Psychotherapist in 40's - conversion courses?

[bergentrain]

Just wondering if there are any slightly quicker routes into psychotherapy (with adolescents) out there? Not to skip the important work of course, but the routes I've seen seem to involve short courses, followed by Level 3, followed by postgraduate Diploma, followed by another added-on course for working with adolescents- a total 4 years.

The options seem so confusing, and I'd be grateful to hear from anyone who became a psychotherapist as a second (third) career.

I currently have an MA in a humanities area, a PGCE (Secondary), QTS, a BA (Hons) and a Diploma. I'm 45 and have been teacher (HoY) and latterly a lecturer. Also have therapy and have done for past 5 years.

Bumping

You could do a postgraduate diploma in psychotherapy. I’ve seen some for 2 years (Brighton and East London uni spring to mind if I remember rightly). Depends where in the country you are?

Question about this- can you do a PGDip in Psychotherapy with a degree / Masters in a different subject? Or does your degree / MA need to be in Psychotherapy too?

Yes you can do a PGDip in Psychotherapy with a degree in any subject.

Regarding the OP's question: yes that is the usual route (I am training and on the PG Dip stage) and yes it is very long! My PGDip training in psychotherapy is four years of teaching (and probably another 1-2 years to get my hours to accredit). You could do a PG Dip in Counselling which is shorter and doesn't require so many client hours (and is cheaper). These vary enormously but can be very rigorous.

One thing to bear in mind is that this route doesn't qualify you as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. This is a specific training at doctoral level that you can only (I think) access through a paid NHS training post. https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/psychological-therapies/roles-psychological-therapies/child-and-adolescent-psychotherapist

If you take the PGDip plus add on for working with adolescents (this is what I plan to do) you will be qualified to work with young people privately and in schools/charities, but not to apply for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist posts in the NHS.

I agonised for years about doing the training because of how complicated/long/expensive it is, but I am so glad I decided to in the end. It's truly life changing. I would advise you to choose your PG Dip training very carefully and make sure that you find one that really fits.

Can I ask what the rough total training cost will be to be fully qualified?

A small fortune.

My training is roughly £4000 per year for 4 years, plus being in therapy (£50-70 per week for the duration) plus you have to pay for your own supervision. The add on training to work with young people will be a further £2000-3000.

Plus loss of earnings while you are working with clients/on placement.

And bearing in mind that there are few jobs at the end of it, and those that there are usually less than £30k. So the only way to make a decent living is to work in private practice which means running a small business and is not for everybody.

I do love it but it's not a straightforward route to a new career. Mental health nursing/mental health social worker would be much better for that. As I'm the breadwinner, though, I needed to do something that I could do on top of my old job.

You can do a CPCAB Level 4 rather than a PGDip at a university. Not sure if that's what you meant when you said a diploma but worth looking into. You can do it over 2 years part time. The conversion to work with under 18's can be done in 6 months.

You'd need a Level 3 first though so yes, that's another year, so 3.5 years altogether.

To be honest psychotherapy is a demanding profession and you really shouldn't try to rush it. It takes time to go through the process.

(Worth noting though that you can do the entire thing part time, so you can still be working the entire time. Level 3 is an evening class + study outside, Level 4 is a couple of days a week).

@downsizedilemma could you do a PG Dip in counselling to become a school counsellor?

@itsnotabingting Sorry, just saw this. Yes you could but you'd need to do a top-up qualification afterwards (another year) in order to work with children and young people. Almost all PG Dips just qualify you to work with adults.

Unfortunately it hasn't been my personal experience (or that of many therapists I have spoken to) that you can make a decent living in private practice. I absolutely loved the training (four years in total), and I love working in mental health, but I had no real idea how difficult it would be to make a living.

I qualified in 2019. I tried to make private practice work, but the overheads were higher than I initially expected (room hire, supervision, insurance, professional memberships, listings etc etc). Fortunately, I have never found a problem getting clients, it's just the need to limit client numbers to avoid burnout; and as it can feel quite isolated in private practice you have to be so careful not to overload. So, for me personally, I couldn't make a living out of this alone - this is why many people do it alongside another job and/or as part of a portfolio career. I don't doubt that some people can make it work, and maybe they have better stamina than me!, but my income in PP alone was pitiful. After expenses, I earn less than I did 20 years ago, so it's definitely passion for the area that keeps me going!

Undoubtedly, a wonderful and fulfilling profession, but - and I hate to sound negative about it - I just wish I had known how difficult it would be to make it work.

This may be helpful:

https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/psychotherapy-training/train-as-a-psychotherapist/

I did a BACO accredited Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy, which cost me £9K in total. I don’t practice, but the personal development side of the training was invaluable. Some of my former peers in PP are doing really well - most didn’t continue to to the Masters, they exited with a PG Dip.

This is the route I took:

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

I’m curious why you want to be a psychotherapist rather than a counsellor?