Personal Therapy For Trainee Counsellors

1662 Words7 Pages
“All these personal counselling/therapy requirements for counsellors in training encourage selfish introspection. Counsellors are there to help others, and if they need counselling themselves, they should not be in the job.” Discuss with reference to your own experience and beliefs and to counselling literature. This statement is a criticism of the demand made by many training providers for their students to enter into personal therapy during their period of training. It also questions the suitability of practicing counsellors who have a need to attend therapy themselves. This essay will identify the past and current requirements for personal therapy during training of the largest British accrediting organisation for counselling and psychotherapy. It will also identify the requirements of some of the training courses, both accredited and non accredited, available locally. The opinions of acclaimed authors of counselling literature, with respect to personal therapy both during training and when practicing, will be investigated. My own viewpoint will be given as informed by personal experience and beliefs. Accreditation by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) is generally considered to be the gold standard for training courses in counselling and psychotherapy. In October 1998, following consultation and a review, mandatory forty hours of personal therapy or the equivalent for trainees was introduced as a requirement for accreditation. This policy was subsequently changed in May 2005 in favour of a requirement to provide evidence of personal development. (www.bacp.co.uk) Letters to the Editor of the association’s own publication “Counselling,” following the introduction of the condition, are evidence of the strong feelings of some of the membership including such respected authorities as Professors Dave Mearns, Windy
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