Do you dream of having a career in which you can make a difference in the lives of people within your community? Are you sensitive, thoughtful and an attentive listener? If so, counselling might just be the perfect profession for you. A counsellor’s job is to work each day to equip clients with the necessary emotional tools to help them make positive changes in their lives, and is a greatly flexible and fulfilling line of work. Because the field is so in demand, with many people with mental and emotional issues struggling to get their needs met, there’s never a bad time to train as a counsellor.
Whether it’s your lifelong ambition to get into a counselling career, or you’re looking to retrain in a new sector, Key Counselling Training can help. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at the counselling profession to help you decide whether it’s the right fit for you, and explore the CPD training courses we have on offer.
Why Should I Become a Counsellor?
Counselling presents workers with the unique opportunity to impact the life of another person in a positive and meaningful way, but there’s also much more to it than that. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should consider a career in counselling.
1. Plenty of Opportunities Available
Counselling is a vast field with many niches. As a counsellor, you may choose to work in schools, universities, offices, hospitals, youth centres or religious organisations. It allows you to be self-employed, work on a freelance basis or even volunteer to add some extra experience to your portfolio. You can also decide what age group you’d like to work with, whether it’s children, adolescents, adults, the elderly, or all four! There’s plenty of room for flexibility and you can tailor your services to meet your skills and interests.
2. Great Work-Life Balance
On the subject of flexibility, a counselling career is perfect for working around your personal life and other responsibilities. Counsellors average at 34 hours of work per week, and the ability to establish your own timetable means that you can schedule appointments with clients around your existing commitments, like childcare or carer responsibilities.
3. Allows for Professional Growth
It’s not just your clients that will grow over the course of your sessions with them; you will also grow and develop as you gain more experience - both personally and professionally. From a personal perspective, helping other people through their struggles could help you to address your own issues and find solutions. On top of this, there are multiple continued education opportunities for counsellors who want to develop or specialise their practice. As the counselling field evolves to become more inclusive, you too can grow with it by continuing to learn.
What Counselling Training Courses Do We Offer?
Numbered Counselling Courses
Level 2 - An Introduction to Counselling
This is a Level 2 Foundation Course in Counselling Concepts, accredited with SEG Awards (The Skills & Education Group) and on the Ofqual framework. This is the ideal course for you to learn all the fundamental counselling skills you need to know, enhance your communication skills and is ideal if you want to add a recognised accredited qualification to your CV. You do not need to have any prior qualifications to enrol on this course, however you must be 16+. On successful completion, you will receive a certificate from SEG Awards.
We provide remote learning for this course (via Zoom or similar), meaning you can access it from anywhere with an internet connection. Beyond this, you can also work face-to-face with our centre-based learning in Birmingham.
Level 3 Certificate
Our accredited Level 3 Certificate in Counselling course helps you to further your knowledge and understanding of three key counselling theories. You will gain an understanding of person-centred counselling, CBT and psychodynamic theories as comparative theories. As well as this, you will develop your understanding of how theory and skills are utilised within counselling sessions.
This course meets the 150 Guided Learning Hours in line with Ofqual recommendation.
This level 3 is not classed as an award. It is a full certificate, which is what you will require in order to ensure a place for the diploma training. Upon successful completion of the intermediate certificate course, you will then be able to apply for the Level 4 diploma.
Level 4 Counselling Diploma
Upon successful completion of the Level 4 Diploma in Counselling, you will be a qualified counsellor. This training also allows you seven free specialist CPD training days with us, which will permit you to evolve your knowledge and training in specified areas of counselling. You can find out more about some of these specialised courses below.
In order to provide you with an exceptional training experience, we aim to keep our class sizes small (up to 15 learners in a class) so you can be sure that you will be learning at a high, interactive level; we deliver 30% of the level 4 counselling course online via a remote learning platform, while the remaining 70% will be taught in-person. This course is exam free - you will complete a portfolio of your placement hours to qualify for the diploma.
Specialised Diplomas & Certificates
Advanced Certificate in CBT Training
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a specific element of therapy training that teaches you techniques designed to treat clients with a variety of issues, such as anxiety, depression, phobias, addictions, behavioural issues, anger and much more. Over the duration of this training course, you’ll be working to earn a Specialist Diploma in CBT Training, which is suitable for support workers, teachers, carers, managers, supervisors, teaching support staff and any other professionals who work within schools, charities, the NHS, the Social Services and other organisations. This Diploma can also be added to your existing qualifications if you’re a professional counsellor. It is not accredited but will count toward your CPD hours.
Diploma in Counselling Children
Children and young people are often the most vulnerable and impressionable members of our community. As such, providing the right support to guide them through the issues that affect them is vital, whilst ensuring their safety is even more paramount. We proudly offer a comprehensive range of learning within our child and adolescent counselling course that is designed to enable aspiring counsellors, like you, to feel confident about your newfound skills and knowledge, and be able to provide creative interventions that benefit your clients.
Our learners become competent professionals who are capable of working with children and young people that experience a variety of different issues, such as anxiety, relationship difficulties and self-esteem issues. We aim to provide you with techniques and learning that allow you to feel both competent and confident when providing counselling to children and young people.
CPD Events & Workshops
Below is just a selection of the CPD events and workshops we provide here at Key Counselling Training. For a full list, please click here.
Conflict Resolution Event
Conflict resolution is a way for two or more parties to find a peaceful solution to a disagreement among them. You will learn a step-by-step approach to assessing risks and interventions. This is particularly useful when working with couples or family systems. This training has experiential parts to it, discussing and exploring how and when to intervene. You will begin to learn how to apply the concepts and models for working with conflict.
Gay Affirmative Therapy Event
This event, understanding and working with the LGBTQ clients, focuses on exploring and understanding the needs of the LGBTQ community, exploring their difficulties in society, with prejudice, exposure and rejection issues. This event is ideal to enrol on if you are interested or want a further understanding of cultural and societal diversity. You will begin to learn language issues, barriers, communication errors and how to connect authentically with clients from this community.
Phobia Cure Technique Event
In this interactive course, participants will learn the causes and symptoms as well as learn how to apply the technique to help cure phobias. Why not learn this and help others? The trainer has applied these techniques to many clients over the past 20 years and worked with many phobias – from spiders and flying to dentists and public speaking!
Start Your Counselling Career Journey Today!
If you’ve decided that counselling is the right career for you, you can get started with Key Counselling training today! We are dedicated to providing you with the necessary training and support you need to make the most out of our counselling courses. We encourage a safe and supportive environment for anyone who wishes to enhance their skills and knowledge in counselling, whether you’re an aspiring counsellor or are already qualified and looking to enhance your knowledge. All of our tutors are industry experts with the experience, drive and qualifications to support you on your journey. Whether you’d like to learn at one of our centres in Birmingham or Devon, or even learn remotely, we can tailor your training programme to your needs. Book onto one of our courses today, or get in touch with us for more information.