Early fifties, thinking of retraining as a therapist - 4/5 years and £££. Am I mad?

[InkyNight]

I'm stuck. I was perceived as having a very successful creative life, but I actually made very little money and had to work alongside it. With parenting, I just felt very burnt out and deflated. I've taken off some time to reevaluate and look at how I want the third act of my life to look like.

I'm drawn to retraining to become a couples therapist. But the training is intense - counsellor qualification, followed by Pdip/MSc, then I can start to look at the couples courses that interest me.

I feel overwhelmed at how long it could take and the money involved. And I'll be late fifties before I start working in this area - if I get any work!

I feel nervous about it. But I keep pulling back from every idea I have about new direction as if I'm overrun by inertia.

But this is a bold and expensive move. I realise people will say go for it, but I'm a realist, and I just wonder if this is a huge amount to take on, given my age, addled brain and not-everending-finances.

Thoughts welcome!

Why don't you do the initial training and see if its for you? You don't need to do Pdip/PsychD or further training unless you love it?

At the way the country is going, you'll probably have 20 years of work ahead of you! Might as well enjoy it 😊

Edited to sdd: obvs this depends if you can afford it both in time and money etc etc

Check with the course provider - but in a lot of therapy courses, you start working fairly early on - although you charge less as you are still training. A friend trained as a psychotherapist, and had to do iirc 500 hours, which she charged half price, at £30 per hour, while training.

I started seeing a counsellor recently who is amazing. She is mid 70s and only started in her mid fifties I think. She was a GP so maybe she had a bit of a head start but it was a complete change in direction so it's definitely possible.

I’m thinking of adding some therapy training - am currently a HCP and a similar age to you. I’m looking at transactional analysis. I can use it in other ways, without having to complete psychotherapy training.

Be aware that it can be difficult to work full time as a therapist. I am thinking the training could be useful as a way to work part time when I am older. And if not it is useful for my career now anyway.

Yes, my thoughts are about part-time work. I wouldn't want to do it full time.

Look seriously into the paid options available to you- or make a business plan to see how financially it would work once you factor in your costs. If you live somewhere with high demand for private therapy and people with the means to pay- great.
I am a qualified counsellor (couples) and was being paid £15 an hour by Relate equivalent here where I live…

I do live somewhere where there is a very high demand for private therapy - I'm shocked how many therapists there are but apparently they are all busy.

And couples therapists, even more so.

Most people pay at least £50-60 here a session for private therapy. Also, a lot of therapists I know do a lot of online work, so their clients come from all over

I'm at the end of six years of training and have done around 800 hours with clients, plus the training with peers. I've been paid for a (very) few - maybe 40 all told, and not at market rates. Yes, there is demand for therapy but there are also a lot of therapists out there. Do not do this expecting it to be your sole source of income when you qualify.

There are many other rewards in it.

You don't need a Pdip/MSc to become a couples counsellor. Do a level 4 diploma in counselling and a one year further qualification at Level 5 in relationship counselling.

https://www.relate.org.uk/post-qualifying-certificate-relational-counselling

I think the money is not great…

Honestly, I don't think you should do it. At this point in your life you need to be looking really seriously about your finances. You would be spending an awful lot of money on training that you might not even like and that you won't have a chance to exploit because of your age.

I really think you should be looking at doing something else and if you want to help people, volunteer as a Samaritan maybe. But for now I think you need to keep a grip on your finances because the future is not going to be good otherwise.

Depends, I don’t see your age as an issue at all. But it is a demanding course so depends on what else you do work wise while studying. You can’t practice and charge while training, you won’t be insured nor is it ethical so it will be a good few years before you make any money and you’ll be expected to do a number of student hours for free.

i know £50/60 seems like a decent amount per hour but there’s only so many sessions you can do a day (emotional capacity wise) and there’s a fair few outgoings - never mind the cost of training.
if you’re doing it because you’re passionate about helpling people and therapy and are happy for it to be a bit of a side job go for it. You’re very unlikely to make a lot of money in this career and it is very emotioanlly
demanding - it’s not an easy money making route!

How much does it cost to train as a therapist? And what is the potential earning level? Those are probably the considerations to focus on. Your age is your age, you can't do anything about that, you can just choose how to spend your time.

