Counselling Skills Training Program

Counselling should not be a career embarked upon lightly. It is a Vocation. Most people’s perception of counselling is that the counsellor solves your problems. This is not true. A counsellor is there to empower the client to solve the problem himself or herself. When I first decided to embark on a counselling training program it took me two years to decide whether it was right for me. Was I ready to help other people solve their issues when I still ...
...and basically showed you what counselling was all about. I suggest this to anyone thinking of counselling as a career, because as I have said people generally have a perception of counselling that does the job no credit.

At this juncture I feel I must point out that you do need some natural abilities to be a counsellor. I don’t believe just anyone can be a counsellor. There are three qualities you MUST have. The first is the ability ... more

Counselling should not be a career embarked upon lightly. It is a Vocation. Most people’s perception of counselling is that the counsellor solves your problems. This is not true. A counsellor is there to empower the client to solve the problem himself or herself. When I first decided to embark on a counselling training program it took me two years to decide whether it was right for me. Was I ready to help other people solve their issues when I still had serious issues myself? Did I think that embarking on the course would help me? In other words was I taking the course to solve my own problems, rather than other peoples? What gave me the right to believe that?

I have always had jobs that involved dealing with people directly. I enjoy helping people immensely. I used to be a nurse earlier in my life and I enjoyed that. This is what made me think I could be a counsellor. Another big plus I feel is on my side is my very large catalogue of life experiences. This I have found to be invaluable in dealing with issues that clients bring to you, and empathising with them. If you have encountered the problem yourself you are much more able to identify with the client and what they are feeling or going through.

Until 1996 I was married and my life was ambling along as it does with nothing much happening and looking forward to the time when the grandchildren would visit. That all changed one Saturday morning when I returned from work and found my wife of twenty years had left me. There was no warning at all. No signs that anything was wrong. Ah you say, there must have been some sign. There was not, or if there was I was totally unaware of it. We had still been making love normally, going out together and talking about our future. Devastated would be an understatement of how I felt at that moment.

What followed was the nastiest divorce in the history of mankind. Every evil thing you can think of was employed to hurt me. And it did. Very deeply. However the children stayed with me. They did not want to know their Mother for what she had done. She had left them as well. I suppose you want to know now what she done. She had left me for a man of 64. She was 36 at the time. Why? He had loads of money and promised her the earth. I was just Mr average looking after his family in the only way I knew. For two years I was mentally in no mans land until I met my present wife. She started to pull me out of the deep depression I was in and helped me recover, and for that she would always have my deepest gratitude. I lost my house and had to go bankrupt during this time and my ex-wife had also disappeared with my youngest child. He was eighteen months old at the time. I was not to see him again until he was five. I also had a nervous breakdown just for good measure.

When I eventually emerged from this quagmire of despair I was a shaking unsure confused individual. I had no self-esteem and absolutely no confidence. I had no house, no money, and no job. The turning point came when my girlfriend and I decided to get married. It really took me some time to trust her completely? When I look back at that time I don’t know how she stayed with me and put up with what I put her through for so long. I was so possessive I hated her out of my sight. If she didn’t give me attention when I wanted it I threw a tantrum worse than a two year old.

Anyway in July 1998 we got married, I got a job and things started to improve with my mental condition. Since then I have gone from strength to strength and mentally I like to think I am now very strong indeed. I am confident and my self-esteem is higher than it has ever been in my life. Only things that are important in life matter to me, and you learn by an experience like that, what is important and what is not. Trivialities no longer bother me. So in 1999 I decided I wanted a career change. I wanted to help people again now my trust in the human race had returned. I embarked on a course called “ An introduction to counselling.” It was a ten-week course, one night a week, and basically showed you what counselling was all about. I suggest this to anyone thinking of counselling as a career, because as I have said people generally have a perception of counselling that does the job no credit.

At this juncture I feel I must point out that you do need some natural abilities to be a counsellor. I don’t believe just anyone can be a counsellor. There are three qualities you MUST have. The first is the ability to be completely non-judgemental. That is sometimes very difficult. We go through every day judging other people and their actions. Can you sit in a room with a Paedophile and not judge them? Wouldn’t you want to strangle them? You have to take that person as they are. I used Paedophilia as an extreme example but there are loads of other issues you will feel just as strongly about
The second is the ability to accept. Accept that person for what they are and what issues they have. Their problem may seem trivial to you, but to them it can be the end of the world.
The third but by no means the least is the ability to empathise. To be able to put yourself in their situation and imagine and feel what they are feeling. Without sympathising.

Satisfied that this was what I wanted to do I enrolled at my local college (Barking) in Essex and patiently waited until September. On the first night I made my way to the college and walked to my classroom where I froze. I just couldn’t do it. I was that scared. I walked away and went home. I realised later that I wasn’t ready. I still had too many issues that were not resolved in my head. Don’t embark on a counselling course if you still have major issues. We all have problems and issues all the time but I mean the big ones. Mainly about yourself.

