Counselling as a career

[Dr Syntax Head]

It's what I want to do and have done for quite some time but I'm only now really researching it. I'm 43 and hear that it's preferable to do this as a career later in life so I want to be practicing by 50. I'd like to specialise in relationship counselling but that could change. Anyone here a counsellor or training or know anything about it? Like I said I'm doing my research but thought i'd ask for your informed (depraved and sick) insight.

[Sherringford Hovis]

I know four or five people who became counsellors later in life. All of them conform to the Daily Mash stereotype.

[holyzombiejesus]

I think a lot depends on the kind of counselling you'd like to do. I trained for a couple of years as a Person Centred Counsellor and found it incredibly rewarding. However, it's very demanding on several levels and I stopped short of starting the final stage.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Haha! Luckily I'm pretty stable and I'm nobody's friend

[Dr Syntax Head]

I think a lot depends on the kind of counselling you'd like to do. I trained for a couple of years as a Person Centred Counsellor and found it incredibly rewarding. However, it's very demanding on several levels and I stopped short of starting the final stage.

So what made you choose to stop may I ask?

[Neville Chamberlain]

I'd like to specialise in relationship counselling

I could be your practice patient, if you want :-(

[holyzombiejesus]

I can write more later (I'm at work and the internet's down) but it was a combination of cost, time and not feeling able to commit as much of myself as necessary to the process. It was quite exacting and I possibly learned as much about myself as I did about the counselling background and method. Even though I didn't proceed with the final stages of the course, I am so glad I did as much as I did.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I can write more later (I'm at work and the internet's down) but it was a combination of cost, time and not feeling able to commit as much of myself as necessary to the process. It was quite exacting and I possibly learned as much about myself as I did about the counselling background and method. Even though I didn't proceed with the final stages of the course, I am so glad I did as much as I did.

Yeah I would appreciate hearing more of your experience, thanks. And it is person centred I want to do, Rogerian and all that.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I could be your practice patient, if you want :-(

So. Tell me about your relationship (slides box of tissues across the coffee table)

[Neville Chamberlain]

Well, it was a dark and stormy night and... [continues with tale of woe and no sex]

[pancreas]

For Christ's sake. You're proposing the blind leading the blind.

I should be a counsellor, not you. There would be no mucking about. My patients will do what I say or there will be consequences. They want less agency, I want more. It's a marriage made in heaven.

[confettiinmyhair]

I've been a Counsellor for five years. It's an amazingly rewarding line of work. The main piece of advice I'd give someone is do some research about job opportunities in your area. It is a notoriously difficult profession to earn a living in, and at the moment there is a lot of protest movements within the counsellor community lobbying to end the exploitation of trainees and newly qualified practitioners. Essentially you need to accrue 100's of post-qual hours whilst also paying for supervision and CPD to attain BACP accreditation.

Who knows, if you start training now, there could be more opportunities in a couple of years time?

I lucked out and have a full time role in an IAPt service but narrowly dodged the bullet when a round of redundancies were made. From my experiences Counsellors are treated like shit in the NHS so you have to negotiate pretty tricky waters, bite your tongue and prove your worth. Other therapists look down upon Person Centred counsellors and see what we do as nothing more than tea and sympathy. The game is run by CBT, yet really there's room for all modalities.

The other option is to practice privately. If you've got a spare room or can rent a cheap office space you could try and go your own way.

In some areas of the country RELATE offer relationship counselling training.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Thanks for the advice confetti, I appreciate that

[bgmnts]

Is this counselling career counselling?

[Dr Syntax Head]

Ideally in my dream world relationship counselling. Yeah I know, with my history?

[earl_sleek]

I'm currently nearing the end of the CPCAB Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Studies - previously completed the Level 2 in Counselling Skills and did an intro course before that. I'd recommend doing an intro or taster - a lot of people found that it wasn't what they expected, there is a lot of focus on developing your own self awareness and capacity for self reflection and this can be very challenging - it isn't just listening skills.

However I've found it really rewarding! The courses I have taken are in Integrative counselling so cover both psychodynamic and humanistic approaches, with some CBT as well. It's definitely helped me realise a few things about myself, as well as becoming a more aware and more empathic person. All of the courses I've taken so far have been for one evening a week - the intro for 10 weeks, the other two for around 30.

The next step for me is the Level 4 Diploma, which would qualify me to practice - however, this is for a day a week for 2 years, plus 100 hours supervised hours and 30 hours receiving therapy myself, so I'm thinking of taking a year or two break first, as this is quite a step up. That's assuming I get onto the course, as competition for places gets very intense at this stage.

As others have mentioned, it is demanding. Everyone on my course has struggled at times to balance their studies with work and family. It's also emotionally draining at times, partly due to the self reflection needed - a recent essay where I had to apply counselling theory to my own past left me in tears at points as I relived certain difficult periods - and also some of the 'trio' work (the practice sessions), as you never know what's going to come up and some of it can be fairly heavy. But I am glad I have done it and want to complete it eventually.

[Ray Travez]

Ideally in my dream world relationship counselling. Yeah I know, with my history?

I'm hearing that you feel your relationship history is a bar to you practising counselling. Would you like to share more about that?

[Funcrusher]

I used to be a councillor, but then the BNP kicked me out just for punching the Mayor. The cunt had it coming.

[Ray Travez]

 I read about some study where three groups of people became counsellors to a group of experimental subjects. One group had no counselling training, the second had some, and the third group were highly qualified, with diplomas and letters after their names. At the end of the study the counsellors were rated by the participants. You guessed it, the best rated were the ones with no qualifications, and the worst were the most highly qualified ones, with the slightly qualified ones somewhere in the middle. It was probably reading about that study that put me off the idea of doing the counselling course, in addition to the sheer amount of time it takes.   

[Ray Travez]

Sorry, that's a particularly negative viewpoint. I think if it's what you want to do, and it calls to you, then go for it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I applied to be Dumfries council for a while but they didn't have faith in my ability to get enough salt in for the roads in winter.

[confettiinmyhair]

Sorry, that's a particularly negative viewpoint. I think if it's what you want to do, and it calls to you, then go for it.

It's not negative, it's true. It's all about building rapport and a therapeutic relationship. Your barber could develop a better relationship than a counselling psychologist who has multiple qualifications. Chances are you don't gel or connect with everyone you work with. Sometimes the process works and can be transformative and life changing, other times it never gets off the ground.