Psychotherapists, what are the pros and cons of your job?

[Bookaholic73]

I’m seriously considering training to become a psychotherapist.
I have a degree in Psychology (although that was in 2012) but before I could do my masters, my son experienced chronic mental health issues that resulted in me having to care for him full time.

Now I have a lovely job working in Mental Heath, which I absolutely love. We look after people who have just been released from psychiatric hospital. The problem is that the pay is awful, minimum wage.

I am considering having more training to be a psychotherapist.

What would you say is the cheapest and quickest way to train? And what would you say are the pros and cons of your job?

Took me 4yrs to train and cost around £70k. I would strongly recommend one of the colleges to train at (Sherwood, metanoia etc) due to the type of training you receive.

pros - can choose my own hours, interesting, I enjoy it.
cons- room rental can be expensive so you’re not really choosing your own hours. Training is hard and pricey.

My psychotherapist works solely from home pretty much and charges £100 for 50 mins, I don't know how many clients she takes in a day. She has been transformative for me in a lot of ways

Pros - it's interesting and always varied, people are great and interesting. There is always more to learn, the job never feels stagnant. The day goes quickly with the varied mix of tasks of being a therapist. There can be job satisfaction when you see people's lives improve.

Cons- your income can be quite limited. It can be extremely tiring and exhausting - you have to sustain high levels of focus and concentration and attention on the patient while another part of your brain whirs away tying in the therapy elements in to what the patient brings into the session. You can come home feeling mentally depleted and just wanting to zone out. You also hear a lot of sad and unpleasant stuff, the trauma that people have experienced. This can have an impact on the therapist that can be hard at times. The other demands of the job such as the admin work can feel excessive. The training can be very demanding and expensive.

I work for the NHS if that is relevant, thought I should mention that for context.

Cheapest way to train is to already work in the NHS as a mental health practitioner, you can get various free training opportunities including therapy training, but it's not guaranteed and depends on the needs of the service. I've been very lucky in that regard and have been able to train as an integrated psychotherapist while working as a mental health practitioner.

Cons:
overall cost of training: course fees & weekly therapy & supervision/insurance/BACP membership. Then the ongoing cost of being in practice, rent, directory memberships etc.
I worked FT while studying with a placement on top and by the end I was dead on my feet
Group dynamics within my training cohort, it was really really tough.
Employed work is often poorly paid. Market is saturated
Lonely working solo. If my clients are in a bad place, I can feel really really drained.
Sex pest calls

Pros:
All my clients choose to work with me long term, in person. It's really wonderful, rich and exciting work and I am so glad to go to work each day.
Set my own schedule.
I continue to learn, I can expense most CPD on my tax return.
Amazing and supportive supervisor and peer group.

I am an integrative therapist (mostly psychodynamic) and I gained my Level 2, 3 & 4 to become qualified and I will be doing another 2 year diploma in psychosexual therapy in the future. Make sure the course you choose has the appropriate f2f teaching hours as wholly online courses aren't often recognised by the various ethical bodies. do your research, lots of bogus courses out there.

Good luck!