Retraining/starting over at 50 - what to do?

[coatonthewashingline]

I’m considering taking voluntary redundancy from a job I’ve had for 20 years. Quite low paid - very part time for many years, now 4 days w long holidays. Am very highly qualified (PhD) but unlikely to work in that field.

I’ve really never worked in any sort of a managed organisation - I’ve been left alone to do my own thing, without needing to manage others, or be managed.

I am wondering about moving into some sort of counselling/therapeutic field, but this feels like a crazy cliche. whatever I do I’d like it to be something that I can keep doing into my 70s, part time.

thoughts?? Where do I begin?

not at all clear this isn’t a very bad idea pension-wise btw…

Counselling can be a good second career but training can be expensive. It’s also a job that isn’t likely to be highly paid even in private practice. Employed jobs don’t pay well for the level of training you need - it’s not unusual to see jobs around the £30k mark which isn’t great when you need to pay for regular supervision, CPD, registration etc.

What has worked well for me is having a part time job that covers the bills and having a private counselling practice which adds to my pension, pays for holidays etc. It means I don’t worry if clients are on the light side, or if they cancel, and means I can decide how much I want to work. A full time manageable case load would be around 15/16 clients a week in private practice, which gives time for reading, CPD, admin, managing the business side of things.

A full time case load in employment might be as many as 25/30 clients - eg 5 or 6 times 50 minute sessions with 10 minutes between clients. That means a pretty pressured way of working, with little time to catch your breath or deal with a crisis that might arise in session.

It’s a rewarding job, and one with potentially a high level of flexibility, but you need to think about how you want your working life to be, how resilient you are and what kind of income you want.

I wouldn't say it's clichéd, I can understand why people are drawn to it. However every time it comes up it's made very clear that it's difficult to make a living from it - there's more people wanting to work as counsellors than salaried posts. Plus the time and costs to train (including paying for your own therapy).

Have you looked at the retraining board?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

Will be following with interest!

Don’t worry about the cliché - if counselling is what you want to do then go for it. It’s very rewarding, but as has been mentioned, financially it can be tricky to make a living, let alone have a good quality of life. You’re looking at three years minimum training at a total cost of at least £6K.

Therapist here... I would recommend having some therapy yourself if you haven't yet, so you get a feel for what it's actually like.

I'm in private practice and would say you need to have business and marketing skills too if you want to have a successful practice. There are lots of counsellors out there these days. It's hard work but very rewarding too. The costs of running my practice are close to £10k a year so it's not easy to make money from this!

have had some therapy, plus some family therapy and couple's therapy so I feel quite therapy-experienced!

15-16 clients a week sounds like a lot already, so I will think about this all properly. My current salary is not big but of course I don't have expenses to cover - what I earn is mine. And I've never had to run a business!

One of the thing that flummoxes me is how many different training pathways there are - @roselune @Jellycatspyjamas - how did you choose who to train with?