Any counsellors on board?

GlasweJen

I'm not looking for a free session lol!

Im actually looking for a bit of careers advice.

I thought about being a counsellor a few years ago but the field is unregulated and I didn't want to pay out to do a course that was worthless. I've had transplant counselling from a specialist nurse counsellor and it's stirred my interest again.

Being in Scotland the OU have advised me that their course is no use. So far I've worked out that my starting point would be the COSCA certificate in counselling skills which has 4 modules costing £250 - £300 each. After that I can do more advanced training. If I do it through certain groups I can get between £100 and £200 back on completion of the full certificate. I would need to do supervised counselling as part of the later modules and remain supervised for a period after finishing.

My main questions are:
*Is this the best route
*do you enjoy your role as a counsellor
*do I understand correctly that counselling is usually a 2nd job rather than a main job?

Any other info would be greatly appreciated.

MrsAtobe

I'm not a counsellor, so can't answer your first two questions, but my SIL2B is currently training to become one. She had counselling for a long term problem, and when she was made redundant, her counsellor suggested that she consider it as a career choice. She is looking to counsel as her primary job.

I would suggest that you ask your nurse counsellor about appropriate courses. I am more than happy to ask her which course she is doing, but as she's in Wales and you're in Scotland, the courses may not be the same.

GlasweJen

Nurse is a nurse more than a counsellor, she's never trained in it because up until recently you didn't have to, she can still do it in her capacity as a nurse though which I find slightly worrying!

MrsAtobe

Jen, I'll find out what course she's doing, and post on here. Hopefully it'll be of some use. Sorry I can't be more help!

GlasweJen

You've been great mrsatob. I've got a feeling Scotland is awkward as OU said their course isn't suitable and they're usually brilliant!

Contessa

Have a look at the website of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy
http://www.bacp.co.uk/
which has lots of useful information, including training courses.
Counselling is a wonderful career but requires a lot of commitment. Usually people have to undertake maybe two years of pre-entry basic counselling courses, unless their present job involves some skills with people. Then a further 2-3 years at degree/HNC/Diploma level, which is expensive. It's essential that the course is not just theory, but that the student undertakes a counselling placement throughout the course-the student will have to pay for regular supervision , whilst in training and later working. Also, counsellors usually have to undergo several hours of counselling themselves whilst training- this also has to be paid for.
Once qualified it can be very hard to find paid work, and this is not especially well paid.

I don't want to put you off, just trying to point out the commitment ahead!
Good luck!

wolfehouse

if you volunteer with certain organisations you might get to do the cosca
for free
i understand that cruise bereavement for example train their volunteers using this course.

Millie2008_2

Echo Contessa! I am a qualified counsellor and it has been a long, hard and expensive road to get here - My training took a total of 4-5 years and has cost ££££. Out of 19 (I think) of my training course, 2-3 years post qualification, only a few students (maybe 3) have managed to find paid counselling work. Our course did not require that students be in personal therapy while training, but I think this is very important and this can be very costly. And, as you need to see clients while training, you need to pay for supervision (BACP have a minimum requirement for this, but it depends on the number of clients you are seeing)

Different courses focus on different theoretical orientations, the main ones being person-centred, psychodynamic and CBT-based, my course was integrative, which means that we integrated the three key theories. I have found though that I am drawn more and more towards psychodynamic work, as I have an analyst as a supervisor at the moment and I am now thinking of further training in psychoanalysis (££££ :eek: )

There is going to be a lot of change in the counselling world over the next few years, with counselling becoming a registered profession, so make sure that any course you do supports this (many current courses don't) Look on the BACP website for more info

Please don't let this put you off, I don't regret training as a counsellor, from a personal development perspective if nothing else, but quite a few of my peers say that would never have done it, had they known how poor the job prospects were (a few of them gave up full time careers to train and have since gone back to them due to there being no paid work)

Oldernotwiser

Regarding your final point, most counsellors are self employed with, if they're lucky , a certain number of hours regularly contracted to an organisation like a college or NHS.

I don't know of any counsellors who have full time salaried positions and very few who are even part time.

I'm afraid that you will find it a very expensive career path.

Good luck.

poet123

I echo what has been said, and up until recently it has been an "in fashion" course which has resulted in a glut of trained counsellors with few paid positions available. Many organisations who previously employed them are having to scale down their operations due to financial constraints and that is one of the areas being hit hard. Not an easy route to go down.

GlasweJen

I know it's not easy. The idea is to keep doing my current job while I study/set out practicing as I understand jobs aren't easy but then I think that's true for most professions.

Is BCAP the right route for someone in Scotland? They don't seem to have many courses on their site in Scotland and they all seem to be post graduate?