How to Become a Counselling Psychologist

Elaine Kasket

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138948211
• eBook ISBN: 9781317364818
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Applied Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Counselling psychologists can play a fundamental and inspiring role in people's lives. Their aim is to address a range of psychological and emotional issues, helping people to live more skilful, effective, and meaningful lives. But how do you qualify, and what is being a counselling psychologist really like?

How to Become a Counselling Psychologist is the first book to provide a clear, practical guide to the pathway to qualifying as a counselling psychologist. Written by an experienced practitioner, and incorporating testimonials from trainees, trainers, and qualified counselling psychologists, it explains every step of the journey, including advice on a suitable degree course, making the most of a training placement, how to prepare for the job interview, and the challenges of making the transition from training to qualification.

Written for anyone from current students to those interested in a change of career, How to Become a Counselling Psychologist is an indispensable guide for anyone interested in this rich and varied branch of psychology.

p.1

1	Introduction David Murphy – Series Editor

 

Welcome!

First, I would like to welcome you to this book, which is one of a series of seven titles, each of which focuses on a different type of practitioner psychologist registered as a professional in the UK. One of the things that has always appealed to me about psychology is its incredible diversity; even within my own primary field of clinical psychology there is a huge range of client groups and ways of working. The books in this series are all written by practitioner psychologists who are not only experts in, but hugely enthusiastic about, each of their areas of practice. This series presents a fascinating insight into the nature of each domain and the range of activities and approaches within it, and also the fantastic variety there is across the different areas of practice. However, we have also made sure that we have answered the practical questions you may have such as “How long does it take to train?”, “What do I need to do to get on a training course?” and “How secure will my income be at the end of it all?” We very much hope that this book will be interesting and answer all your questions (even ones you didn’t know you had!) and further information and resources are available on our series website (www.routledge.com/cw/howtobecomeapractitionerpsychologist).

Psychology as a profession

Psychology is still a relatively young profession compared to many long-established professions such as law, medicine, accounting, etc., however it has grown incredibly rapidly over the last few decades. One of the first people to use the title “Psychologist” in a professional context was Lightner Witmer who established what is widely recognised as the world’s first psychology clinic in 1896 in Pennsylvania. Witmer came to study psychology after a degree in Economics and postgraduate studies in political science and then working for a time as a school teacher. He went on to study experimental psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and then at a famous laboratory in Germany. Witmer went on to pioneer the application of experimental psychology ideas to the treatment of children with specific learning and speech difficulties.

p.2

At the beginning of the twentieth century, these early psychologists saw great possibilities in applying psychological concepts to help people achieve their potential. However, even they could scarcely imagine the scale and range of applications of psychology that would exist by the beginning of the twenty-first century. Psychologists now have well-established roles in schools, mental and physical health services, prisons, police and security services, multi-national companies, sport training centres; essentially almost anywhere where there is a focus on understanding and changing human behaviour, which is, of course, pretty much everywhere!

This book is, along with the other six titles in the series, intended to provide people who are at the beginning of their careers, or those who are thinking about making a change, an insight into the different areas of professional psychology. We hope that you will not only gain an overview of what the specific domain of psychology entails, but also a sense of what it is like to work as a practitioner on a day-to-day basis. We also aim to explain how to become qualified to practice in the area of professional psychology, right from school until being fully qualified. Furthermore, we hope to provide an idea of how careers in the different areas of psychology can develop over time and how the profession of psychology might change as it continues to develop in the future.

Studying psychology at school or college

One thing that many people love about psychology is just how broad it is. As an academic discipline it encompasses physiological workings of the brain and the nervous system, how we perceive sounds and language, how we make decisions and the treatment of mental health problems, to name just a few areas. In recent years psychology has become the second most popular degree subject at UK universities – indeed a total of 72,000 students were studying, either full-time or part-time, for a first degree in psychology in the academic year 2014–15.

p.3

Psychology has become not only a popular A-level choice but also increasingly an option at GCSE level. It is now possible, therefore, to take the first step on a career journey in psychology at an early age, and, if you are considering A-levels or GCSE subjects, we would certainly encourage you to look at psychology options if they are offered at your school. However, it is by no means required to have studied psychology at GCSE or A-level to follow a career in psychology. If you have already taken other subjects, or psychology isn’t offered at your school, or you have decided to go for other subjects, this won’t stop you going on to become a psychologist, if you decide that this is what you would like to do. Furthermore, contrary to some myths, psychology is considered a valid A-level choice for many other degrees apart from psychology; indeed it is listed as a “preferred subject” by University College London in their general list of A-level subject choices: see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/application/requirements/preferred-a-level-subjects

The only GCSE subjects that are specifically required by UK universities to study psychology are maths and English. A-level psychology is usually listed as a “preferred” subject but is currently not required by any UK university for entry to a psychology course, and there is no indication that this will change. Therefore, overall our advice would be that psychology is an interesting subject choice which can provide a good foundation for further study in psychology, or other subjects. However, psychology at A-level is by no means essential for a career as a psychologist, so we recommend basing the decision on what your strengths and interests are and also what subjects are required for any other degree options you want to keep open to you.

