How to be a behavioural therapist?

nails1

I would be interested in becoming a cognitive behaviour therapist as I have researched it and it interests me and I would like to change people's lives in a positive sense. I don't have any kind of psychology qualification, only a business degree. Is it possible to become one without a psychology background?

biko

Like a cognitive behavioural therapy degree?
Perhaps NLP would interest you as well.

nails1

biko wrote: »

Like a cognitive behavioural therapy degree?
Perhaps NLP would interest you as well.

Yeah like that, is it possible to do postgraduate courses in cbt/ psychotherapy level 9 with just a business degree?

Eoin

Check out some of the sticky threads in this forum

CeannComhairle

To be a 'credible' cognitive behavioural therapist you would probably need to do an undergraduate psychology degree and post graduate qualification on top, which can be broad (like clinical psychology doctorate) or specific (a masters in cbt through Tcd). Unfortunately, or should I say thankfully, there is no credible short cut to this type of work. You can probably do it now without being regulated but more stringent criteria are coming down the tracks in the next couple of years.

endacl

CeannComhairle wrote: »

To be a 'credible' cognitive behavioural therapist you would probably definitely need to do an undergraduate psychology degree and post graduate qualification on top, which can be broad (like clinical psychology doctorate) or specific (a masters in cbt through Tcd). Unfortunately, or should I say thankfully, there is no credible short cut to this type of work. You can probably do it now without being regulated but more stringent criteria are coming down the tracks in the next couple of years.

Slight adjustment!

endacl

nails1 wrote: »

Yeah like that, is it possible to do postgraduate courses in cbt/ psychotherapy level 9 with just a business degree?

NLP would be the shorter and easier route to a career. Unfortunately though, only in the same way as a 'qualification' in homeopathy would be a shorter route to a career in medicine.

There are Masters programmes available to graduates without a psychology-specific undergrad, but you'd need to be clearer as to the modality you think you might be interested in and suited to. CBT is only one of these, and is a very specific way of working behaviourally with people, and no reputable course will accept applicants from a non-psychological background.

CeannComhairle

endacl wrote: »

NLP would be the shorter and easier route to a career. Unfortunately though, only in the same way as a 'qualification' in homeopathy would be a shorter route to a career in medicine.

There are Masters programmes available to graduates without a psychology-specific undergrad, but you'd need to be clearer as to the modality you think you might be interested in and suited to. CBT is only one of these, and is a very specific way of working behaviourally with people, and no reputable course will accept applicants from a non-psychological background.

Rightly so too!

CeannComhairle

endacl wrote: »

Slight adjustment!

Touché :-)

Mrs OBumble

CeannComhairle wrote: »

To be a 'credible' cognitive behavioural therapist

...

You can probably do it now without being regulated but more stringent criteria are coming down the tracks in the next couple of years.

Credible to who?

Can you give us some links re the more stringent criteria?

endacl

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Credible to who?

Can you give us some links re the more stringent criteria?

Credible to the professional bodies that accredit the qualification and maintain rigorous professional standards in the field.That'd be http://www.icbt.ie/ in the case of CBT.

CeannComhairle

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Credible to who?

Can you give us some links re the more stringent criteria?

As Stephen fry is wont to point out, to whom?
Well, to peer professionals who span a range of accredited bodies, all of whom are intent on promoting and enforcing certain standards within the profession of psychology and associated service provision.

As to what links might be helpful- see www.coru.ie. CORU is Ireland’s first multi-profession health regulator, set up under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005. It encompasses a number of different social and health professions and in time will be the statutory body that regulates them all. It will ultimately prevent against these professional titles from being diluted by substandard training courses and in so doing will ensure that the public / service users will receive proper standards of care. A good thing me thinks. Hope that helps!

Mrs OBumble

Fair call re who/whom :-)


Thanks for that link, it gives the OP a start in looking at psychological-services ecosystem. And I absolutely look forward to the day when so-called "therapists" with only a short-course stop fooling the unsuspecting into thinking they are really physio's dieticians, etc.

However I guess the OP also needs to consider their credibility to potential employers: there's no point in having a course that your peers recognize if you cannot get a job with it, or if some peers recognise it, but others don't.

Some other links for the OP

The Psychological Society of Ireland

The Career Directions website