Making the decision to go for counselling
You may say to yourself: I’m sure other people have more serious issues than me. I’m not even sure my problems are significant enough for counselling. I’m not even convinced what feels difficult or the reasons I am looking for counselling are reasonable. No two people are the same. The idea that one person’s problems are not as important as other people’s is a very common one. If an issue feels important enough to consider counselling, then it doesn’t matter how big or small you may feel it looks through others’ eyes
How to find the right counsellor for me?
Going through the many options for counselling and psychotherapy is not easy! While there is no magic equation for finding the right person for you, there are some important things to think about.
How are counsellors regulated?
Counselling isn’t a government regulated profession, which means the title of ‘counsellor’ is not protected by law. Even a person with minimal training can call themselves a counsellor.
Difference between registration and accreditation
Registration does not replace accreditation. All practising BACP members must be registered or working towards registration. See Registered membership. Accreditation is a quality standard for experienced practitioners, designed to recognise your capacity for independent, ethical and competent practice.
How important is BACP accreditation?
BACP accreditation schemes aim to recognise the achievement of high standards of knowledge, experience and development in counselling and psychotherapy. They help clients, employers, practitioners and students to make an informed decision when choosing a therapist, service or training course. If they are accredited that gives you the security they had more number hours of experience and had to go through an accreditation process the BACP and the UKCP are the most used by counsellors and psychotherapists. Both organisations have directories of their members on their websites. Both the BACP and UKCP offer the ability to search by modality (the different ways of working), and there’s a handy guide to different modalities on the BACP website. A BACP accredited member is an experienced practitioner who has:
a high standard of core training meeting substantial, specific BACP requirements for advanced practice accumulated 450 or more fully supervised clinical practice hours, of which a third are post qualifying at least three years of clinical practice supervision for a minimum of 1.5 hours per month while in practice
If you’re looking for a therapist, you can feel assured that accredited members have met high standards of practice and are accountable to our accreditation standards.
Do you feel a connection to the person you want to work with?
Most of counsellors offer an initial free consultation, this is a good opportunity to make sure you can feel comfortable with the counsellor, feel if is the right person for you. As research are shown that despite the approach of the therapist it is in quality of the relationship the work happens.
How do you want to work?
In person, over video calls, on the phone, through instant messaging: therapy is delivered in all sorts of ways.
Still not sure how to pick a counsellor?
The BBC have a great seven-minute video on choosing the right therapist for you that is also worth a watch:
