Trying to pick PT Psychology course. Advice welcome (needed!)

theTinker

I'm in a pickle.

I'm trying to decide between 2 college courses. Both are to help me get into my end goal of becoming a counseling psychologist.

I'm really hoping someone(who preferably is in the know about psychology stuff) could give me a bit of advice.
I rulled out trinity and UCD as their part time courses didn't seem to give the career i wanted or wouldn't let me apply for the upcoming year.


I've narrowed it down to two choices
http://www.pcicollege.ie/
which provides a level 8 degree in counseling and psychology AND allows me work experience throughout the year. This is a 3 year course but i need an entry level foundation course requirement so i pretty much have to do thier 1 year foundation course before hand.
1+3year = BSc

The other is DBS
http://www.dbs.ie/ba-counselling-psychotherapy/tabid/510/
4 years = BSC.
I do not believe I get work experience in this but I could live with it if i knew i was in a place to get a career in it afterwards.

So what do people think? PCI times tables + location suit me more, but I'm unsure if DBS have a much more recognized name in this area. Is PCI well known? I dont want to do a handy course if it cant lead me on to the counseling psychologist career at the end.

After reading my post, I think i seem more excited about PCI but only if they are recognized enough in the profession to be serious.

Any opinions are welcomed. Thanks for your time so far.

mimmi

Firstly your degree must be PSI or BPS accredited if you want to do the Masters at TCD. So stay away from PCI - it's not accreddited by PSI.

http://www.psihq.ie/accred_UnderGradList.asp

I assumed you have rejected the Open University - which offers one of the best regarded psychology degree part-time - it is BPS approved and PSI automatically recognises it. Someone told me that half the counselling psychologists working for the National Counselling Service are OU and most will have done the TCD Masters following their UG.

You can easily pick up experience by volunteering, so that should not be a clincher in this instance.

theTinker

Hi mimmi

firstly Thanks for the info. I did not know the BPS and PSI recognized each others accredations so easily. It opens up a new row of choices for me.

I had actually filed out the application form for PCI and put it in my company postbox. After reading your post, i ran and got it..phew(it had 450 euro cc details in it!)..you = great

Am i correct in assuming, to become a Counselling psychologist, i pretty much have to do a course that is recognized by PSI or BPS? A course not accredited by these is not worth much in standing?

I'm looking into OU now. I did not know about the BPS so i didn't know about OU.
If you have any further advice, please give it.

mimmi

Wow so glad I posted, I hate to see people waste money.

Here is the overview of the OU Psychology degree:-


http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?Q01B07

If you are new to degree level study, you should start with the Level 1 Social Science Course - this will develop your academic skils at degree level and prepare you for Level 2 courses. The course counts to your psychology degree.

http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01iDD101

Any questions etc, give the OU Advisory team in Dublin a call - 01 6785399

Yes you must have a recognised psychology degree inorder to gain Graduate Basis of Registration with the PSI. TCD will most certainly be looking for this as a minimum and the work expereince on top.

By the way the Counselling Psychology course at TCD has become a 3 year full-time taught Doctorate - annual fees ar €12,000 !!!....get saving.

theTinker

Hey Mimmi,

Thanks for the info. I spent all day looking through OU and was talking to a lovely and helpful person named Valerie.
I believe I will apply on monday to start studying the required modules in october when they start up. Thanks so much for your help. Saved me alot of hassle.
I have studied a BSc(Hons) in information technology so i was advised to go straight to the level 2 entry psyhcology course. Also luckily, i should be credited 60 credits which will save me studying an unrelated/free subject in the upcoming years

Thanks again
Much obliged

mimmi

Excellent.

Yes, you can apply for some general credit towards the 'free choice' of that degree if you have some Third Level study...every little helps.:D

I assume you will be starting on DSE212 Exploring Psychology - you'll find that many students on that course are new to the OU and have other degrees. If you can, try and hook up with a few like minded people in your tutorial group and become study buddies so that you can telephone/hook up between turorials, it really helps.

Anyway I am glad you're sorted...........'citing!:D

ttilting

PCI V IACP

I have been looking into studying to become a psychotherapist for some time now.

I am not in the habit of studying for a general degree and then 'specialising' with an ad on later as I feel this can be a wast of time and money, I believe in profession specific training.

To that end, I am looking at the DBS BA In counciling & Pchotherepy (part time 4 year course)

I am drawn to this course for a number of reasons, Including - FETAC Level 8 recognition - IACP approved - and the practical elements to the course.

