professional work

I am doing a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and Counselling. I want to practice professionally as either a psychologist or psychotherapeutic Counsellor. What additional qualifications will I need?
Thanks

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Richardmanville

I am doing a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and Counselling. I want to practice professionally as either a psychologist or psychotherapeutic Counsellor. What additional qualifications will I need?
Thanks

If you want to practice as a Psychologist in the UK, you will need to be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). They mandate that you have a postgraduate qualification, which varies depending on the type of Psychologist you want to be (Clinical, Forensic, Educational, etc.).

In most cases, this postgraduate qualification will need to be a doctorate. You can find a list of approved courses / qualifications here. You can use the Modality filter to specify the type of Psychologist you want to be.

Note that these postgraduate qualifications will mandate that your undergraduate degree is BPS accredited. If it is not, you will need to gain BPS accreditation by taking a Master's conversion course.

I have no idea about the path to becoming a Psychotherapeutic Counsellor.

Reply 2

Interrobang

Your course details will tell you whether you are eligible to register with the professional body to call yourself a counsellor but I would think you probably won't and would also need to do further study for that

Reply 3

Nerol

Original post by Richardmanville

I am doing a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and Counselling. I want to practice professionally as either a psychologist or psychotherapeutic Counsellor. What additional qualifications will I need?
Thanks

The best place to look into pathways to different psychology roles would be the BPS website here: https://www.bps.org.uk/find-your-career-psychology.

As for going into counselling, you could do a master's level course in counselling/psychotherapy, or train part-time up to at least a level 4 diploma in counselling. You could then do further training in different psychotherapeutic approaches depending on what you are interested in. I did the same undergraduate degree as you, then trained as a counsellor by doing a part-time level 3 counselling skills course, then part-time level 4 diploma in therapeutic counselling. I then trained as a high intensity CBT therapist in the NHS.