Trainee Counsellors/Students Studying Counselling

Most Colleges and Universities require their counselling students to undergo a certain amount of personal therapy. Over the past few years, I’ve had a lot of experience of working with trainee counsellors and I really like working with this client group. The number of sessions required are often dictated by course criteria and personal therapy is usually mandatory. I myself had to attend 40 hours (I think I slightly exceeded this number) but some students do 70+ or as little as 10 sessions. My only regret looking back was that I might have split the sessions between two different therapists/modalities but I reasoned at the time that I had built up the therapeutic alliance with my therapist so why would I start over with someone new.

Counselling courses are often quite emotional journeys, and the nature of the discussions (our biases, values and beliefs) can cause conflict. The topics being studied, exercises that we take part in, group process, group supervision, general group dynamics, and also the client work once in placement can have a real impact on students. It can trigger our own personal issues, things we thought we’d dealt with, maybe things we’d buried a long time ago which start to resurface.

Thinking back to my own cohort there were some that were against it and really didn’t see the need (‘a waste of time and money’). Others, like myself, were happy to attend and sort through any past issues, see what transpired, explore what came up for us, as well as having valuable here and now support with the pressure cooker that we found ourselves in. At that time, I was trying to juggle a young family, night school, placement and stay on top of all the academic requirements too, not to mention the emotional impact of the course. I would have found it strange to sit with clients in the therapy room if I’d had no experience of being a client myself.

 Photo by Antoni Shkraba

Client in a counselling session with their therapist.

It’s a privilege to be able to help my peers with their counselling journey. It’s not an easy road for some (they may be avoidant or find it hard to open up). Sometimes people are very proactive and can’t wait to discover more about themselves. I believe that we can all benefit from knowing ourselves better (trainee or otherwise). For some a handful of sessions are sufficient but for others (especially those who find it hard to trust or share their issues or those who had a difficult childhood for example) 10 sessions wouldn’t scratch the surface.

As with any client who feels they have been sent to therapy (‘the doctor told me I should come’, or ‘my wife wants me to have counselling’) there isn’t always a positive outcome. If it’s not fully a person’s decision to be there then this will ultimately affect the dynamics, the therapeutic relationship and the outcome. I try and bear this in mind and work with these issues of conforming, box ticking, being dictated to. J. Edwards (2018) carried out a study which found both positives and negatives around counselling students having mandatory therapy (Counseling and Psychology Student Experiences of Personal Therapy: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis).

Following this career path isn’t always easy. Now more than ever the ‘market’ seems to be saturated, the number of courses has increased a lot in recent years, and it seems to be harder to get counselling jobs and placements, but I’ve found it to be a rewarding career. Where possible I try to offer all students a reduced fee as I understand the financial commitment involved. Counselling can be a healing and empowering process if you are open to it.

Comfy chairs in a therapy room.