Studying psychology at university

The first compulsory step on the road to a psychology career is attaining “Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership” of the British Psychological Society, commonly known as “GBC” (in the past this was called “Graduate Basis for Registration” or “GBR” for short). You will see this referred to a number of times in this book and the other titles in the series. The British Psychological Society (BPS) is the professional body and learned society for psychology in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1901 to promote both academic and applied psychology and currently has over 50,000 members, making it one of the largest psychological societies in the world. There are two possible routes to attaining Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society on the basis of UK qualifications.

p.4

The most common route is to complete an undergraduate degree in psychology that is accredited by the BPS; a lower second class degree classification or above is required. This doesn’t need to be a single honours degree in psychology; it can be a joint degree with another subject. However, in order to be accredited it has to cover a core curriculum that is specified by the BPS, and the provision must meet certain standards. At the time of writing there are over 950 BPS-accredited courses offered at over 125 different higher education institutions within the UK. Many of these courses are general psychology degrees; however, some focus more on specific domains such as forensic psychobiology, health psychology, abnormal psychology, sport psychology, business psychology, and so forth. Many are offered as psychology combined with another subject, and the array of possible options is extensive, including business, English literature, education, maths, history, philosophy, physics, zoology, and criminology, to name but a few. This range of choice could be a little bit overwhelming, but it is important to bear in mind that virtually all psychology degrees do offer a significant choice of options within them, so two students doing the same generic psychology degree at the same institution may actually take quite a different mix of courses, albeit still with the same core psychology components. Moreover, it is also important to remember that even if the title of a degree appears very specific, the course will still cover the same core psychology content.

For a career in professional psychology, the most important issue is attaining GBC. The subtle differences in the individual course content are far less important. Our advice would be to consider all the factors that are important to you about the choice of university and the psychology course rather than getting too focused on the specific content of a course. You may wish to do a degree that allows you to specialise in the area of psychology that you are particularly interested in, and of course that’s fine. However, in reality, all postgraduate professional training courses need to cater for people with a range of different psychology backgrounds, so whilst having completed specialised options at undergraduate level might provide a good foundation to build on, it is very unlikely to mean that you can jump ahead of those who didn’t do those options at undergraduate level.

p.5

My own experience was that I did a joint degree with psychology and zoology (I wasn’t really sure what psychology was when I was choosing, so I hedged my bets!). Fairly early on I became interested in clinical psychology but I still got a great deal out of studying other subjects that weren’t anything to do with clinical psychology, including many of the zoology subjects. In my final year, I did an option in vertebrate paleontology (better known as the study of dinosaurs!), mainly because it sounded interesting. In fact, it turned out to be one of the most stimulating and useful courses I have ever studied, and the lecturer was one of the best teachers I have ever come across. I learned how to interpret inconclusive evidence by using careful observation and deduction rather than jumping to conclusions, and that generic skill has been very useful through my clinical psychology career. So my personal advice would be not to feel under any pressure to specialise in a particular branch of psychology too soon. I suggest you choose degree options because they are stimulating and well taught, not because you think they will look good on your CV. In reality, if you are applying for professional psychology training courses, what will stand out more on your CV will be really good grades which come from being really engaged and developing a thorough understanding of the areas you are studying.

Some psychology programmes offer a “professional placement year” within the degree. Such courses are often marketed on the basis that graduates have a higher employment rate on graduation. It is important to bear in mind, however, that you will also be graduating a year later than people on a three-year course, and during the placement year most people will be receiving little or no pay and still paying fees (albeit at a reduced rate) to the university. My own personal opinion is that degrees with professional placements don’t necessarily offer an advantage overall. On the one hand, if a course does offer well-established placement opportunities, this can make it easier to get that first step on the ladder; however, there are many opportunities for getting postgraduate experience relevant to professional psychology, some of which are voluntary but many of which are paid.

p.6

The other main route to GBC is designed for people who have done first degrees in subjects other than psychology, and enables them to attain GBC by doing a conversion course. At the time of writing there were 67 BPS accredited conversion courses in the UK. Most of these lead to an MSc, although some lead to a graduate diploma; some are general in their content and are titled simply “Psychology” or “Applied psychology”, whereas others are more focused on specific areas like child development, mental health or even fashion. However, if they are BPS accredited all of these courses will still cover the core psychology curriculum, regardless of their title.