I’d recommend a level 3 counselling skills course. If you complete this as a fast track it will take 6 months and cost about £800. This will give you a taster of the theory, skills and work required. It’ll be one class a week (usually evening and a number of assignments to complete including a short skills practice.
if you love it, look to do the level 4 diploma (around 3,000) which will take 2 years and follow the same format as the level 3. It will also include a placement which is unpaid and you’ll be expected to complete around 100 hours of client hours - in addition to your day job, evening class and actual studies.

once your diploma is complete: you can do a level 5 in couples counselling. Not sure on cost for this, perhaps around a thousand?

I work full time and do around 8 hours of private work a week. I’d never do more than 20 hours of counselling in a week because of the intensity of it. I’d also never have it as my sole income as it’s too unpredictable.

outgoings you’ll need to factor in a room to rent or if you’ll be doing it from home (think about extra on utilities). Online meeting fees (zoom), insurance, membership to ethical body, membership to online directory to advertise yourself, phone bill, equipment (laptop, printer etc), annual fee for information commissioners office, monthly clinical supervision and ongoing personal development and training.

hope that’s helpful.

Qualified counsellor here.

This is the route I took:

https://www.bacp.co.uk/careers/careers-in-counselling/training/

I finished with the Masters and the training from the introductory course to the Masters cost about £12K in total, but plenty of people only have the Level 3 certificate and the Level 4 or 5 Diploma (about £6K in total). Be aware some Diploma courses stipulate you have to have x amount of personal therapy that you have to pay for and you may have to pay for your supervision.

I don't practice, but am still in touch with some peers who're in private practice and the ones who're getting the most work are in affluent areas. Of course there's other variables like marketing, how good they are etc.

Op you need to do the sums.
Cost of the courses.
Annual Operating costs
Cost of professional memberships.
Cost of insurances
Cost of Accountant
Premises
Vs

Income,
Remember £60/70 per hour sounds a lot but I'm guessing a portion of that is VAT.
National Insurance

You need to calculate realistically how many hours you can work per week.
And how many weeks per year.

Once you have worked out the sums compare it to a regular job and remember an employer will pay a pension contribution on top of your wages.
Doing the qualifications will probably mean years of part-time or little work too.

I think by the time you add it all up, you'd be better applying for other roles now.

"Creative Life" have you already got some sort of Arts Degree, would it be an option to go into teaching?

I'd also recommend working full-time whilst you're doing the Level 3 (perhaps you're already doing this). Because when it comes to the two years of the Diploma, you just can't work full-time because of being at the college or uni, getting to and from the uni or college, studying, seeing clients, seeing your supervisor, maybe seeing your own therapist...it's intense!

My finances are only now recovering from working part-time during my training.

I don't think it would be worth it to be honest. It will cost alot to train and then how many hours would you actually have to put in to pay off that debt? Before you even started making a profit.. also besides that you may want to retire in the not too distant future. I also think being around people going through relationship problems could be very draining in itself.

You could do a level 2 counselling skills (10 ish weeks) course at a local college (often free), then a level 3 course at a college (again, often free and about 32 weeks) then a level 4 course which you could get a loan for and is around 2 years part time, after which you’ll be trained and can start to practice! I’m at the end of level 3 and applying for the next course. Yes it’s a commitment and can be pricey but there are ways of funding the 2 year course that makes it doable.
As for your age? Think of it as a wealth of experience, course tutors and prospective employers won’t see your age as an issue.

The time will pass anyway! That said, I decided against it as couldn't commit to such a journey; I have however just started working in a mental health unit and they are so positive about promoting training that I'm already being convinced to train as a psychological wellbeing practitioner.
It might be worth looking into NHS jobs, as there's many careers so many people have no idea exist. Although obviously the pay is dreadful.

Thank you all so much. Lots of great thoughts and feedback. I really appreciate it.

Yes do look at alternatives. That’s why I decided on transactional analysis in the end. I have a variety of directions I can go with it, it is fantastic personal development, intellectually demanding (my hobby tbh) & will be relevant for my work anyway. The foundation course is standalone & I lived the 2 day intro course.

Perhaps you might consider browsing some of the threads on the dedicated Mature Study and Retraining Board, @InkyNight?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

A motivational speaker I once heard said it is never too late to change direction in your career despite your age. You only live once and if it is something you feel you want to do then go for it. That has always resonated with me.