Cost of training as a counsellor

Economic

I'm considering doing the degree in counselling with PCI college. I have a job currently which is obviously a bonus in the current economy but I also have a young family and not a huge income coming into the house.

I have always had an interest in this area of work but now I would like to do something about it, the obvious problem is the potential cost and trying to pay the everyday bills as well.

The costs that I see are:
- the cost of the course.
- the cost of personal counselling.
- the cost of supervision.

Has any body got an idea of how much this would cost me. the cost for each year of the course is on the website but theres nothing for personal therapy or supervision.

are there any other costs that I'm missing out on?

I'd be greatful if anyone could give me advice on this or tell me how you managed to get through college.

As you can imagine its a big decision to go back to further education but I know that would be no problem to me but its the financial side of things that is the biggest concern as its not just a matter of looking after myself, I have others to look after and I feel undertaking the course could be selfish on my part if it turns out to be very expensive.

hotspur

So you have the cost of each year for tuition. Be aware that you can get a tax rebate on that. The first €1k of the tuition is the excess threshold, so you can get 20% of the excess per year back in tax.

Personal counselling is a minimum of 50 hours and it is unusual for people to just do 50 hours. The cost of that really does depend. Some counsellors give a student rate, others don't. I suppose a sensible range is €40-€65. I paid €65 but that was the highest in my class. So the range based on that range for a minimum of 50 hours would be €2k-€3.25k.

Supervision is again similar in that some offer student rates, some don't. You will need a minimum of 20 sessions of supervision for your 100 client hours. I paid €70, but many paid less (I am not the haggling type). A similar range may be assumed as with personal therapy, although the pool of supervisors is less than the pool of counsellors so you may wish to move the range up a little. At €50-70 you will be paying a range of €1k-€1.4k for supervision.

You will have to undertake a minimum of 24 hours of workshops. These may be a broad range of things from different organisations and people offering trainings. It is difficult to assign a range on these as they can be any price, or even free. I paid just shy of €300 for that amount of workshops.

Other costs include buying books. Again a huge range which depends on the person. I am a big reader so I have spent a lot, but then I know some who haven't bought any. I couldn't tell you how much I spent on them. But there are ways to minimise expenditure, and I download books and use libraries more than I used to.

Then it depends on what day(s) you choose to do the course. On a weekday may result in a lost day's work depending on flexibility etc. Weekend probably not.

I cannot think of other costs. Hopefully that should give you some sense of the costs beyond tuition.

Nemothefish

Thanks ... really insight full...

Just a question on the personal counselling thing... can you write that off against counselling you might have had in the past... IE I have been seeing someone for the past few years on and off... I recon there's more then the recommended 50 hours....

hotspur

Nemothefish wrote: »

Thanks ... really insight full...

Just a question on the personal counselling thing... can you write that off against counselling you might have had in the past... IE I have been seeing someone for the past few years on and off... I recon there's more then the recommended 50 hours....

No. It must be during the course.

Economic

hotspur wrote: »

So you have the cost of each year for tuition. Be aware that you can get a tax rebate on that. The first €1k of the tuition is the excess threshold, so you can get 20% of the excess per year back in tax.

Personal counselling is a minimum of 50 hours and it is unusual for people to just do 50 hours. The cost of that really does depend. Some counsellors give a student rate, others don't. I suppose a sensible range is €40-€65. I paid €65 but that was the highest in my class. So the range based on that range for a minimum of 50 hours would be €2k-€3.25k.

Supervision is again similar in that some offer student rates, some don't. You will need a minimum of 20 sessions of supervision for your 100 client hours. I paid €70, but many paid less (I am not the haggling type). A similar range may be assumed as with personal therapy, although the pool of supervisors is less than the pool of counsellors so you may wish to move the range up a little. At €50-70 you will be paying a range of €1k-€1.4k for supervision.

You will have to undertake a minimum of 24 hours of workshops. These may be a broad range of things from different organisations and people offering trainings. It is difficult to assign a range on these as they can be any price, or even free. I paid just shy of €300 for that amount of workshops.

Other costs include buying books. Again a huge range which depends on the person. I am a big reader so I have spent a lot, but then I know some who haven't bought any. I couldn't tell you how much I spent on them. But there are ways to minimise expenditure, and I download books and use libraries more than I used to.

