Counselling degree help guys!!!

Hi 👋🏽

I’m looking to study the level 5 Therapeutic counselling course as part time in evenings as I work as an Attendance Officer within a High school and deal with many complex families and students. My question is I was thinking if I wanted to top this up to a Bsc Honour degree in counselling would it carry UCAS tariff points as I cannot find it in the tables? Would it allow me to skip a couple years into the degree?
Or could I go onto a postgraduate or Masters after this level 5 course? I am not sure how it all works eventually I do want to be a IAPT or CBT therapist if I can through this pathway or i May stay in school roles and progress up to Education Welfare Officer. Any advice is greatly appreciated I’m a mature student and not really sure what the pathway would be!

Hey!

Firstly, do you have your Level 3 Counselling qualification?

As for topping it up to a BSc, I'm not completely sure, but I wouldn't have thought you could do this. The counselling courses are heavily practical, much more so than a BSc. You can actually do an MA in Counselling/Psychotherapy, which leads to qualified status.

I kind of did it the opposite way round to you: got my BSc in Psychology and Counselling, but I still couldn't go straight to level 4/5 as I lacked the practical skills training required. I then did the level 3 course, which was 1 academic year part-time and will (hopefully!) be starting level 4 or 5 (not decided yet) in September.

I am also interested in becoming a CBT therapist. To do this, you need to be in a 'core profession' - gaining a qualification in counselling/psychotherapy offers this start. You then need to do a course in CBT. The NHS sometimes advertise for trainee IAPT/CBT therapists, which allows you to train while you work. There don't seem to be many of these, though. Alternatively, you can do this course through a training centre, college or university.

I am also a mature student, currently doing an MSc in Psychological Wellbeing in Clinical Practice. It is hard to keep up with what qualifications you need in this field, there are so many of them!

Any more questions, feel free to ask!

Loren

Aw thank you for replying! That’s cool that you are looking to do a similar pathway! So I emailed my college today I have already started my level 3 counselling skills course. I was advised by the college that I could go to progress to either the level 4 or 5 courses after this and then to Double check if that would be sufficient for the university to progress into a MA or post graduate course/qualification with them. My heart is set on being a CBT or High Intensity therapist. In your opinion after qualifying at a post graduate level would the job role I should expect to be in still be at a trainee level?

Hey!

Once you have your level 4 or 5 qualification, you would be able to progress onto either a CBT training programme or a postgraduate CBT course. Either of these routes could lead to becoming a qualified CBT therapist. You can see a list of BABCP accredited courses here: https://www.babcp.com/Training/Accredited-Courses.aspx

There are different types of courses and some courses (the BABCP level 2 ones - see the above link for more on this) will require you to continue working with CBT to gain individual practitioner accreditation. They may also have different entry requirements, so have a look through what's available and what interests you. Once you have met all the BABCP requirements, you would not need to work in a trainee role - you will be able to call yourself an accredited CBT/IAPT therapist.

For me, I work for Greater Manchester Mental Health, and they offer a CBT training programme, which I plan to apply for once I have my level 4 counselling qualification.

What are you hoping to do your MA in?

Thank you so much for being so helpful I really appreciate it. This whole starting from scratch thing has me all flustered ha!
Would you say the fact that I do not have a degree behind me is going to negatively effect my chances of getting into a CBT training programme? I am still debating if I should do the level 4 or 5 after this!

Do you mind if I ask what kind of role you work in currently? I am thinking if I should switch jobs too if there is another clearer pathway into it as you mentioned you are going to do through a CBT training programme. It might sound silly but I don’t want to keep studying thinking there is a job at the end of it just to realise they might say I don’t have enough actual experience within the field etc

Another lady I spoke to told me she thought the best route is to work within mental health for a year and then qualify for PWP role which could also in time lead into CBT therapy with training programmes.
Honestly I am finding it all so confusing at the moment. It is definitely the field I want to work in but with two children who also look up to me I am finding it’s a lot of pressure trying to even map it out in a way that I can know 100% I will succeed into getting to where I want to go.