A year later I felt I was ready and once again I enrolled. In the meantime I had been to get counselling myself and I felt I had now resolved the issues that had prevented me starting the course. So in September 2000 I started on the road to my new career.

The course is a Diploma course and lasts for four years. Only the last two years are the Diploma itself. To get into the Diploma part, the last two years, you need certificates in counselling skills and counselling theory. The first year is counselling skills and entails acquiring the skills to be able to communicate properly with the client and reflect their feelings back to them. A lot of this is done in practise sessions with your fellow classmates in triads. One counsels, one is the counsellor and one of you observes. At first you tend to be apprehensive about telling all these strangers your darkest secrets and there is a lot of pretend stories. However by the end of the year you will be surprised at the depth of friendship you have reached with the class.
I must warn you that all parts of counselling courses can be mentally draining as you find out more and more about yourself. You become very self-aware.

The second year for me was harder and involves the theoretical side to counselling. There are different forms of counselling. Some of the names you will hear mentioned are Psychodynamic, Eclectic, Gestalt, and there are many others. We are concerned with the most commonly used and that is person centred. Based on two men you will hear a lot about during the course. Carl Rogers and Gerard Egan. I passed the theory course last June and have now started the two-year Diploma. (September2003)
You cannot start the Diploma without certificates in both counselling skills and counselling theory. You will be asked for them as entry requirements.

The cost of the first two years was £400 each for the first and second year. The two-year Diploma course was £1500 for the two years. You must pay for the whole two years up front. The reason they do this is because they want to know you are fully committed.
The Diploma is much more advanced. You will still do counselling skills practice in triads but now the session time is much longer. In the first two years it varied from ten to thirty minutes. In the Diploma it is increased to the Counselling hour, which is 50 minutes. You also counsel for five-week periods. So you will be counselling the same person for five weeks then being counselled for five weeks, and then you will observe for five weeks. So you all swop roles every five weeks.
There are six presentations during the two years involving a lot of research and writing. Library visits and reading including whole class book discussions and reviews. There are countless essays to be done ranging from 500 words to 3000 words. Some are formative, some are summative. A good point to say here is that if you fail any single part of the course, i.e., an essay, you do get the chance to do it again and again until you pass. Almost everything is done in groups. There are ten pupils in my class and we work in groups of two to five depending on the subject or assignment. You have to undergo 40 hours of personal counselling which you have to pay for yourself over the two years. This can be from £15-£40 per hour. This is compulsory. In the second year of the Diploma you have to find an agency, (You have to find this yourself and you may have to undergo special training before you can do it.) for placement to counsel real people. This is for 120 hours over the year. This is also compulsory. You do not pay for this. When you work in placement for an agency you also have to undergo supervision for two hours once a fortnight.

So far I have not encountered any major problems with completing any work. Although there was one stage in the second year of theory where I had to work all weekend to complete some work. There is a lot of research involved and a lot of homework. Don’t think that your one-day a week at college is all there is to do. (There are night courses as well but these are usually two nights a week) Look for the courses in your local papers and college prospectus. They are run differently in different parts of the country. I am doing the N.C.F.E. Diploma and at present there are no exams on this course. It is all done on continued assessment. However some other courses do have exams. If you embark on a course make sure it is BACP accredited. This is the British Association of Counselling Practitioners. Check to see if you are a qualified counsellor when you have finished the course. Some have extras you have to do. The first course I was on enabled you to work for an agency but not to set up in private practice. Look for the possible pitfalls of each course and ask questions.

I hope I haven’t put anyone off thinking of embarking on a counselling career. If you really want to do it and you think you have the abilities I mentioned then go for it. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I will not pretend it is easy but then you never get anywhere without hard work. (Unless you’re very lucky).

The total cost of the whole four years is about £2500 plus 40x counselling sessions. However different colleges and universities charge differently. I have changed colleges because my original college wanted over £3000 for the last two years plus 40x counselling sessions. I got it for £1500 plus counselling. A big difference. I now go to Harlow College in Essex. So shop around. The other thing that is important to think of is the time commitment. The first two years were done in night school and did not present me with a problem, but as the course progresses then the time factor will be important. Don’t forget in the last year you have to find time for the actual day at college, your homework, (Allow up to twelve hours a week at times.) your placement time, (About three hours a week) your personal counselling, (About an hour whenever you choose) and of course your supervision. I hope I haven’t missed anything and I hope you have enjoyed this opinion.

If you have any questions then feel free to send me a message and I will answer your query as soon as I can.

Bye for now. Tony.
 

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