AIBU to retrain as a Counsellor aged 55?

[52andblue]

I qualified in 1999 & worked for 5 years then had a v long career break as the (now single as exH abandoned us) parent of two kids with ASD.
As my career break was so long I'd need to retrain. I can do a 1 Yr HND (in Scotland) that's Accredited by the BACP. But I remember it being difficult to secure a job in 1999 as a newly qualified Counsellor (without Social work qualifications or any other 'strings to my bow')
Is it better or worse now ? The course is expensive as I have to pay for 100 hours supervision whilst qualifying so I'd need to know it wasn't just a 'Vanity project' for me. I may end up living in England later on. I know the IAPT system employs Counsellors so I would hope to be employed there in 5 years time (can't move before then).
Realistic, or Pie in the Sky?

I would suggest that you check on NHS jobs for IAPT jobs and check the person spec.... the psychological professions has had a major injection of funds from HEE to train up people to meet the NHS 5 year Mental health plan and the NHS long term plan....

alos, check the BABCP/BACP registers for counsellors local to you to see what the supply level is currently as you may be in a saturated market if you choose to practice privately...

I would, you bring a lot to the table because of your age and experience. I finished retraining doing a degree at 50. Age and experience can be a real bonus in this (and other) field.

OP we have a dedicated ‘Mature Study and Retraining’ board now, which you may find it helpful to browse:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mature_students

Countless people studying and retraining in similar circumstances / for similar reasons / with similar hesitations and challenges. Do take a look.

Might be worth looking at where specifically you'd be interested in moving to. Where I live, all of the local counseling services are commissioned out to MIND or youth charities and the pay is low considering the skills and experience required (27-32k) On top of that I'm aware that fully qualified counsellors struggle to get paid roles because these charities have a steady supply of trainees who need to get their requisite training hours in to get BACP accreditation - round here there are three unis that offer counseling degrees, so they use as many students as possible to keep these services going.
IAPT routes would be worth looking at, again it seems to vary by area as to whether they advertise externally for IAPT trainee roles.

IAPT requires an additional training - although this is often paid, I believe it is very competitive to get onto, and the modality is CBT rather than person-centred or psychodynamic.

I have also considered retraining in this field, and know others who are pursuing it. My sense is that setting up in private practice is the most reliable way to make a living. Obviously then you have all the pressure of running a business - and your clients will be those who can afford to pay.

You need to do an unpaid placement of 100 hours during counselling training. You may or may not need to pay for supervision, some placement providers will provide supervision.

I did a years work in the IAPT system 2 years ago. As a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner which is not the same as Counselling at all (I figured it was worth a try, having had such a long break, & it came with training in itself). The PWP training was flimsy, not evidence based for effectivenss (at least at 'entry level' which is what the vast majority of clients are offered) & it was generally not a good modality. Unfortunately too my workplace had appalling standards re GDPR & putting newbies in legally compromising positions). I whistleblew & left on bad terms so there is no way they would re employ me as a Counsellor, nor would I wish to work there. But, there are other organisations offering IAPT, the NHS doesn't contract it all out to the lowest bidder I am sure, and working in that system as a Counsellor would be very different to doing so as a PWP (hopefully...)

You can make progress as a PWP but not into Counselling as this needs considerable further study and experience. My workplace used Counsellors who were in local training as Volunteers & employed as few as possible. I don't know how typical that was though.

I can't help with practical advice but you sound like someone who could be a fantastic counsellor based on your education and also parenting children with ASD. Have you thought about being an Ed Psych or mental health nurse? Possibly even attempting further study and a Clinical Psych route, I know they are competitive but it sounds like you have so much valuable experience.

Hat off to you for whistleblowing and taking a stance, that can't have been easy. Interesting what you say about Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner not being trained up in a evidence based way. They offer them around at our school and in the local community when kids seem anxious and form what I have heard they are appallingly badly trained using armchair psychology. My dc struggled with bad anxiety after lockdown 1 and has some sessions at school, I have friends who have had support from local Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners also via the school and what they say and do can easily be picked up from a basic book on the topic from Amazon. I hugely distrust these professions .

I know quite a few counsellors through my profession. All are mature as you need life experience.

I think they can actually be harmful as the usual boundaries are not observed. The council throwing money for mental health support at schools and school ending to spend the money with a small pool of available Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners. Mhm, what could go wrong?

@SweetMidWinter
Thank you for your comments. It was quite bruising, actually & really dented my confidence.
I trained with one of the 'lead figures' in the industry.
Quite early on, I realised that the basic intervention has the same 'success rate' (c 50%) as 'watchful waiting'. I queried this with him & he was very aggressive.
I feel that the basic interventions that PWP's are trained to offer are very basic indeed. Sometimes that can be helpful, as sometimes simply being 'listened to' in a therapeutic way can be enough to help a client. But when it isn't / if it stirs up more for them to deal with then the process of referring up in the system doens't really work well. I hope I was unlucky in my workplace but it was common for clients to wait 6m to be offered any F2F work, around 3m for telephone sessions, or 2m for an online computer package. All 6 session packages followed the same format: 2 of them were questionnaires & 4 of which consisted of quite thin 'homework' that, yes, could easily be gleaned from a basic CBT booket on Amazon (we were to offer CBT to everyone initially regardless of how appropriate it was for them) .
I concluded that the IAPT system was a good concept that was being so poorly rolled out it was little more than window dressing at times. I wasn't comfortable with the safety of either clients or PWP's at my particular workplace, said so, & was (effectively) fired. I lost my place at Uni & ended up signing a NDA type agreement. I'm aware of other Students / qualified PWP's who had a very bad experience too.

It is a great pity as the concept of relieving the pressure on GP's by designing a free at point of delivery system that patients can self refer to, and which welcomes everyone at 'entry level' and refers up according to severity and complexity of problems is a sensible & practical concept. But the training is poor, the 'evidence base' is not really there at the very top. and the rollout is patchy. I am sure there are some really good practictioners out there, but it was not for me.

Hmm.
Looks like I might not need to 're-train' after all.
As my original Diploma was accredited by BACP I have been trained.
I called them & they advised to submit my Cert & transcript & they will assess. Worst case they will ask me to sit an up to date Certificate of Proficiency rather than go back to square 1 with training.
(I'd then be able to join as an Individual Member & practise. It takes 3 years and 450 hours of Supervised Client Hours to become an Accredited Member, which is the process I'd need to go through anyway). Cautiously optimistic...

This sounds hopeful 52andblue

There is no need to become accredited unless you want to work for the NHS, it's just another hurdle. Most counsellors in private practice are fully qualified but have no need of trying to jump through the accreditation hoops