HETAC LEVEL 7 & 8

Freiheit

What is the difference in terms of ability to practice?. The NCPI offer the pass B.A. (HETAC level 7) in 3 years and the Honours (HETAC level 8) in 4. Is there any legal difference between the two in terms of ability to work?.

To be honest I'm not that happy with what I've heard about the NCPI, formerly NCII, but most Counselling/Psychotherapy courses seem to be based in very remote locations. Theyr'e the only one's at a convenient location for me.

TrollHammaren

Your best bet is to look up the Psychological Society of Ireland's accreditation requirements: http://www.psihq.ie/accred_about.asp

From what I understand, level 6 and 7 courses can only get you a job working under an unprotected term such as "therapist" or "counsellor", but you need a recognised qualification to work as a PSI-accredited psychologist.

Unfortunately, there are too many cowboys doing "counselling" courses and passing themselves off as professionals.

Dibbs86

The course content of the the level 7 at NCPI surpasses that of other degree courses such as those provided by PCI. However, you will encounter a lot of problems with the administration side of things if you were to study with NCPI.

You can practice as a counsellor having studied a level 7. You still have to complete over 400 Clinical hours on completion of the degree in order for you to be accredited.

There are in or around 26 accrediting bodies for counselling and psychotherapy in Ireland. The IACP seem to have the monopoly, in the south east in particular.

You do NOT need to be IACP accredited in order to practice but there seems to be needless importance placed on being accredited by this body.
I would advise you to check what each body requires for you to be accredited before choosing a course of study.

As long as you have a good degree you should not need to worry, you would be more than qualified to persue a career in counselling, more qualified than some of those who are currently accredited by IACP.

In order to be accredited by IACP you are required to undertake about 50 hours personal therapy with an IACP counsellor (money spinner for themselves).

However I would imagine that the likes of PCI offer better student support.

It should not be forgotten that the degree course in NCPI is accredited by HETAC and you receive your degree from the Department of Education. I could be mistaken but I'm not entirely sure if PCI degrees come from the HETAC. I open to correction on that.

I hope that gives you a balanced opinion! Shop around before you spend your money!! Plus you always have the option to go on and study for your level 8 following completion of your level 7.

hotspur

NCPII are on their recruitment drive again just in time for their information meetings around the country which starts tomorrow.

JuliusCaesar

Dibbs86 wrote: »

There are in or around 26 accrediting bodies for counselling and psychotherapy in Ireland.

However, to make life easier for us, a good few of them got together and set up the Psychological Therapies Forum and made a recommendation about what training is required to the Statutory Registration people. See the Statutory Registration sticky thread on this forum.

Dibbs86 wrote: »

In order to be accredited by IACP you are required to undertake about 50 hours personal therapy with an IACP counsellor (money spinner for themselves).

I doubt that this is a money-spinner for IACP, as it is usually the supervisor/therapist who gets paid if they are doing supervision/therapy as part of their private practice. This happens in all branches of psychotherapy and counselling. (Odysseus, you might tell us how it works in psychoanalysis.) Do you have any proof that IACP gets money from this?

Dibbs86, you also implied that the admin side of the college is disorganised. Any examples of this?



Everyone, please be careful as we want to avoid any hint of libel. To talk about your own experience is fine.

Odysseus

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

I doubt that this is a money-spinner for IACP, as it is usually the supervisor/therapist who gets paid if they are doing supervision/therapy as part of their private practice. This happens in all branches of psychotherapy and counselling. (Odysseus, you might tell us how it works in psychoanalysis.) Do you have any proof that IACP gets money from this?




Everyone, please be careful as we want to avoid any hint of libel. To talk about your own experience is fine.

Well as you know there are different Psychoanalytic organisations. Over the years things have changed a bit with APPI, which was forced to become something it did not really want to be. It was initially just an organisation for those interested in Freudian and Lacanian ideas.

However, then stuff like Stat Reg started to appear, as well as this there previously most people already belonged to other psychotherapy, psychiatry or psychology bodies. Then courses started to be run and students without membership of those other bodies started to train. Within Lacanian analysis there is a strong emphasis placed upon self-authorisation that is only the therapist/analyst can really say if they can do the work.

