Has anyone ever retrained from teaching into school counsellor?

[Anotherlifeaway]

Can anyone explain the training needed to make this change please, as I'm finding all the advice out there confusing and sometimes conflicting?

For context I have an MA (in education related field), a PGCE (QTS) and BA (Hons). Been teaching (secondary Head of Dept) for 10 years and a further 10 years lecturing at HE / PostGrad level and also working with excluded children in a PRU.

I am investigating gaining the qualifications I'd need to become a school counsellor. On paper it looks like a 4 year degree plus an initial diploma as well? Have I got this correct? Some websites seem to suggest you can do a postgrad diploma alone.

I've checked the BACP website but they have very few accredited courses which relate to counselling children and adolescents and so it's confusing. Other colleges seem to state different advice too.

I would obviously want to find the option that works best for me and my family and preferably eats up the least amount of time but nearly all courses are part-time.

Has anyone ever made the move from teaching to school counsellor and what steps did you take? Thank you!

The usual route is to do an initial training in counselling (this is part-time and can take 3 years or so: https://www.bacp.co.uk/careers/careers-in-counselling/training/) and then a one-year further training in counselling CYP (again, part-time, the ones round here are usually 10 weekends over the course of a year). It is not a quick training, because there is a lot of emphasis on your own personal development and self-reflection.

If you are near London/Huddersfield, you could also look into Place2Be's training which is full-time and one year long: https://www.place2be.org.uk/counselling-training-placements/level-4-diploma-in-school-based-child-counselling/

Thanks @myphoneisbroken
To clarify is the further 1 year training in CYP a masters? I'm confused about the different levels of qual available and required.

I'm keen to train in the quicker side, so not the whole 4 years of possible, as I've been in psychotherapy for a number of years and as I understand it much of the reflective work is rooted in that type of work. So someone new to therapy might need a while to do the initial exploratory work but I've already got a fairly good comprehension of those aspects. Not sure if that's an accurate reflection of the expectations though.

I agree the training landscape is very confusing. It is also difficult to generalise as different offers are available in different parts of the country.

What I did was to scope out what was available local to me and do a thorough comparison of the pros and cons (cost, duration, modality etc.)

The CYP training (around here at least) is usually a PG Dip. (I am sure there are Masters courses in this elsewhere but they will be more expensive.) However, it's only open to those who are already qualified counsellors or psychotherapists. (This training can be anything from a Level 4 Diploma to a PG Dip to a Masters.)

Place2Be's training is an exception to this as it's standalone. I don't know whether there are other providers offering this sort of training - there aren't in my area. However I see it's not yet accredited by the BACP - that's something you might want to take into account.

Unfortunately your years of psychotherapy and other really relevant experience from your teaching career won't "count" towards the course requirements. But there are different requirements depending on the training you undertake - e.g. a psychotherapy training requires 160 hours of personal therapy while you are training, and there are some counselling courses where you don't have to have any.

I'm keen to train in the quicker side, so not the whole 4 years of possible, as I've been in psychotherapy for a number of years and as I understand it much of the reflective work is rooted in that type of work

Your therapeutic work would have been focussed on your self knowledge and growth, which is important. The self development work when you’re training as a counsellor/therapist is gaining an understanding of how your “stuff” might impact on your work with clients for better or worse, so a very different focus.

If you have a look at the BACP competencies for working with children and young people you may find your teaching training and experience gives you many of these, in which case I’d do a general counselling qualification and a children and young people “bolt on”. A post grad certificate in children and young people is around 9 months additional study on top of your counselling diploma so not as onerous as a Masters.

Have you actually looked at the job market, clocked the number of vacancies in this field near you etc? There are very few UK schools who actually pay counsellors full time, a lot of them rely on voluntary organisations. You could find yourself retraining and then getting maybe 1-2 days a week of work or an hour here and another hour across town.

There used to be schemes to get into Educational Psychology, have you looked to see if any of those appeal? It's a more stable job with more to do and more opportunity to make an impact.

Otherwise, if you're interested in working in children's mental health, I'd advise doing a 2-year postgrad diploma in pre-registration MH nursing and working in CAMHS.

Thanks for the tips.

@SisterMichaelsHabit Re the jobs market, part-time would suit me actually as I have various other roles I can expand to fill my time if needed. But I also think the landscape is going to change regarding school counselling, depending on the outcome of the election.

@myphoneisbroken thanks for your detail. Re The Place to Be, do you know much about it? I had a look and it seems that to complete their PGDip you must have completed both their Level 3 and 2 wills already, and also have completed a year working with primary children. My teaching practice has been solely secondary / adolescent / young people. Are P2Be focussed on primary school counselling?

@Anotherlifeaway I'm afraid I don't know any more about it. Unfortunately you'll often find that training organisations require you to do an intro/foundation course first - there is more than a whiff of the pyramid scheme about therapy training! (I speak as somebody who is very happily training to be a therapist but there is no getting away from the fact that training providers are businesses.)

In terms of the job market, CYP counsellors in private practice are in huge demand where I live due to the shortcomings of CAHMs.

Thanks so much @myphoneisbroken

Place2Be only work in primary schools to my knowledge so their training is very play therapy based, which may not be what you’re looking for if you want to work with older children/young people.

Where are you based? If near London, have a look at uel. A 2 year pgdip would qualify you plus optional 1 year masters.
In training, expect to do lots of voluntary work, you might have to also pay for supervision. Then personal therapy. It can be ££££

Once qualified, expect low pay, and a rocky career path in which the goal posts for registration may change at any point...just to give you a heads up.

Thanks @MrsMaudwatts that's helpful. I'm near enough to London.

Not worried about pay as I have other work and roles which will continue so not doing it for the pay. Also I already have therapy so that's covered.