Training as a professional counsellor
or psychotherapist
"Ultimately there is no way to escape taking responsibility
for ourselves."
The Trust offers full, professional training programmes leading
to a career in counselling and psychotherapy. Our training is accredited
by both the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). The programmes
are fully validated for higher education awards by the University of East
London, within the School of Psychology.
Counsellors and psychotherapists find work in many sorts of settings,
ranging from the National Health Service, voluntary and occupational organisations
and private practice. Although the distinction between the two titles
is increasingly blurred, broadly speaking it can be said that a counsellor
works with short-term life problems, and a psychotherapist develops a
longer-term relationship with a client and works with more deep-rooted
unconscious issues.
Counsellor training usually takes three years part-time, and
psychotherapy training a further two. Additional time is usually needed
to complete the requisite number of clinical hours under supervision to
enable full, individual accreditation. Students are also expected to undertake
weekly therapy for the period of training. Most training happens on full
weekends, about once a month, although there are some options for weekday
attendance.
Our training is a mixture of experiential and theoretical learning.
Modern day trainings expect a degree of competence in writing skills,
and students will be required to write essays and clinical case studies.
For psychotherapy training, a dissertation or research project is required.
For those unused to formal study, we offer seminars and tutorial support
in writing skills.
Central to our professional training is a commitment to equal
opportunities and diversity issues, as people of all backgrounds are needed
by the profession. Where students have disabilities (including dyslexia)
we make every effort to support academic study with the help of the University.
Also central to our training ethos is a commitment to ethical standards
and embedding these in safe, well-supervised practice.
Intending students may take breaks of up to two years during the training,
as we recognise that people have their own pace of learning.
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