Then it depends on what day(s) you choose to do the course. On a weekday may result in a lost day's work depending on flexibility etc. Weekend probably not.

I cannot think of other costs. Hopefully that should give you some sense of the costs beyond tuition.

Thanks for the reply and clarification about certain parts of the course.

I see on the website the costs for each year have to be confirmed yet but I have them wrote down somewhere so I'll have to dig out last years prices, hope there coming down in price rather than going up!! I think they worked out roughly at an average of €4000 per year plus €1500 for foundation course which there is no tax relief on. I also thought the tax relief covered the full price of the courses


Additional Course Requirements from website:
Four one day personal development workshops totalling 24 hours, I didn't realise that there was an extra cost to these. I had presumed they were included in cost of course. so thats roughly an extra €300
50 hours of personal therapy during the first three years of the course. So thats roughly €3500, maybe I'm mistaken but I thought I saw somewhere that these are going to increase from 50 to 100. If I'm correct thats around €7000
100 hours of work with clients. Do you receive money for these, I presume not but then again I had presumed that the workshops were included in course costs and I was wrong!!
20 sessions with a qualified supervisor to review your client work. Again I've a feeling that these sessions are due to increase from 20 to 50, I could be wrong in saying that, hopefully I am from a cost point of few. hopefully someone can clarify this. 20 sessions - around €1400. 50 sessions - €3500

so that looks like total costs roughly:
foundation year: €1500
four years: €16000
registration with middlesex uni: €500 roughly
personal therapy: €7000
supervision: €3500
Total not including books etc: €28,500 :eek:

Its a fair undertaking isn't it.

God I'd love to do it but I'm not sure if I'd be stretching us by taking it on.

Vinny-Chase

On the personal development thing be aware that there are free talks/ courses etc that you can use against your workshop hours. Also they generally tend to count any sort of personal development stuff for example meditation classes or retreats towards your hours. A weekend retreat of some sort would count as 12 hours IIRC.

Registration for Middlesex was €900 this year as far as I can remember. Bringing 1st year total to almost €5k!

Any therapy hours or personal development hours done AFTER you receive your place, i.e. your letter of acceptance count towards your hours even if you haven't started the degree yet.

And as Hotspur said, the books too. Which do cost a lot. I, like Hotspur read A LOT, yet some people in the class tend to skim only one or two books. I'd like to think I will make the more knowledgeable therapist because of the work I put in. And that really is the thing, you will get out of it, what you put in.

Feel free to PM if you have any more questions.

Oh also, you will not receive money for clients, not that I'm aware of anyway. If you get into a low cost centre you will generally get the cost of the room rental.

hotspur

One thing to be aware of in relation to the foundation course is that PCI have in the past accepted some people onto their degree course without any foundation course. That depends on your background. Also there is no requirement that the foundation course be from PCI. There are night class type introductions in schools etc. that might cost a fraction of €1,500.

I can't speak to any changes in personal therapy hours, although I would not be surprised as 50 is probably too few, and is lower than required from some accrediting organisations. Supervision wise the number of required sessions would only go up if the number of client hours went up. A ratio of 5:1 is maintained and I would be surprised if client hours went up to 250, although it is conceivable.

Vinny-Chase is correct that registration with Middlesex is €900. Then againI believe that PCI now have HETAC accreditation as well so I don't know what effect, if any, that has had.

It's a lot of money all right. As it currently stands I think your €28k is too high, so I suppose it depends on the quality of your information about the increase in personal therapy / client work (and therefore supervision hours).

Vinny-Chase

hotspur wrote: »

One thing to be aware of in relation to the foundation course is that PCI have in the past accepted some people onto their degree course without any foundation course. That depends on your background. Also there is no requirement that the foundation course be from PCI. There are night class type introductions in schools etc. that might cost a fraction of €1,500.

The foundation course is there for a good reason. You don't want to spend €5k on your first year to found out "Whoa!!! This isn't for me" There were some people in my foundation class who were all set thinking they were going to "sort out everyone's problems" and it was all easy peasy they got a bit of a shock and didn't go on to do the degree. When you get under the surface there's a lot of issues to consider.

