Top 5 Questions About Counselling Training

Part 1

You’ve been thinking about training to be a Counsellor or Therapist but you have loads of questions and are not quite sure where to start your study journey.

The first thing to be wary of are the free online courses, these are not accredited by an awarding body and will leave you out of pocket and without a professionally recognised qualification at the end.  As with finding a counsellor, you need to check their qualifications, when you start to study check the validity of the course.  If you have qualified as a counsellor without carrying out any real skills work then you are not a counsellor no matter what your certificate might say.

Here I’m going to answer five questions for now, more to come, if you don’t find the answer you’re looking for here, please feel free to email us here

1. What qualifications do I need to become a licensed counsellor?

What is the difference between a diploma, a bachelor’s degree, and a master’s degree in counselling?

Don’t over think things, the higher level you study to the more time you are spending on your study and deeper your knowledge and understanding will be.  As you progress beyond a Diploma it is likely you will start to learn about research and carry out your own projects.  The longer you study the more money you will of course be spending, loans are available to support you.  As SCoPEd comes in, working to regulate the profession, there will be more call for professionals to be qualified to Degree level.

2. What are the benefits of joining professional bodies like the BACP, UKCP, or the National Counselling Society (NCS)?

Joining a professional body has many benefits;

• Recognition and Credibility – Employers and clients can see you are qualified and adhere to a professional body that can hold you to account. Much like looking for an electrician, you’ll feel in safer hands knowing they are NICEIC registered.
• Ethical Framework – You know you are working to an ethical and moral standard and you will hold yourself to account. You can reassure clients that if they have any concerns about your practice they can contact your awarding body, this helps to empower them and address some of the power imbalance in the professional relationship between you.  When you are unsure how to manage a dilemma at work, you will have your ethics to support your decision making.
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD) – It would be dangerous for a counsellor to train part time for four years and once qualified work for the next 20 years without any further education in the field. An awarding body will not only stipulate a minimum number of annual hours for CPD, they will also offer a lot of CPD both online and in person, which is a valuable resource.  It is vital that counsellors stay current and aware of developments within the profession.
• News | Advocacy | Networking – A membership with a professional organisation allows you to stay up to date on research and developments within the counselling profession, you know that your chosen profession is being represented on a national scale and you will have opportunities to network with other counsellors, across the country allowing you to engage with the feel of the nation, not your local area alone.

3. How do I ensure that my counselling course is accredited by a recognized professional body?

Not wanting to sound flippant but ask.  Do your research.  When I saw a counselling qualification Level 2 advertised on Facebook for free I called them to ask how they were accredited.  They put me onto the ‘awarding’ provider, when I asked them about the accreditation of the course they hadn’t even heard of the BACP, when they asked their manager they came back and told me “Once you’ve completed our L4, you will be qualified in counselling”  I asked if this was the same as being a qualified counsellor and they said no!  How is anyone not in the profession supposed to know?  Please do your research.

4. Do I need to complete a certain number of supervised hours before I can register as a counsellor?

Yes, to become a qualified counsellor you will need to complete a minimum of 100 counselling sessions.  You will have practiced your skills with your peers from Level 2 upwards, but to qualify you will gain a placement, working with real clients.  Your placement will need to be supervised on a fortnightly basis.  Since Covid the change in this has been the ratio of face-to-face sessions to online or telephone sessions.  Check with your awarding body what they require and check with your placement what they can offer.

5. How do I choose between specializations like Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic Therapy, or Person-Centred Therapy?

In order to choose a modality to specialise in, again do your research, Google is your friend but can become overwhelming and you end up down a rabbit hole.  Speak to people who work in these ways, understand what they like about their chosen modality.

Level 3 is an important part of your training where these three modalities are introduced and this is often where students find out which modalities most excites them, they click with it, it makes sense to them and it excites them.  Get informed and go with your gut.  Also do not fear making the wrong decision, you can always train in other modalities once you are qualified.  E.g. If you complete a CPCAB Level 4 Diploma in Person Centred Counselling, once a qualified counsellor, you could do a Level 5 certificate in CBT.

The list of questions goes on and I will write more on this next month.  For now if you have a burning query please get in touch here and will come back to you within a few days.