@kalecake I guess it depends on what you want out of a job, how concerned you are about career advancement, and how willing you are to commit time and energy with no guarantee of eventual qualification.
Absolutely clinical psychology is very very competitive pre-qualification, it can be a long journey with no guarantee you'll reach the finishing line. There are many more able, talented, intelligent graduates with great experience than there are places on the training. Once you're qualified, though, you'll pretty much be guaranteed a job, and great career prospects. There's a clear hierarchical structure for career progression, although, as is the case with every profession, the more senior you become, the fewer of those posts there are around. With clinical psychology as well, it is important to hold in mind that if what you want to do is mainly therapy, then this pathway is not necessarily the best path for you. To follow this route you'd need to spend several years studying and gaining qualifications and experience with no eventual guarantee of a doctoral training place at the end of all that effort. Understandably, many people who have done this and not gained a training place feel quite disillusioned.
With counselling qualifications, as long as you have time, funding and are willing to put in the effort, hours etc, there are far fewer limits on becoming qualified, and your eventual qualification (or not) will depend mainly on you, rather than how many places on training are available that year. It is a really useful qualification and there are lots of different areas you could work in, although less of a clear career structure, and fewer prospects for career advancement. It is also by no means guaranteed that you would be able to find a job. If what you mainly want to do is direct therapeutic work, then this is probably a better pathway, with a more certain outcome.
So, would I recommend that you seek to become a clinical psychologist rather than a psychotherapist? I guess that depends what you want, and how much time you are able to give the pathway. To train as a clinical psychologist you would need to have a high 2:1 in your first degree, do a conversion masters, then look to gain relevant paid experience for a minimum of 12 months full time equivalent (but in reality it is usually 2, 3, 4 or more years here). To gain this minimum employment requirement you may need to work in less relevant, less well paid or voluntary roles for an unspecified amount of time. Even then you would not be guaranteed a place on the doctoral training, as there will be around 4000 applicants nationally for around 500 places each year. Depending on where you live and your ability to relocate/commute, your choice of training institution might be limited further, and the applicants/places ratio might be even higher.
All that said, it is also one of the few professional trainings still fully funded, and you even get a healthy salary of around 28000 whilst completing the doctorate, as you work in the NHS three days a week for the duration. I think this adds to the appeal for many.
I love my job. It is varied, interesting, rewarding, demanding, and at times stressful. I've been qualified for 13 years and have progressed well and am now in quite a senior role (if you want to look up agenda for change payscales, newly qualified clinical psychologist starts on band 7, most people can easily progress to 8a after a few years, and then 8b, 8c etc posts are harder to come by. 8d and 9 posts are virtually unheard of, very senior, and often heads of regions rather than departments). I'm able to balance work and family life (NHS is a really family friendly employer) and earn enough in three days a week to stay afloat. But I might be saying the same thing if I had trained as a counsellor or psychotherapist!
What I would recommend is seeing if you can contact some people in the range of professions you have an interest in to find out about their day to day experience in the workplace, employment prospects once qualified, salary ranges etc.