I would check with PCI in regards to other foundation classes which they will accept. You don't want to spend money on that course and THEN find out you have to pay for the foundation course in PCI as well

PCI College

Hi,

This is Maria from PCI College. I just wanted to answer a couple of your questions. Personal Therapy and Supervision hours are not going up this year; they are 50 hours and 20 hours respectively. As stated above, both usually cost between €40-€60 per session. Also, you will not receive money from the 100 hours Counselling Practice you do as part of your training. However, the Diploma is your professional qualification and you can earn from that point onwards.

The fees have not been confirmed for this year but will be soon. I will give you last years for guidance:

Y1 €4000
Y2 €4200
Y3 €3500
Y4 €3500
Middlesex Registration €950 - this is a once off fee payable in year one.

We do have a payment plan in place which allows you to pay the fees in 3 fixed payments due in September, November & February.

The Foundation course or equivalent is a prerequisite for our Degree programme i.e.

Foundation Course in Counselling & Psychotherapy (or similar) - 100 Hours
OR
Equivalent:
• Work/Volunteer training with a substantial counselling element.
• Level 7+ course in Psychology, Social Care/Social Work, Psychiatric Nursing or Equivalent.

As outlined above, you may buy some books throughout the course. This is up to you. We do provide handouts in the class and have online library facilities.

I hope that helps!

Economic

PCI College wrote: »

Hi,

This is Maria from PCI College. I just wanted to answer a couple of your questions. Personal Therapy and Supervision hours are not going up this year; they are 50 hours and 20 hours respectively. As stated above, both usually cost between €40-€60 per session. Also, you will not receive money from the 100 hours Counselling Practice you do as part of your training. However, the Diploma is your professional qualification and you can earn from that point onwards.

The fees have not been confirmed for this year but will be soon. I will give you last years for guidance:

Y1 €4000
Y2 €4200
Y3 €3500
Y4 €3500
Middlesex Registration €950 - this is a once off fee payable in year one.

We do have a payment plan in place which allows you to pay the fees in 3 fixed payments due in September, November & February.

The Foundation course or equivalent is a prerequisite for our Degree programme i.e.

Foundation Course in Counselling & Psychotherapy (or similar) - 100 Hours
OR
Equivalent:
• Work/Volunteer training with a substantial counselling element.
• Level 7+ course in Psychology, Social Care/Social Work, Psychiatric Nursing or Equivalent.

As outlined above, you may buy some books throughout the course. This is up to you. We do provide handouts in the class and have online library facilities.

I hope that helps!

I just have a few more questions.
- Can you start your personal therapy during the foundation course or do you have to wait until the start of the degree?

- Do you start personal therapy in year one and is there any prescribed amount per year or could you in theory do all your personal therapy in the last year? the same applies to supervision.

- Are the books expensive and have you found yourself buying many or is a public library a realistic option? (I'm a big reader myself and I can't imagine myself not reading any books)



Thanks to everyone that replied, you've been a great help.

Vinny-Chase

Economic wrote: »

I just have a few more questions.
- Can you start your personal therapy during the foundation course or do you have to wait until the start of the degree?

- Do you start personal therapy in year one and is there any prescribed amount per year or could you in theory do all your personal therapy in the last year? the same applies to supervision.

- Are the books expensive and have you found yourself buying many or is a public library a realistic option? (I'm a big reader myself and I can't imagine myself not reading any books)



Thanks to everyone that replied, you've been a great help.

As far as I know you have to wait until you get accepted for the degree. If for example you get accepted in April, you can start then, you don't have to wait until September. For example if you have done 200 hours personal therapy prior, well unlucky buddy, you still gotta do another 50.

You can do your therapy when ever you want. It's recommend you start ASAP as stuff does come up in class and can be very emotional to deal with at times. Supervision as hotspur said is done one a 5 - 1 ratio. So for every 5 hours you do with a client you have to do 1 hour of supervision.

I doubt public library would be an option for many of the books. Some of the books are very expensive, £30+ Some you can pick up 2nd hand for next to nothing on eBay/ Amazon.