Sorry I think I waffled on there lol

Please don’t apologise you are helping me out thank you for all that information. I think I’m getting very bogged down with the planning of it all! I am going to complete my level 3 and then do the level 5 and after that I will have to see if I can get onto PGDIp in university of Bolton for Cognitive Behaviour Psychotherapy I believe that is a level 2 accredited course. That is my rough plan anyway. I think I will also need to change my job when I’m starting level 5 to something more relevant to what I am studying. It seems like a mountain to climb but hopefully if I do it in smaller steps it won’t be so daunting! I wish you all the luck and I know you will get where you need to as well 🙂 x

Totally get that! It's great though because every stage involves practical experience, which I love and is why I'm going down this route instead of the academic one I originally planned. If you were to change your job, what sort of thing would you go for? Just curious/nosey lol.

Haha nosy sounds like me too! Well I am torn at the moment I originally started looking into counselling with a view to get into counselling adolescents/children in high school/college level and maybe progress into CAMHS. Seeing as all my experience has been in and around schools that’s what makes sense and could be a possibility for me. I may step up in the next year or so to be an Education Welfare Officer which can involve dealing with vulnerable families and can be an informal kind of counselling role around that you deal with complex families and students and help them deal with the issues out of school a lot of the time so that the students can improve their attendance at school.

If I decided to change jobs completely though I think I would enjoy working with women/teens who have endured abuse/rape/violence as I have got lots of life experience in the way of dealing with those sorts of things especially in ethnic minorities where it gets brushed under the carpet. What about you? What area interests you?

All sounds good! I'm also interested in working with clients who have experienced trauma, particularly sexual abuse/assault. I was offered a role as a crisis worker in a Sexual Assault Referral Centre last year, which would have been a good way in, but I had to choose between that and my current role and I chose this one. They have counsellors there and I would love to do that. I am also interested in working with forensic populations or ex-offenders and have some experience working with that group.

I may also apply for a Counselling Psychology doctorate in the future as that sound interesting and would open up a lot of opportunities.

It's such a vast field to go into, but also so competitive. Trying to focus on one specific area is hard for me. I want to do it all! Haha!

Haha! I totally get it I think every time I read about a different area of counselling or therapy then I want to do that!
Even though I want to do it all I have to be realistic I have a young family and I also need to work so I’m just going to get into studying and see where I can get. That doesn’t sound very planned does it haha it’s overwhelming but I think if I aim to do the level 5 therapeutic counselling course it’s BACP accredited then surely I will find a way into some sort of counsellor role haha that sounds soooo blasé but it has an option of studying one evening per week over three years or two days per week over two years and if I’m realistic I cannot do the days as I need to work to live!
If I was not such a rebel against education when I was younger it would have made my life easier now but we are who we are haha!
Lord I’m going to need all the help I can get it says you have to find a placement to complete 100hours over the course of three years and I’m not sure where I would even start to look for that and what does it mean I need to attend supervision for every 8 hours when and where does all that happen?! I wish it was clearerrrr

You can literally Google counselling placements in your area. A lot of places offer them. Wherever you are doing your course might also give you ideas of where to apply for placements.

As for supervision, you will meet with a supervisor every so often to discuss your course and counselling sessions. It's a chance to get support because you might come across some challenging clients. If your college or training centre dont offer supervision, you will need to find your own supervisor, which again you can Google counselling supervision to find. You will have to pay for it yourself. There are additional costs with these courses, including supervision, insurance and some courses insist you attend personal therapy, usually for about 20 hours. It's not cheap! But it's also not one up front massive cost.

Luckily for me, The Manchester College provides supervision and doesn't insist on personal therapy. It's one of the reasons I picked that course. I dont know what area you are in, if you are near Manchester, but it sounds good!

It is in the Manchester College I am also applying lol I thought u had already said that lol my bad 😂 so yeah I guess I should be ok in the end it says for level 5 they provide the supervision so it’s just the placement I need to secure for the level 5. Should be ok I just need to stop fretting and get on with it

Ha! What are the odds! I'm waiting to hear from them about what's happening with interviews now. It will all work out and they will give you support and advice about placements. There are a lot of places around Manchester that offer them, though!