The problem with a general degree in psychology Is it is simply not ''profession specific'' enough I feel.

Also . . . there is a huge difference between psychotherepy & psychology, and it is the later which I want to focus on.

The HSE - refer people to the IACP for counseling recommendations so I assume they are reputable,,, anybody??? DBS's course Is recognised by the IACP.

Anyway to sum up . . . I am not 20 years of age! and cant afford to be studying non specific degrees, psychology degrees seem 10 a penny these days so I'm looking seriously at the DBS course . . .

Am I crazy ?
Has any body got any more advice around this?

theTinker

I've spent a couple of weeks researching different options for psychology courses etc. I thought I'd offer my thoughts in case they help anyone in the future.

I narrowed it down to PCI, DBS, and OU.
PCI (up to diploma) and DBS (up to degree) are ICAP accredited, which seems to me to be a similar body to PSI.

From reading the psychology forum on boards.ie, and from different posts on askaboutmoney and various other boards on the net. There was far more of a consensus that having a U.Grad accredited by PSI (and recognized by default by BPS aswell) was quite advantageous. The three courses I was looking at were either accredited by ICAP or PSI, but not both. I believe DBS has a degree in some specific form of psychology that is accredited by both but i didn't want that one.
DBS has a 25+ year age of commencement but I'm a year too young for that also. PCI scared me away since its degree is not accredited, only its diploma.

The strong reasons given by people were that a PSI accredited degree is the minimal you need to get into a masters and go further(which seems to be mandatory if you really wanna work with clients etc on a regular basis)

OU was the only PSI accredited degree from my three likes that was available. I checked with 2 people from work who are all doctorated up and they both agreed that OU had a very good reputation in the academic field(these people are not from psychology sources though).

So I'm going with OU and shall be starting in October. If anyone thinks my opinions are flawed etc, please let me know so i can correct my decision if needed.

hotspur

Not sure if any of you are still interested or reading this thread but there's a lot of mixing up the notions of psychology and psychotherapy in it.

The Tinker -
A counselling psychologist is somebody who has done a degree (or Hdip) in psychology and then has gone on to do a postgraduate in counselling psychology (which means 3 year PhD in Trinity).

There are no undergraduate courses called counselling and psychology. If you want to become a psychotherapist then going back to do a psychology degree is a very unusual move. Firstly nobody who has any degree already needs to do an undergraduate degree in psychology, they can just do a 2 year conversion Hdip in psychology which confers the same status of an undergraduate degree in psychology. Secondly you don't need to ever have studied a psychology course to train as a psychotherapist.

The PSI has nothing much to do with the psychotherapy profession or its accreditation or regulation (and it won't be the statutory regulator for the psychology profession either). You could become an IACP accredited psychotherapist from scratch in ~ 2 years with some accredited psychotherapy courses.

You have been badly misinformed if you think you need a psychology degree and then do the Trinity PhD in counselling psychology if you want to work as a psychotherapist. Why would you want to go through the roughly 7 years of such training to become a counselling psychologist instead of the average of 3 to become a psychotherapist when they do the same job? (and I'm not saying this with a chip on my shoulder, I have a couple of psychology degrees and am studying psychotherapy)

I don't want to see you make an error of committing so much time and money (OU isn't cheap) when it is so unnecessary to qualify for the kind of work you wish to do. And remember the Trinity Phd in counselling psychology ( no masters anymore and the only show in town) is a full time course. It's all well and good doing a psychology degree at your leisure part time but you then have to face the reality of a 3 year full time postgraduate course which, to be honest, you're probably not even going to get onto (it's very competitive).

Almost all of the counselling and psychotherapy courses are part time, I'm not sure why you narrowed them down to PCI (btw PCI don't and never have offered any *psychology* courses) and DBS when there are a huge number of them which are accredited. Just look at the list of courses on the IACP site, or check out some of the links I provided in this post:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=61358160&postcount=2

ttilting has it right. Yes the IACP is a reputable accrediting body for the psychotherapy profession, and while not the only one it is the one most would be members of. But again there are so many more options available other than DBS and which don't take 4 years. I have nothing against DBS (I have a Masters in Addiction from there myself) but be aware of all the options, there's nothing special about them if you are studying psychotherapy.

Also probably best asking questions about such issues in the psychology forum in future as there are where actual psychologists and psychotherapists hang out on occasion.