Media coverage: 2 December 2004
A troubled past, a bright future
Have you overcome difficulties in your life? Then a rewarding career as a psychotherapist could beckon, says Tim Walker.
There's an old psychotherapists' joke that goes: What's the difference between a counsellor and a psychotherapist? The answer: About twenty-five quid a week.
Nobody enters the profession expecting to make their fortune; the starting salary for a psychotherapist in the NHS is around £17,000. But the work more than makes up for its lack of financial incentive with more lasting, personal rewards.
Counsellors and psychotherapists deal with individuals, children, couples, families and groups facing myriad problems. Their treatment helps patients overcome depression, addiction, alcoholism, eating disorders and obsessive behaviour among others. One of the most important qualifications a counsellor should have is life experience of their own. As Phillip Hodson, fellow of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), says: "It's no good becoming a counsellor if you're 21 years old - you simply don't have the personal experience."
The vast majority of counsellors and psychotherapists take up the profession as a second career or even as an additional career. Hodson himself works half the week as a spokesman for the BACP and half the week as a psychotherapist. Most counsellors and psychotherapists spend 20 and 25 hours a week with clients.
As yet, there is no formal legal regulation of the so-called "talking therapies". As a result, any old cowboy can claim to be a counsellor. What they can't do, however, is become accredited by a major counselling and psychotherapy organisation like the BACP. Unlike the BACP, the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) requires its members to hold a degree before beginning their training. Both organisations hold their members to high standards during and after training. Nowadays there is a huge range of places to train in psychotherapy and counselling - from independent training organisations to university and college courses. After becoming a member of the BACP or a similar group, aspiring practitioners must spend a minimum of 950 hours in training and practice before they achieve accreditation, at least 450 of which are supervised practice hours.
The process takes between three and five years. Once accredited, all counsellors and psychotherapists remain under close supervision and their accreditation is annually renewable. There are ethical codes beyond client confidentiality. For a start, counsellors and therapists need lives of their own. A struggle with alcoholism or a difficult marriage in your past may be an ideal qualification, but complications in your current life can have an adverse affect. Practitioners also need to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to professional development -that means continuing study and visiting conferences.
It's a boom industry: the BACP's ranks have increased by 167 per cent in the last twelve years, swelling to over 23,000 members. Over 60 per cent of GP practices now offer counselling on the NHS, and public sector counsellors operate under the aegis of primary care trusts, hospitals and social services. Most counsellors and psychotherapists also run private practices from home. One area crying out for trained counsellors is child psychotherapy. Something like 2.5 million children in the UK suffer from psychological disorders, explains Professor Monika J Jephcott, IBECPT, Chief Executive of the Academy of Play and Child Psychotherapy. Ideally; there should be 10,000 specialist child psychotherapists to treat them. There are less than 1,000.
Accredited psychotherapists need to specialise in one of the three broadly de- fined therapeutic disciplines, and to have a working knowledge of at least one of the other two. The classic, couch-based "Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Counselling" takes its lead from Freud, Jung and their acolytes, and involves delving into a patient's childhood to discover the source of their present neuroses; "Cognitive Behavioural Therapy" deals more directly with the problems in hand - for instance phobias, eating disorders or depression and in behavioural ways of overcoming them; finally; "Person Centered Counselling" fulfils the modern stereotype, offering the patient a safe psychological space to be themselves.
The psychotherapist's discipline depends on their personality and personal skills. Counsellors and psychotherapists need to be articulate, confident and, of course, good at listening. As Phillip Hodson says: "The quality of a therapist's personality is crucial to their success as at therapist. The moment you make that breakthrough is incredibly rewarding."
Extract Source: The Independent, 2 December 2004