Learning psychology -where to start?!

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

I'd love to start learning psychology, as a view to perhaps becoming a counsellor later on, if I enjoy it or am any good,or perhaps just learning for fun.

What's the best place to start? I was thinking maybe an A Level? Or would I be better taking a Diploma course?

I think I'd need to do home-learning.

I'm middle-aged and have 5 O Levels, an HND and a Ba Hons Degree, but not in subjects relating to psychology.

Any advice would be wonderful. Thank you :)

Why don't you just train to be a counsellor instead. Not sure how learning psychology will help you with this

If you’re interested in becoming a counsellor then sign up for an introduction to counselling course, your local college will be able to help

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

Psychology and counselling are very different. If you are interested in psychology the OU have some great courses but it is academic study rather than counselling. An undergraduate psychology degree doesn't really prepare you for a career as a psychologist without additional training.

Counselling courses might a a good introduction - you can usually do these flexibly and start very part time. Just make sure it is a proper bacp registered /approved course.

Depending on the subject of your BA then you might be able to take a psychology MA.

I agree that if you want to be a counsellor then a counselling course might be a better idea.

Definitely don't do psychology if you want to be a counsellor. It'll just take you longer to get there. Lots of adult education colleges do entry level counselling courses and you can proceed from there, through University courses or private colleges like Metanoia. If you can, as soon as possible do some volunteering. Maybe through Cruse although I'm not sure if you have to already be on a counselling course for that. Just to let you know, it's very competitive in private practice and not necessarily that well paid for the amount of study you've done to get there. But it's also very rewarding.