Would you take this course?!

[Supermagicsmile]

Has anyone done a counselling course? The one I am looking at starts this week and I would need to apply by today if I am going to do it.
I would then have to have a phone interview tomorrow.

It would be quite a big commitment (Sept to July next year) , it would be 3 hours of evening class every week 6-9pm and then atleast 3 hours of directed study in my own time on top of this. I know it doesn't sound like much but i don't normally get home from work until 6/7pm and am so tired, I am not sure I would manage 3 hours mid week when you have to be alert and on the ball!

It would also cost £500.
I think the cost is making me more hesitant as it would be a lot of money to lose if I dropped out half way through!

To completely retrain it would take 4 years part time but I am wondering if I should wait until next September?

If it was an online course I would jump at it but it has to be professionally accredited to count towards the next three years of study.

Has anyone done a good counselling course online that was accredited? hopeful.

I am not normally this indecisive! Maybe that means I shouldn't do it.

AIBU to consider this? Anyone done a similar course? How did you find the time to study when working full time and looking after small children?

Are you taking it for fun/interest, or you aiming to earn an income from counselling in the long run? Google counselling in your area and see how many people are offering their services? Is it a lot?

Do you think, therefore when qualified you would be one of very many, do you think you could make the income that you require from this?

Take a business decision here.

Why are you considering it? Have you checked with BACP or BPS etc to figure out the training route, and the realistic salary and conditions you would be under once you did qualify?

To qualify you need to actually be in therapy yourself which is not cheap.

You can't do an online course that's accredited by someone like the BACP, it needs to be face to face. This initial level will be ok study wise, depending on how you generally are academically. The hardest part of counselling training though is the personal development - you really need to be prepared to look at yourself. In the later stages of training that means personal therapy and you'll also need to do a voluntary practice placement and pay for independent clinical supervision. All of that starts to add up time and money wise - I did it pre-children while working full time and it was hard going but doable.

There's not a lot of contracted, aid work out there just now but anyone I know who wants to make a living doing counselling has managed to do so in private practice or putting together different bits of full time work.

It's a hard profession to train for but very worthwhile.

I'm a fully qualified counsellor and you have to want it very seriously to do the training. It's expensive, universities are churning out far more people than there are jobs for and it's exhausting and time consuming. I don't regret a minute but I know others who do. It took me years to pay off the debt I accumulated.

Online courses have no credibility whatsoever. If you don't study counselling face to face it's pointless.

It would be to enchsnce the work I already do rather than be a career change (whilst the children are small atleast.)

I did one of these with my local university. Sounds very similar to what you are doing, same hours of study and same price. I went for a few weeks and then dropped out. I didn't enjoy it at all, it all seemed very wishy-washy and not very well structured. One of the things that put me off the most though was that for the final assessment we had to use our newly found "skills" on each other and record the sessions to be viewed and evaluated. I couldn't for the life of me work out how this would work - no way would I have wanted to discuss personal issues with somebody I had just "trained" with for a year, for the recordings to then be assessed by a bunch of lecturers. Apparently it was a new system they had decided to try on our cohort for the first time. Not for me, thanks!

I did one a few years ago. I really enjoyed it. I didn't find it difficult to commit to it and I'm the world's worst at self discipline when it comes to studying. I think if you're genuinely interested in it, you should do it. I found some of the theories a bit boring and used a lot of quotes to use up my word count in a couple of assignments, but that's the lazy student in me! The practical sessions were great. You don't need to open up about personal stuff, you can make stuff up, it's about learning to counsel, not having your own counselling session. And I met the most diverse bunch of people. I'd recommend doing it.

can you not get funding from your employers?
can you apply for funding retrospectively as time is short?

No funding available from employers sadly!

If you're not prepared to be open about yourself (while learning the parameters of keeping yourself safe) you need to question whether the course is for you.

You certainly shouldn't be making stuff up. It's not transparent or authentic.

Ilovesooty When I did the course, we were told that if we were uncomfortable talking about ourselves then we could make something up and express the emotions and feelings that we associated with that issue for the purpose of the other person practicing and improving their counselling skills. Just curious if that's not the right way to go about it? Sorry for derailing thread slightly!

Different courses I suppose Fanny
We were encouraged to keep ourselves safe and think about what we wanted to share but were specifically told that what we presented had to be real - most of it in triads.

I wouldn't mind that so much but would hate the rest of the group watching me!