Generally, speaking for myself, I'm reading college books every day for at least an hour. You don't HAVE to read a lot, you can choose the books you want to read that interest you, it's pretty much up to yourself. I know students who have only read the books that they have to critique.

krankykitty

Does the college not have a library that you can borrow books? I used the library (DBS course) for the majority of my college reading, also got a few used textbooks for really cheap from BetterWorldBooks.

I don't know how strict PCI are on the therapist you attend, I would recommend checking with the college first before starting with a particular therapist, as they may not meet the criteria for the course. A number of my colleagues were told to change therapist or their hours would not be counted, due to issues of the therapist's lenght of accreditation.

Vinny-Chase

krankykitty wrote: »

Does the college not have a library that you can borrow books? I used the library (DBS course) for the majority of my college reading, also got a few used textbooks for really cheap from BetterWorldBooks.

I don't know how strict PCI are on the therapist you attend, I would recommend checking with the college first before starting with a particular therapist, as they may not meet the criteria for the course. A number of my colleagues were told to change therapist or their hours would not be counted, due to issues of the therapist's lenght of accreditation.

There is a library in the college and online e-library in PCI. Personally I prefer to have the books to make notes and highlight etc, but that's just me

I'm not sure on the length of accreditation for the therapist you're seeing but they MUST be a registered therapist with the IACP.

krankykitty

Vinny-Chase wrote: »

There is a library in the college and online e-library in PCI. Personally I prefer to have the books to make notes and highlight etc, but that's just me

When you're using the library solely you also have to worry about the book being available, especially around exam times.. I did buy a few books but there were some others (especially the expensive ones) that I just borrowed and photocopied some relevant sections.

I think the key is to just double check that the therapist is accepted before spending any money..

Economic

I've a few more questions, I hope people here don't mind.

I'm wondering if there anything I'm missing out out with regard to qualifying as a Counsellor.

I see in this thread that you are still not qualified after the course or am I misinterpreting it? http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70645284

this quote in particular makes me think this.

"once you have qualified and have completed 450 hours of supervised work experience you can legally practise as a counsellor/psychotherapist."

does this mean that even after you do course for 4 years you are not actually qualified?

Also where do job opportunities arise for consellors?
I had it in my head that you could more or less employ yourself, am I wrong in thinking this?

What costs are there for counsellors yearly and how much are they?
I'm thinking:
- PAYE
- cost of accreddiation to an awarding body
- cost of somewhere to provide counselling
- cost of supervision
- cost of personal therapy

am I missing out on anything?

Is burnout an issue with counsellors? I have it in my head that while you may counsel people with some heavy issues burnout would not be an issue as you would be getting your own personal therapy and supervision.

How many hours a week do counsellors work? this is closely related to the above question.

I'd imagine a large portion counselling hours would be evenings? am I wrong in thinking this?

How does counselling and family life work, I'm thinking in particular of someone with a young family and again this is closely linked to to the working hours and burnout issue.

Enhtie

Nemothefish wrote: »

Thanks ... really insight full...

Just a question on the personal counselling thing... can you write that off against counselling you might have had in the past... IE I have been seeing someone for the past few years on and off... I recon there's more then the recommended 50 hours....

Hi Nemothefish, if you have been referred to a counsellor by your GP you can then claim back money on your Med 1 end of year form. Your will need a receipt of all monies paid to the counsellor. Hope this is of help.

Enhtie

Economic wrote: »

I've a few more questions, I hope people here don't mind.

I'm wondering if there anything I'm missing out out with regard to qualifying as a Counsellor.

I see in this thread that you are still not qualified after the course or am I misinterpreting it? http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70645284

this quote in particular makes me think this.

"once you have qualified and have completed 450 hours of supervised work experience you can legally practise as a counsellor/psychotherapist."

does this mean that even after you do course for 4 years you are not actually qualified?

Also where do job opportunities arise for consellors?
I had it in my head that you could more or less employ yourself, am I wrong in thinking this?

What costs are there for counsellors yearly and how much are they?
I'm thinking:
- PAYE
- cost of accreddiation to an awarding body
- cost of somewhere to provide counselling
- cost of supervision
- cost of personal therapy

am I missing out on anything?

