Gill Jackman -- Counsellor: About counselling

ABOUT COUNSELLING

Tenniel illustration of the heroine of Alice in Wonderland used on the About Counselling page of Gill Jackman, a counsellor working in the Chew Valley, North Somerset

In recent years, the term 'counselling' has become over-used, so that an enormous range of people are calling themselves counsellors. It doesn't help that the term 'psychotherapist' is used interchangeably with 'counsellor.' The truth is that both may have extensive training and experience. And they may not...

Because there are so many different educational establishments cashing in on the booming counselling industry, establishing precisely what someone has done is very difficult. I have personally seen some serious misrepresentation by high profile advertisers. Many people today are offering NLP and CBT as 'quick fixes' and, indeed, it's not difficult to learn how to apply CBT, but if you're looking for deep change, this is unlikely to provide it. (This recent Guardian article provides a useful critique of CBT and a look at its place in the current political climate.)

The main professional bodies are UKCP (UK Council for Psychotherapy) and BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.) If someone is on the register of the UKCP, that means they have extensive training and experience, but membership of the BACP may only mean a minimum level of training. Accredited BACP membership is different and guarantees that they have far more extensive training and certainly some experience. However, none of this guarantees that people who haven't joined these organisations are charlatans. They may just have chosen not to join. It is not (yet) a statutory requirement to do so.

So how do you check someone's competence?

Before you choose someone, ask:

How much training have you done? And where? (There is a world of difference between a correspondence course/ weekend course in reiki with a few counselling skills chucked in and a BACP or UKCP recognised post-grad. diploma or MSc.)
How many hours of counselling/psychotherapy have you provided and do you work to BACP guidelines? (Or how many years experience?)
Have you had your own psychotherapy and was it long term? (Many people consider this to be extremely important. Others do not.)

If your counsellor refuses to answer these questions, choose another counsellor.

Whatever someone's training or qualifications, here's my attempt to define what you have a right to expect.

In the simplest terms, both counselling and psychotherapy involve a special kind of conversation. As a client, you make a strong commitment to meet with your counsellor at a regular place and time, usually one hour a week. For professional reasons, depending on your counsellor's way of working, the times you commit to will be more or less rigid. At each of these sessions, your counsellor will give you his or her complete attention.

For many people, the simple fact of being listened to is valuable in itself, especially when they know that the ethical guidelines of the profession guarantee their confidentiality. Your counsellor is likely to run through her or his commitment to this, so that you know where you are from the very beginning. BACP guidelines can be found at http://www.bacp.co.uk. Anyone who does not adhere to them isn't worth talking to and could certainly do damage.

Still -- talking to a counsellor is different from talking to a friend, because counselling goes further. Counsellors believe that people hold within themselves the solutions to their own most intractable problems. By providing space and encouragement and sometimes offering deeper insight, the counsellor enables the client to discover themselves and their own needs and solutions to their difficulties.

In my work, I've helped clients in their struggles with childhood abuse, bereavement, separation, depression, anger, self-harm, eating disorders, the problems of parenthood, and the experience of terminal illness.

FURTHER READING
Deeper In [260k] is a longer account of the origins of counselling.