Want to study to become a counsellor

[partyinapark]

Hi there

I want to give something back and help others. I have a keen interest in psychology and therapy and I would love to become a councellor.

I am especially keen on working with domestic violence / abuse victims.

I am not sure where to start. I know I will need to do an accredited introduction to counselling course but google is confusing me with too much information. I don't think doing a degree in psychology would help me either. I'm hoping I can get an idea of how to embark on this through you lovely people.

Courses are expensive...I wonder if I can somehow apply for funding?

How long would it take for me to become qualified?

If anyone has changed career and done this I would love to hear from you.

Thanks to anyone who replies (fingers crossed)

DH is away at mo, so I can't press for further info. He did a course through a local organisation (Listening Post). Not sure if it's typical, but as part of his course (psychodynamic) he had to have counselling himself. Obviously we struggled financially, but he got to the end of his course and a manager at work said he was sure work would pay for the course, something to do with encouraging personal development. If you work for a large organisation, it might be worth asking about this, especially if they have a human resources department. DH has done lots of courses over the years, so I can't recall if this was three years or not. Our local college does counselling courses, but whether these give you the qualification you need, I don't know.

The BACP website might help.

In a bit of hurry just now, but have a look at these websites, they are the three main bodies that you would register with (one of them, not all three, which one would depend on the kind of training).
[https://www.bacp.co.uk/careers/careers-in-counselling/training/]
[https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/join/how-to-train/]
[https://www.bpc.org.uk/training/clinical-training] (only psychodynamic courses)
Given your interests I would have look at the websites of charities that operate in those areas and see what kinds of qualifications they require for counsellors working for them.

I don't know of any funding you could apply for, but counselling skills are useful in many workplace situations, so the PP's suggestion is a good one. If you did a course that counted as a degree you might get a student loan, if you don't already have one, but I don't know if there are any entry level courses that are part of degrees.

Doing a psychology degree definitely won't help, you are right!

Length of time to qualify - depends what training you do - to be a therapist min four years, not sure of some of the counselling training is less - I think maybe three years of you do an intro course then a diploma. Normally they are part time though so you can combine them with working.