Qualifications

At present there are no legal minimum qualifications necessary to practise as a counsellor in the UK. As one of its main aims is to develop and improve the standards of counselling in the UK, BACP has developed stringent ethical guidelines which should inform the practice of members. However we are finding that employers are increasingly requiring that their counsellors are BACP Accredited.

Accreditation of counsellors

BACP has its own Accreditation scheme for individual counsellors. Any reasonably substantial core counselling course which requires a supervised placement may be counted for accreditation purposes. Many people embarking on a counselling career work towards BACP Accreditation as an ultimate goal, which means accruing a set number of hours in skills development, in theory and in practice.

Accreditation Criteria

United Kingdom Register of Counsellors
The United Kingdom Register of Counsellors (UKRC) is part of BACP.
Counsellors accredited by the following professional bodies are eligible to apply to become a UKRC Registered Independent Counsellor: BACP, COSCA (Confederation of Scottish Counselling Agencies) and UKAHPP (UK Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners). The Register is a published list of independent counsellors/psychotherapists.

UKRC application form and notes

Counsellor training courses

BACP course accreditation information
The Course Accreditation Scheme (previously Courses Recognition Scheme) was implemented by BACP in 1988 and the list of those courses which have successfully passed through the scheme is in the accredited courses section.

Courses eligible to apply for Accreditation are those in-depth training courses likely to be of one year full time duration or two-three years part time with a notional minimum of 400 contact hours. Appropriate courses will require their students to undertake a supervised placement during the study period. Participants might reasonably expect to function as counsellors on satisfactory completion of the course. The scheme in operation is for existing courses which have graduated at least one cohort of students and which have been able to develop in the light of that experience. It is not a validation scheme purely of course design but an accreditation scheme which also looks at the delivery and assessment processes of a course. At present, BACP has no facility for accrediting shorter counselling skills courses.

Course accreditation criteria

Courses are asked not to include in any publicity material the fact that they intend to apply or even that they have actually applied for Accreditation. Such advertising can be misleading and bring disappointment to students and embarrassment to trainers when student hopes have been raised inappropriately, as occasionally applications are withdrawn, rejected or encounter delays while conditions are met. There is no set timescale for the Course Accreditation procedure. BACP cannot comment on courses intending to apply or those in the process.

The relationship between counsellor training courses and individual accreditation

Those BACP members applying for accreditation who have completed an Accredited Course after the date of Accreditation are deemed to have fulfilled the training requirements for accreditation. They would still be expected to demonstrate that all other criteria are being met.

It is not necessary, however, to have undertaken an Accredited Course in order to apply for Individual Accreditation.

Any successfully completed counsellor training undertaken may count towards the requirement of 450 hours of formal training in counselling, but the training would need to include a requirement for supervised practice. These hours need not have been all on one course but the applicant will be expected to have completed a course which is substantial enough to be regarded as a ’core training’.

Courses occasionally include in their publicity material a reference to BACP individual accreditation (written in many formats) which implies some formal link with BACP and/or automatic acceptance of the course towards the training criterion of the individual accreditation scheme. Please note that these statements can be misleading as all successfully completed courses, other than accredited courses, have the same status in that they can be counted towards an accreditation application but will be assessed as part of the completed submission.

Distance learning

Distance learning courses done by correspondence can provide a useful introduction to counselling theory. However it is unlikely that such courses would count towards the training requirements of the BACP accreditation scheme as there would be little, if any, formal contact between the tutor and student.

Other validation schemes

Apart from the BACP Accreditation of Courses Scheme there are a number of bodies which validate courses, such as AQA, EDEXCEL, RSPH and others. Although there are standards laid down for them, the teaching can be quite variable. For the teaching of counselling skills, the ability of the trainer is very important. Some training institutions award internal certificates which are only certificates of attendance. Students are well advised to check the value of any certificates offered.

In general, where a course offered is not BACP accredited, it is wise to talk to the course tutor to ascertain to which professional body and code of ethics they adhere and to discuss the content of the course. It is also important to be satisfied as to the experience, training and qualifications of the tutor.

Europe

Regarding the potential for working in the European Community, any Europe-wide acceptance of qualifications will be based on mutual recognition of national qualifications of the member states.

Entry requirements

It is becoming more common for organisations to require students to have completed a specific foundation or introductory course before embarking on their more advanced training, even if such courses have already been completed with another institution. Students should enquire about this before choosing their training programme.

Many of the more advanced counsellor training courses have a lower age limit of either 21 or even 25 years of age. This is because counselling is one of the few professions in which being older is positively beneficial because with age comes experience and greater life skills. A few courses also have an upper age limit although this is less common.

The majority of courses are part-time. There are a few full-time counselling courses and these tend to be for professionals such as teachers, social workers and ministers who may gain secondment from their employer if they will be using newly acquired skills in their post afterwards. There are many more part-time, substantial certificate or diploma courses which often require the applicant to have a degree, other professional training or experience in a related field. Courses range from shorter counselling skills courses for those with little or no experience of counselling, up to PhD level.

Placements

It is essential that full counsellor training courses include a substantial amount of supervised counselling practice with real clients. It is not appropriate for inexperienced students to gain their client work experience by finding and seeing clients independently in private practice. Students, therefore, will normally need a placement with a counselling service. For some courses, access to a placement will be a pre-requisite for admission; in others it may be negotiated during the course.

Placements are in considerable demand and can be very difficult to find. It can be tempting, therefore, to accept a less than ideal situation; this can result in an unsafe experience for both clients and students. Information on what makes for best practice is available in the Training in Counselling and Psychotherapy Directory and general guidelines may be found in Accreditation of Training Courses.

For the benefit of student members, BACP has developed a database of trainee placements. This is accessible to BACP members in the Members area of the website (students studying on the sort of substantial training which requires a supervised placement are eligible for student membership). Information sheet T3, Guidelines for trainee placements, can also be accessed in the Members area of the website.

First steps

If you have little experience in counselling, it would be advisable to do a short ’taster’ course in the first instance to find out whether counselling is a career for you or not. Counselling training requires self-examination which can cause some difficult feelings and students may be unwilling to confront them. It is therefore better to undertake such a short course to ensure that a longer and more expensive counselling training is going to be suitable.

Counselling skills courses are also suitable for people wishing to apply such skills in their present post, but who are not necessarily seeking a change in career direction. Many employers are now recognising the value of such skills in the workplace.

Specialist training

Specialist counselling courses such as those dealing with alcohol, drugs, AIDS, bereavement, cancer, child abuse, etc, are offered by several institutions. These courses are mainly for those already working in the relevant field or for those wishing to add a specialisation to a general training in counselling. It is more usual to complete a substantial counselling training followed by a specialisation.

With the increasing demand for counselling of a high standard, many counsellors take further training pertinent to their chosen area of work, eg. in General Practice or the workplace.

Details of the full range of courses are given in the BACP Training in Counselling and Psychotherapy Directory, together with a wealth of general information regarding funding, distance learning, how to identify the best courses for particular needs, etc.

It may be more appropriate to arrange specialist in-house training for a group of employees or volunteers rather than sending them on a set course. There are many trainers who are willing to design and present workshops and short courses specific to the needs of the organisation. Such trainers are listed in the Counselling and Psychotherapy Resources Directory.