Would you recommend a career in counselling?

[zippyswife]

Would be interested to hear of anyone’s experiences of becoming a counsellor/therapist. I was accepted for a counselling PGDip a couple of years ago but declined as I wasn’t confident that I would be able to find sufficient work. And was apprehensive about the cost of study/ personal counselling/supervision versus the eventual income. However every few months I return to thinking about it again.

I’d be interested to know
whether work has been easy to find
The kind of achievable pay
which counselling styles are preferred (I had applied for integrative but am considering psychodynamic)
whether a counselling and coaching course would be better or too broad
whether you would recommend this career path

for reference I am late 40s so another 20 years of work in me- I have a policing background and in recent years have been also working for a mental health charity.

Not me, but my sister and a close friend. Both did the same training path, a BA in Counselling and Psychotherapy with a core in integrative work accredited via our equivalent of the BACP. My sister found getting a client base after graduation difficult — even getting clients to show for up free sessions (a number of which are required in order to qualify) was tough, when you’re renting a space, and she was operating around another job to pay bills. She ended up working for the local health authority doing addiction therapy, and likes it. My friend had enough savings to not work around her day job, and a house big enough to operate out of, but she had a few years when she wasn’t making a living wage. Then she started to specialise in couples therapy, and now (ten years or more in) has a very steady situation where she has more referrals than she can see, can pick and choose clients.