Is burnout an issue with counsellors? I have it in my head that while you may counsel people with some heavy issues burnout would not be an issue as you would be getting your own personal therapy and supervision.

How many hours a week do counsellors work? this is closely related to the above question.

I'd imagine a large portion counselling hours would be evenings? am I wrong in thinking this?

How does counselling and family life work, I'm thinking in particular of someone with a young family and again this is closely linked to to the working hours and burnout issue.

Hi Economic, it can be quite confusing trying to understand how exactly the profession of counselling and psychotherapy works in Ireland. At the moment to practice as a counsellor you don't necessarily need a degree as there is no statutory regulation in this area. Indeed, there are many many experienced practising counsellors who have garnered membership on Accrediting bodies through completion of hours accumulated through workshops and counselling hours. However there are now a plethora of courses available to those wishing to train in the area of counselling.

I'm not sure if you have any prior learning in third level education however, if you have it may be in your best interests to investigate courses which are Hetac accredited such as ICHAS or those which work towards an IAHIP accreditation, Gardiner Street. They may be a better option for you.

Accrediting bodies differ greatly in their requirements and in their fees so again it may be worth checking this out. Most bodies charge significant fees for membership however, membership of APCP is free. It may also be wise to check out the fees for CPD courses recommended by individual accrediting bodies as again the costs can vary greatly.

Best of luck with your research!

sambuka41

Enhtie wrote: »

Hi Nemothefish, if you have been referred to a counsellor by your GP you can then claim back money on your Med 1 end of year form. Your will need a receipt of all monies paid to the counsellor. Hope this is of help.

I thought this only applied if your counsellor also happened to be a medical practitioner?

Enhtie

sambuka41 wrote: »

I thought this only applied if your counsellor also happened to be a medical practitioner?

My understanding is that if my client has been referred by their GP and I am an accredited counsellor, the client can then claim back a percentage of their fees in any year.

greengiant09

Economic wrote: »

Thanks for the reply and clarification about certain parts of the course.

I see on the website the costs for each year have to be confirmed yet but I have them wrote down somewhere so I'll have to dig out last years prices, hope there coming down in price rather than going up!! I think they worked out roughly at an average of €4000 per year plus €1500 for foundation course which there is no tax relief on. I also thought the tax relief covered the full price of the courses


Additional Course Requirements from website:
Four one day personal development workshops totalling 24 hours, I didn't realise that there was an extra cost to these. I had presumed they were included in cost of course. so thats roughly an extra €300
50 hours of personal therapy during the first three years of the course. So thats roughly €3500, maybe I'm mistaken but I thought I saw somewhere that these are going to increase from 50 to 100. If I'm correct thats around €7000
100 hours of work with clients. Do you receive money for these, I presume not but then again I had presumed that the workshops were included in course costs and I was wrong!!
20 sessions with a qualified supervisor to review your client work. Again I've a feeling that these sessions are due to increase from 20 to 50, I could be wrong in saying that, hopefully I am from a cost point of few. hopefully someone can clarify this. 20 sessions - around €1400. 50 sessions - €3500

so that looks like total costs roughly:
foundation year: €1500
four years: €16000
registration with middlesex uni: €500 roughly
personal therapy: €7000
supervision: €3500
Total not including books etc: €28,500 :eek:

Its a fair undertaking isn't it.

God I'd love to do it but I'm not sure if I'd be stretching us by taking it on.

i'm the exact same boat as the above poster. i'd love to do it but it seems like these courses are only for the well-off.....

Vinny-Chase

greengiant09 wrote: »

i'm the exact same boat as the above poster. i'd love to do it but it seems like these courses are only for the well-off.....

I can assure you, I am VERY far from "well off" but I make sacrifices, primarily to a social life and other non-essentials to pay for college.

Economic

greengiant09 wrote: »

i'm the exact same boat as the above poster. i'd love to do it but it seems like these courses are only for the well-off.....

To be fair I was a bit of in my initial calculations.