Since the core components are common between all BPS-accredited degree programmes, you certainly will not be committing yourself irrevocably to any one area of professional psychology through your choice of psychology undergraduate or postgraduate conversion course. In the clinical psychology programme that I run, we take people who have a range of different experiences at undergraduate level, and some who did different degrees altogether. Of course, when you come to postgraduate qualifications, you do have to make more fundamental choices about the area of psychology you wish to focus on.

The different areas of psychology practice

The authors of each of the seven books in the series are, as you would expect, experts in, and enthusiastic about, their own area of psychology practice, and the rest of this book will focus pretty much exclusively on this specific area. Our aim across the series is to provide information about what each domain is about, what it is like to work in this area on a day-to-day basis, and what the route to becoming qualified is like. What we have not done, and indeed could not do, is say which one of the domains is “best” for you. The answer is that there is no one “best” type of psychologist. Instead, we hope you will be able to find the area of practice that seems to fit your own interests and strengths best. This can be difficult, and we would encourage you to keep an open mind for as long as you can; you might be surprised to find that an area you hadn’t really thought much about seems to be a good fit.

p.7

Once you have identified an area of practice that seems to fit you best, we would certainly recommend that you try and meet people who work in that area and talk to them personally. Even after you have embarked on postgraduate training in a particular field, don’t feel it is too late to explore other areas. Indeed, there are areas of overlap between the different domains, and psychologists with different training backgrounds might well end up working in a similar area. For instance clinical and counselling psychologists often work together in psychological therapy services in the NHS, whereas health psychologists and occupational psychologists might work alongside each other in implementing employee health programmes.

My own journey in professional psychology started with my degree in psychology and zoology, as mentioned earlier, and led onto postgraduate training in clinical psychology and then working in the National Health Service. However, my journey also included going on to be registered as a health psychologist and a clinical neuropsychologist, and I went on to do management training and became a senior manager in the NHS before moving into clinical psychology training and research in leadership development. Over the years, I have worked alongside colleagues from all of the domains at various times, particularly through roles with the British Psychological Society. I have been fascinated to learn even more about other domains through editing this series and, of course, as psychology is still such a young and dynamic field, new developments and new fields continue to emerge. I would, therefore, encourage you to think carefully about your career direction, but regardless of whether your psychology “career” lasts just for the duration of this book or the rest of your life, I would encourage you to maintain an open and curious mind. In the words of one of my favourite sayings, “It is better to travel well than to arrive.” We hope this book, and the others in the series, will be of help to you, wherever your own unique career journey takes you!

p.8

2	What does a counselling psychologist do?

If you have picked up this book, you must be curious about what a counselling psychologist is, and you may even already be contemplating a career in this profession. You are not alone! Since the British Psychological Society (BPS) launched the Division of Counselling Psychology in 1994, the numbers of trainee and qualified counselling psychologists have grown steadily, showing that a career in counselling psychology is an attractive option for many aspirant practitioner psychologists in the United Kingdom. Statistics kept by the Division chart how interest in the field has risen, with a 25% increase in trainees between 2009 and 2015. Qualified counselling psychologists are now the third most common type of practitioner psychologist in the UK; as of September 2015, there were 2,012 counselling psychologists registered in the country. Increasing awareness of the profession and burgeoning employment opportunities mean that ever-more people are applying for training, either through one of the university-based professional doctorates in counselling psychology scattered around the UK, or via the BPS’ Qualification in Counselling Psychology (QCoP).

This title in the How to Become series is dedicated to the rich and varied field of counselling psychology, and this chapter will help you think through whether this particular branch of applied psychology might be right for you.

Who is this book for?

I hope this book will be useful to people at many different phases in their lives or careers. You may, for example, be an A-level student, thinking about your...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• How to Become a Counselling Psychologist
• How to Become a Practitioner Psychologist
• Title
• Copright
• Dedication
• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 What Does a Counselling Psychologist Do?
• 3 The Next Step: Equipping Yourself for Professional Training
• 4 Becoming a Trainee
• 5 Starting Out
• 6 Career Possibilities
• Appendix: Useful Information
• Bibliography
• Index