So the whole idea of being an accrediting body was not really what it was set up as, this caused a lot of unrest in the previous years.

Currently you can practice as a training therapist under supervision whilst studying, the there is full membership which passing your course of study covers. In the past few years a new category of membership was created registered practitioner. This IIRC required a min of two years analysis and min of three years supervised practice, and the presentation of a case study to a group of peers on the training committee.

People who are interested in psychoanalysis generally have the supervision and personal analysis covered. I had being a bit lazy and I'm currently on the conditional register for Reg Pract. This being as I don't do private work and my supervision is provided by the HSE. None of the HSE supervisors are APPI so I would be short on supervision. I had being lucky enough that my HSE supervisor was a group analyst and was aware of Lacan and of course she was very familiar with Freud.

So I'm in the position now of it appears that over the next few years my full membership of APPI may now cover me, and I'm paying of my own APPI supervision for my HSE work. I'm covered at the moment be I think over the next few years Reg Pact status will be required rather than just full membership. Most people did not go for the Reg Pract status, then this year when our public directory was published only Reg Pract members where listed.

I had strong issues with this even though I do not do private work. However, I raised this as an issue since my name has been on the public list since 2002 up until this year, as I was on the conditional register for Reg Pract. I would still have some APPI supervision hours and the presentation to do, but I'm getting that sorted.

I don't have the exact details for Reg Pract here they are at home, but I'll update this when I get home tomorrow, but from memory what I posted covers it.

Anybody I trained with who practices completed more than 2 years analysis, my first round was 5 years long, I started my second round about four months ago, 3 sessions a week, and I have APPI supervision every fortnight, as my HSE supervision will not cover me. I was happy enough with it, but I had to fight to stay with the same supervisor for 8 years, but she retires this year so I would have had to go private in anyway.


Anybody I trained who does private work always had APPI supervision, but I stopped mine when I stopped doing private work and I do dislike paying for my own supervision for HSE work, but it is one of those things I will have to do to protect my psychotherapist status. I'm a member of another body the IAAAC but I don't think that would cover me. When I look at the proposals I cover all the bases for the second level of psychological therapist, but to be safe I'll be going for the Reg Pract status.

Stat Reg is quite a hot topic within the APPI; we have to vote on whether we will go with the other organisations around Stat Reg at our AGM soon. I think we will be going with it, but it raises issues as to the different between psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis or being a psychoanalyst will not be covered under Stat Reg AFAIK.

Anyway sorry for the long post and weaving my own experience in it, but hopefully it answers your question. That being that the APPI is still finding its way through this whole Stat Reg issue, but I think the final outcome will be the Reg Pract status.

Odysseus

Freiheit wrote: »

What is the difference in terms of ability to practice?. The NCPI offer the pass B.A. (HETAC level 7) in 3 years and the Honours (HETAC level 8) in 4. Is there any legal difference between the two in terms of ability to work?.

To be honest I'm not that happy with what I've heard about the NCPI, formerly NCII, but most Counselling/Psychotherapy courses seem to be based in very remote locations. Theyr'e the only one's at a convenient location for me.

In terms of practicing I don't think there is any difference. However, in terms of further study there can be a difference between the both as some post-grad courses may require an honours degree. So I would say if you can go for the honours degree, to go for that.

Most students are focused on getting out there and working, but you will more than likely go for post-grad training at some stage, so it's always important to look at the bigger picture and what your degree will enable you to do in terms of post-grad study.

The last thing you want is finding out that you want to a certain course of study at a later stage and you can't apply because the entry requires an honours degree. Hope that helps a bit.

Freiheit

Thanks all for explaining that.

To be honest nothing about the NCPII inspires me, they might well be adequate but both on-line and off-line I've heard a fair few negative vibes, many feeling that it's firstly a business,even those who feel it's ok.

Sad that none of the more established courses are in areas convenient for me. I don't drive.