originally posted 11th May 2006

Entry for 11 May 2006

I thought I'd put on this picture of my childhood home. A lovely detached bungalow. I took this picture in the 70's when I still lived there. It must have been this time of year with all the blossom on the tree. There are a lot of memories.....

Just finished week 4 on the college course. Almost half way now and I've done my journal homework. It feels like it is getting easier each week. I think I would have been worthy of bypassing this level one course. I'm finding it relatively easy to do. Thats ok, but I guess my impatience plays a part. It means that I'll have to wait a whole year to start the year long level three.

I still haven't managed to get out to do the gardening yet. Seems like this will happen on Saturday 'cos my daughter Dawn is threatening to help me do it. As usual, the PC is still too much of a distraction.

Comments

(4 total)

Don't be put off by the fact that you cannot start the level three course yet. It may be that you could start a Diploma course without having any of the counselling stuff at all.
It was not a prerequisite for my course, indeed there are some who have not got any counselling skills quals at all on my course. They have attended other workshops (Gestalt) or done other training before this Diploma course. However you might find that private training providers are much more expensive than FE colleges. I suggest that you have a look around at the Diploma courses on offer both locally and further afield see what they expect of you. You can also train with Relate and with a charity called Place2Be which trains counsellors to work with children in schools. I think they operate in your neck of the woods - sadly not in mine. Otherwise if you are keen to follow your route then I suggest you look around for short coureses to attend in the meanwhile. There is nothing more frustrating than wanting to learn this stuff and finding no outlet. The more shortcourses you get under your belt, the greater your experience and will be a suitable candidate for moving straight onto counselling work.

I'm not surprised you are finding it all a bit easy. You have so much experience already.

Thursday 11 May 2006 - 10:46PM (BST)

Thanks for the advice Steph. I will take a look. A work colleague of mine is doing the diploma route at Canterbury Uni right now. I'll take a look at the other places you mentioned too. As is happens, I was thinking of doing a short Psycology course in January which I think my local college is running.
Our usual tutor was not there yesterday, so the lady who does level 3 & 4 filled in. She introduced us to the core conditions (the terminology used) and said that it was really level 3 stuff. Well.... having thoroughly read the books you sent me I had a good grasp of what she was on about anyway. Thats what made me think I need to be futher on. I'm also thinking about asking if I could bypass level 2 and go into level 3

Friday 12 May 2006 - 09:21AM (BST)

I think you will find that as long as you go the route of CPCAB you will find they expect you to have completed the previous step before going on to the next. Its written down in the blurb that goes with all the criteria stuff you get at the beginning of the course. I understand entirely how frustrating it is to have to wait to do what you really want been there and done that! That is why I am impatient for this course to get off the ground and do "real" work - we seem to be playing patacake in group at present - and that is my judgement only! And do remember that with Diploma courses also comes the cost of personal therapy which you are expected to have right through the course - that can be as much as £45.00 per hour or more and when that is weekly it is expensive. ON top of that you also have to pay for supervision - which has to be of the kind which suits your course ie person centred\gestalt\TA if you are on a person centred course or gestalt if on a gestalt course etc - its the same for therapy.
All in all as trainee counsellors we pay out a great deal to go through a lot of heartache and painful learning in order to the work we feel drawn to. Its not cheap or easy and it is very fulfilling. I wish there was govt funding to help - but there isn't.