The correct fees would be around:
Foundation €1500 - no tax refund
Y1 €4000 - tax refund of 20% of €3000 so actual cost €3400
Y2 €4200 - tax refund of 20% of €3200 so actual cost €3560
Y3 €3500 - tax refund of 20% of €2500 so actual cost €3000
Y4 €3500 - tax refund of 20% of €2500 so actual cost €3000
Middlesex Registration €950 - this is a once off fee payable in year one.

so new calculations:
cost of course and registration with Middlesex uni: €13,910
Cost of supervision and personal counselling: €4,200
New total: €18,110, this is still an estimate but its a lot closer but more realistic than my original estimate.

It still certainly not cheap but its more realistic. My own situation is that I'm not just making a decision that affects just myself so its not just a matter of less of a social life..it couldn't be much less at the minute anyway ... but making a decision that affects my family, I'd like to thing it'll make a positive difference long term but I'm going to try and get some money together first and take on the Foundation course in September/October all going well and fee's not going up!!

Can anyone clarify the differences between the different accreditation bodies and does it matter which one you choose and can anyone give me an idea of what other fees are involved after someone qualifies as a counsellor, I'd imagine insurance and accreditation are the two big ones.

hotspur

Economic wrote: »

Can anyone clarify the differences between the different accreditation bodies and does it matter which one you choose and can anyone give me an idea of what other fees are involved after someone qualifies as a counsellor, I'd imagine insurance and accreditation are the two big ones.

I think we have a sticky on the different accrediting organisations. If you are planning on an undergraduate diploma / degree with PCI then you would be looking to join the IACP. They are the largest accrediting organisation, but there are organisations such as IAHIP (part of the umbrella group Irish Council for Psychotherapy - which is the Irish agency which is responsible for awarding the European Certificate of Psychotherapy) which require a higher standard of training than IACP for membership.

If you have the choice (e.g. you already have a degree) then doing a post grad diploma / Masters somewhere else might be a better idea.

Cost wise post qualification, pre0accredited membership of the IACP is €185 a year (pre accredited means you have a finished a diploma but haven't done your 450 hours post award for full membership of the IACP. Then full membership (which cannot be obtained in the first 2 years of diploma graduation) is €275 a year. Insurance should run you between €100-€150 a year.

Economic

"As a therapist you have to build up a mimimum of 450 hours of clientwork before you can become accredited so it makes sure the person has enough experience to work with clients and are following the codes of Ethics set down by the accreditation bodies."

Could someone clear this up for me, after doing your degree in counselling and approx. 100hrs of couseling does this mean your a qualified counsellor but you work under the supervision of someone else until you've covered the 450 hours of client work

Do the 450 hours include the original 100 hours done during your degree, I presume they do

Gottalovegreys

Economic wrote: »

"As a therapist you have to build up a mimimum of 450 hours of clientwork before you can become accredited so it makes sure the person has enough experience to work with clients and are following the codes of Ethics set down by the accreditation bodies."

Could someone clear this up for me, after doing your degree in counselling and approx. 100hrs of couseling does this mean your a qualified counsellor but you work under the supervision of someone else until you've covered the 450 hours of client work

Do the 450 hours include the original 100 hours done during your degree, I presume they do

After your diploma/degree, you have your qualification, but the 450 hours are required for accreditation (with the IACP anyway.) The 100 hours done as a student do not count towards your 450 hours.

During your 450 hours, you must have supervision at a ratio of 1:10 ie one hour of supervision for every 10 hours of client work. When you get accreditation, the ratio is 1:20.
And yes, you pay for this supervision yourself

Economic

Thanks, so what is the difference in working as a counsellor with and without accreditation?

Do you still have to undertake personel counselling as well as supervision?

Also why would a client choose to go to a student who is training as a counsellor, would it be possible that a client with serious issues, all issues are obviously serious so maybe complicated is a better word, could arrive into a counsellor who is doing there first session? I couldn't imagine that this would be good for student or in particular the client who has taken the big step of attending counselling.

Gottalovegreys

Economic wrote: »

Thanks, so what is the difference in working as a counsellor with and without accreditation?

Do you still have to undertake personel counselling as well as supervision?

Also why would a client choose to go to a student who is training as a counsellor, would it be possible that a client with serious issues, all issues are obviously serious so maybe complicated is a better word, could arrive into a counsellor who is doing there first session? I couldn't imagine that this would be good for student or in particular the client who has taken the big step of attending counselling.

Psychotherapy and counselling are unregulated here, so you don't need to be accredited: however, it would be very difficult to be employed by an agency without accreditation. If you look at advertised jobs on places like activelink, accreditation or working towards accreditation is always a requirement.

When accredited, you don't have to be in personal therapy, but you must keep up with continuous professional development, and personal therapy can make up part of this if you want. The IACP website has more info on this. (don't know how to link, sorry)

As for clients attending students, clients should always be aware that they are attending a student counsellor. If you are doing your student hours in an agency, the agency usually does the initial intake and then allocates clients. In theory this is great, but in reality, how a client initially presents, and what actually becomes the work of therapy are different things. This is where supervision, personal awareness, and ethics come in to play: if you know you are unable for whatever reason to work with someone, this needs to be brought to supervision, and the client referred on if necessary.

In saying all of that, in my own experience as a client, I have gone to counsellors who have been practising for many years, and I would never, ever refer to them for many reasons. I have also gone to recently accredited people who have been great. The therapuetic relationship is crucial, and if that doesn't fit, regardless of how much experience someone has, it won't work. Also, there are some counsellors/therapists out there, with accreditation, who should not be practising.

Sorry for the delay in replying, hope that helps

Enhtie

If you wish to take up a Foundation Course in Counselling as a first step in this discipline the editorial by Sarah Browne in "Therapy Today" may be of interest to you. The full article can be viewed on their website. I think it is very important that people enter these very expensive training courses with a realistic view of the career possibilities at the end of a very long road.



"As long as I’ve been editing this journal we’ve been receiving letters about the amount of people training to be counsellors (and the lack of jobs). The numbers have certainly swelled in recent years. In 2003 The Sunday Times reported that Britain ‘now has more counsellors than soldiers’. And last year I read that counselling had made it into a list for the top 10 most popular careers predicted for 2011. Yet the ratio of CPD adverts to job adverts in these pages has consistently been about 10:1.

There is clearly a lack of paid work or at least paid work that gets advertised. When I did my own training I felt uneasy when I realised that the training organisation were not making this situation clear to prospective students."

Odysseus

Enhtie wrote: »

If you wish to take up a Foundation Course in Counselling as a first step in this discipline the editorial by Sarah Browne in "Therapy Today" may be of interest to you. The full article can be viewed on their website. I think it is very important that people enter these very expensive training courses with a realistic view of the career possibilities at the end of a very long road.



"As long as I’ve been editing this journal we’ve been receiving letters about the amount of people training to be counsellors (and the lack of jobs). The numbers have certainly swelled in recent years. In 2003 The Sunday Times reported that Britain ‘now has more counsellors than soldiers’. And last year I read that counselling had made it into a list for the top 10 most popular careers predicted for 2011. Yet the ratio of CPD adverts to job adverts in these pages has consistently been about 10:1.

There is clearly a lack of paid work or at least paid work that gets advertised. When I did my own training I felt uneasy when I realised that the training organisation were not making this situation clear to prospective students."

I teach and so do my mates, we have been asking about the ethics of it for the past 5 years. No answers about the colleges for you though

Enhtie

Odysseus wrote: »

I teach and so do my mates, we have been asking about the ethics of it for the past 5 years. No answers about the colleges for you though

I am with you 100% Odysseus. I do believe it is an ethical issue. Well done on questioning this!

greengiant09

i am very disturbed after reading that article. maybe because i am just about to embark on a 4 year psychotherapy course with PCI college. I always had doubts about obtaining full time employment after i finished the course but now i'm seriously considering jacking in the course after reading that. can anyone advise what is the best area to study in psychotherapy/psychology which would provide the best chance of receiving regular work?

hotspur

greengiant09 wrote: »

i am very disturbed after reading that article. maybe because i am just about to embark on a 4 year psychotherapy course with PCI college. I always had doubts about obtaining full time employment after i finished the course but now i'm seriously considering jacking in the course after reading that. can anyone advise what is the best area to study in psychotherapy/psychology which would provide the best chance of receiving regular work?

Clinical psychology.

JuliusCaesar

hotspur wrote: »

Clinical psychology.

Which is REALLY difficult to get into! :rolleyes: