Evening / weekend counsellor - no experience

[Hardly123]

Hello

I wonder if anyone could give me some advice please.

I've wanted to be a psychologist or counsellor since I was about 17(!) but I didn't have the right subjects at school. I also had a very disrupted home life and problems with my own mental health, so I knew it wasn't right. I sorted myself out, had lot of therapy across the years and trained as a solicitor. I am now approaching 40. My mental health is stable. I enjoy my job as a solicitor and I'm not ready to leave it. My hours are surprisingly reasonable.

However I read a lot of books about counselling, watch programmes about therapy and still participate in therapy myself. I find that every so often I look up the different course requirements etc.

I'm curious about transitioning to being a counsellor one day. I can see it is expensive and time consuming to do this.

I was wondering if there's a kind of halfway house that I'm not aware of yet that anyone could point to? For example, my friend has trained as a life coach and does online only sessions with clients on weekends around her full time job.

Is there anything manageable like this that anyone knows of that I could do? Even anything voluntary? For example, my ideal would be a six month evening only online counselling course, then an evening only online volunteer position with supervision from a charity. I could fit that in around my job and would enjoy it. Is that something that exists?

Any advice would be gratefully received!

Thank you.

I think it is really important and big distinction is drawn between those roles and any type of therapy or counselling. They are very different. The examples you list are even very different from each other. Childline and the Samaritans perform a vital function, but they are not for counselling, rather listening and sign posting. Yes, you need listening skills like a therapist, but they are not the place for therapeutic intervention.

Life coaching is very different from counselling and from the listening services. It requires some of the same skill set, but used very differently. Yes, I think life coaches should be properly trained and professionally registered, and many are thankfully. They need not hold counselling qualifications, but need to very aware of when to refer.

Support groups are a mixed bag. Some are helpful, totally life changing for people even, but some are a shit show. Even some by the big names like AA are very traumatic for some people. I do see functionality in peer support, but have also seen dangers arising from support groups. I think it is not good enough to have been in a situation, there should be more robust training and vetting. And again, really overt signalling that they are not a substitute for therapy, more like a useful alongside.

If you want to counselling people, there is a high likelihood that none of those will suit. It is important to use those roles to act as a counsellor and stay in the role. Or to decide that you do want to pursue a hands on therapeutic role and do the appropriate training.

Never consider working for any group that do not consider proper training important, who do not have very clear boundaries around what is/is not part of the role, who do not make provision for appropriate supervision, or who operate outwith accredited systems. That is what I mean by properly.

Thanks, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain

If you live in a affluent area it's definitely possible to set your own business up. If you don't want to do the several years training as you say there are online coaching qualifications where you would use a similar skill set without the same level of expense and commitment.

Wow.
Dreadful advice. Don't do this Op

Being a good counsellor is about the person, not the duration you have been training. Believe me, I am doing the practical counselling and the people on this course shock me. They are judgemental, biased, but they will get on BACP and pass because they ticked the boxes.

That doesn't match my experience. When my sister trained (PT diploma over two years, aimed at people who were working FT in another career), she was one of only two of a cohort of 25 who graduated 'on time', the others having been either told they were unsuitable for the course or asked to take time out and have therapy to work on their own issues before continuing. She's now a specialist addiction counsellor attached to a social health programme.

Another friend (a policeman) has just finished a PT degree course in counselling, again working around his job, and from talking to him, the number of people admitted to each subsequent year was small -- the filtering process for progression to the next year was brutal, and despite him being hugely committed and working very hard, he was hugely relieved to have managed to get through. He's planning to specialise in first responders once he retires from the police.

Maybe my practical course is a bad example then, but it's linked to the BACP. Who knows.

I also had a counsellor who I found on BACP, he was shockingly bad. I guess my point is, the person makes the good counsellor, you will still get bad eggs, like in any profession.

Yes, my examples are in Ireland, so a different accrediting body, but the IACP is, as far as I'm aware, the exact equivalent of the BACP -- it certainly has a reciprocal accreditation agreement with it.

