social work. Or teaching. Something that leads straight to professional qualification and access to real jobs. Any of those can have loads of options once qualified and started career to support and nurture people. If I was choosing a first degree now it would be something like that.

Maybe look at job adverts for the kind of (properly paid) jobs she might want to do in 5 years and see what qualifications they look for.

Too many qualified counsellors are expected to volunteer their time or really low paid, it’s mad but true.

Counsellor here, it was a second career for me and I was almost 30 when I started training
Out of our cohort of 22, 17 weren’t employed as counsellors 12 months post graduation and this was after completing a well regarded course
I’d echo the advice to take a year out

Occupational therapy degree? May well be an area with job growth I reckon. Probably less focus on science background.