Therapy and counselling

[viio]

Hi

I have just finished BS Psy with first which was incredible achievement. I retrained from law as I was bringing my twins up and couldn’t work. It started as fun/don’t want my brain to stop working and developed into a real passion.

what I would like ideally is to be therapist or counsellor, but takes so much time that I think it might be best to do masters (rather than counselling accreditation route). I am not sure where to go as most uni’s offer psych dynamic route which is not me.

does anyone have any suggestions for any masters in London that have just counselling like trauma or cbt?
thanks v much

Hi, I am a counsellor, though I went the diploma route of qualifying - you are right, it takes time - 3-4 years - and this is for a reason.

I understand the itchy feeling of wanting to get on with something because I have it myself! However, I'm concerned about you wanting to get into a helping role as fast as possible. Counselling training is pretty transformative as you use your whole self in the counselling process, hence why it lasts a few years.

CBT is different in that you don't need to undergo the therapy you are training in in order to train, (which incidentally is generally considered pretty poor practice in my field). However, most CBT training I've seen at your level requires you to be in work where you can deliver CBT to gain your clinical hours, and would require previous experience.

I think the CPCAB have a Level 5 trauma practitioner course which obviously presumed you have previously trained as a counsellor in order to access it. I don't know what masters courses exist in trauma.

Adding to this because it is obviously too early in the morning for me!

Why not IAPT/PWP training? This is the "fast" way into a talking therapy role. Fast to train, anyway, but it would probably require a couple of years of relevant experience for you to be a competitive candidate.
Look for an Assistant Psychologist role where you will be working with a clinical population, perhaps?

(This is the advantage of the counselling diploma route - you don't need prior experience or to already be in role in order to begin the process.)

I don't think there are short cuts, tbh. I would have a think about what role you would like to be in in 5-10 years, and then find out the way of getting the required qualification that is going to be most satisfying and practical for you.

A Master's in counselling/psychotherapy usually takes 4 years part time for the reasons that @cromartyforties has given. I think the advice to think about what role you'd eventually like to be in is excellent - there are so many different routes/modalities and it's easy to pick one and then wish you'd taken another path. I took 3 years to decide which training to do (very out of character for me) - ok, that is a bit excessive, but I am glad I took my time as I know quite a few people who started training and then dropped out after a year and started again with another provider.

I did a Masters in counselling, which took three years (part-time). There’s probably places that offer Masters courses full-time, though.

Have you thought about a counselling psychology doctorate? You don’t need a Masters. I hear the course at Roehampton is really good:

https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/postgraduate-courses/counselling-psychology/counselling-psychology-entry-requirements/

Thank you I am very grateful for this advice. After some thought in the last couple
Of days and some meditation/yoga classes I think I need to take it slowly. The last thing I want to do is rush and not have sufficient knowledge/experience.

I will look into which level I need to start on and enrol.

Are you working with children or adults? I am
Not yet sure which area I want to go in as I am currently reading so much on various things mostly neuro development, trauma, nervous systems etc…

Thank you, very helpful. Yes it will take me a bit of time to decide which area I want to go into.

I have been looking at those masters and they do look interesting. Which masters did you do if you don't mind me asking? How was it in terms of being intense? My uni during my y2 and 3 was super I tense with research and lots of assessments back to back so taking this year out to read and learn ok into what I want to do. I loved my degree

Are you familiar with the Clinical Associate in Psychology NHS role? It's a new role, where you are employed to train and study at Masters level. Could potentially be of interest.
https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/psychological-therapies/roles-psychological-therapies/clinical-associate-psychology

No I am not that you so much. That's wonderful. I will have a look into that. That would be perfect.