Yours sounds great.

Please can I ask what course this was? I would be interested in finding something that fits around work.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, I was talking about my sister's experience, and that of two close friends, who all studied, though years apart, on the same degree course. (Well, my sister did a two-year diploma, and later upgraded that to a degree by doing another two years of study simultaneously, and later an MSc -- both friends did the degree 'straight'.)

It's in Ireland and not offered remotely.

It's been said many times, but Samaritans do NOT do counselling. They are a helpline - it's completely different.

As per volunteer roles, I looked at this once;
https://www.bluecross.org.uk/volunteer-our-pet-bereavement-support-service

8 weeks of training, flexible hours/from home etc.

email they sent me included;
For those who are suited to the role, it is a hugely rewarding experience and we are extremely proud to be able to provide such a valuable and unique service which is free of charge to anyone who needs it.

The role of a pet bereavement supporter can be emotionally challenging, therefore all volunteers must undertake a xx week e:learning training course prior to being able to provide helpline or email support. All training is carried out from home in the form of a distance learning package and all tutoring is done via computer, telephone and email support so access to a computer and a telephone is essential.

In order to establish that this is the right role for you, we ask all prospective volunteers to complete an online task, outlining your experience of pet loss. This helps you to understand how the role of a PBSS volunteer may impact on you emotionally. A high number of people who contact the service are vulnerable and emotionally distressed, it is normal for them to talk about suicide and self-harm within a conversation.

Once completed and submitted your task will be assessed and we will contact you directly. If we do not hear from you within 7 days, we will assume that you have decided not to proceed with your application further.

First of all, to your question about courses that fit around work - there are plenty of evening/weekend counselling courses, starting from the basic intro (Level 2) through Level 3 (counselling skills) and level 4 (counselling diploma), it will take 3-4 years part-time and you could look for training centres here https://www.cpcab.co.uk/centre-finder A couple of years ago I completed Level 2, then 3 and half of Level 4 - I dropped out because I realised I didn't actually want to be a counsellor, I struggled with the training and lasted two weeks on placement. Vast majority of people on the course were in full-time work, the courses were on a Saturday.

However, as others said, volunteering for Samaritans/Cruse/Childline is not counselling. These are primarily listening services and have a very different focus. I used to volunteer for Shout, stopped when I was doing counselling training because of time pressures but would overall recommend it if you want something relatively flexible as you volunteer from home. But you will not be engaging in any counselling or receiving counselling training as a volunteer.

@Hardly123 look at Metanoia Institute. They do a certificate in Therapeutic skills and study online only course which is meant to be a taster to see if you enjoy it. Although I believe it's weekdays and not weekends. This course can be used as a prerequisite for many other courses.

They also have UKCP and BACP accredited courses which run on one weekend of every month. In person though.

Also charities like Shout train you and you can do this online and remote and then volunteer as a crisis counsellor whenever suits. It's text based counselling versus in person though but might give you some experience flexibly ?

cloudchaos · Today 08:49 Also charities like Shout train you and you can do this online and remote and then volunteer as a crisis counsellor whenever suits. It's text based counselling versus in person though but might give you some experience flexibly ?

Shout does not offer counselling. They offer a listening/signposting service, which is different from counselling.

Sorry no advice on becoming a counsellor but it’s commendable and just wanted to wish you luck!

I am wondering if you could consider mediation rather than a support/counselling role? It would compliment your legal career and can make a significant difference to people trying to resolve difficult situations. There’s a lot of accredited training available (through ACAS or similar) at different levels. There’s a lot of volunteer work in this as well.

@coffeemonster28 the role with shout, and job title is "crisis counsellor". It's still a valid role and good experience for someone interested in counselling and is more than just simply signposting. I've volunteered for them and you are supervised and do a lot more than just passing the texter onto another organisation, although that is obviously part of it.

The Big 4 call their line managers "career counsellors" but they're not actually counsellors and wouldn't be fit to provide counselling services off the back of their experience.

Shout can provide valuable support but it is not counselling.