FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
COUNSELLING SKILLS AND COUNSELLING
What are counselling skills?
Counselling skills help another person to get a better understanding of difficult issues they may be experiencing in their personal life and relationships. A person using counselling skills, as opposed to a counsellor, is called a helper and the person they are helping is the helpee. The helper uses specific skills such as active listening, including verbal and non-verbal communication in response to the helpee in an accepting and non-judging way. The helper also reflects what the helpee communicates verbally and non-verbally, through supportive and open questions, paraphrasing and summarising.
At South Coast Wellbeing and Training our widely experienced team of tutors enable the trainees to develop confidence and experience in communicating counselling skills in whatever area they are seeking to use them in.
Do I have to commit to a career in counselling to study counselling skills?
Many of those who engage in counselling skills courses do so to start a career in counselling but not everyone does or has to make this commitment.
Counselling skills may be used widely for helping and supporting others. A few areas where the helper may use counselling skills include, teaching, caring services such as nursing, care work and support work as well as other areas of advice giving and individual and family support.
Do South Coast Wellbeing and Training offer counselling skills and counselling training in places other than Eastbourne?
At present South Coast Wellbeing and Training is only sited in Eastbourne in East Sussex though the Centre is readily accessible by train and bus services.
What is Counselling and how is it different from counselling skills?
Counsellors use counselling skills as the basis for building and maintaining therapeutic relationships with their clients through empathy, unconditional acceptance, and congruence. Additionally, the counsellor may work with the client to develop ways of being and strategies for coping and managing the issues they bring to counselling by bringing the expertise they gain in counselling training into the counselling relationship.
Counselling skills may be used in different settings and in different relationships in an often informal or one-off way. Counselling however is a more formal planned relationship between the counsellor and the client. The counselling relationship will be for a specific period determined either by the client and counsellor, or by the organisation the counsellor may work for.
Counselling is a profession that is based on professional, ethical, and moral standards and principles that the counsellor in training develops throughout their training period. Counsellors in training can develop a high level of self-awareness, self-understanding and self-compassion to be able to hold clients in whatever state of psychological, emotional, or bodily distress they may be experiencing. The trainee counsellor will also gain an understanding of a wide range of counselling theory and how this may be applied to counselling work.
In counselling training at South Coast Wellbeing and Training there is a focus on personal development and the building of resilience and self-confidence of the counsellor in training. This is essential in order to be able to provide a safe therapeutic space for clients.
How do I move on to a career in counselling from counselling skills training with South Coast Wellbeing and Training?
Completing Levels 2 and 3 successfully, you will gain 150 hours of counselling skills experience which will enable you to apply for the Central Counselling and Psychotherapy Awarding Body (CPCAB) Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling. This is a two-year program leading to counselling qualification. The tutor team at South Coast Wellbeing and Training have many years’ experience of guiding counsellors in training to a successful career in counselling post qualification.
Does the Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling allow me to work as a counsellor?
The Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling meets the requirements the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) for qualification as a counsellor and registration with the BACP as a counsellor and for work in many counselling organisations.
Both CPCAB and BACP strongly advise that successful candidates from the Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling course commit to the one-year Level 5 Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling as this program will best prepare them for more complicated mental health work, for example, in the NHS and private practice.
Do I need any specific qualifications to start counselling training with South Coast Wellbeing and Training?
South Coast Wellbeing and Training is an approved Centre for CPCAB which is the main counselling awarding body in the UK.
Stating out on the road to CPCAB counselling qualification you will need to gain the Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills and the Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Studies. You do not need any specific qualifications for counselling skills training though you would be expected to have a good grasp of the English Language.
I have qualifications in a non-counselling area that included counselling training, will I be able to count any of this against the CPCAB Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling?
You may be able to count previous counselling skills training against some of your required counselling skills training hours to begin your counselling career with South Coast Wellbeing and Training if it is considered applicable and made up a considerable body of the previous learning.
Are phone and online helping and counselling included in your training?
Phone and online counselling are being increasingly used by counsellors and this is a different form of counselling which requires recognised training.
Those engaged in training at counselling skills level at South Coast Wellbeing and Training are advised not to extend any helping relationship they have to phone or online contact because of the limitations of the helping relationship.
For counsellors in training with South Coast Wellbeing and Training there will be an Introduction to phone and online counselling as well as information on approved courses approved by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) for phone and online counselling.