Orleans, V. & Scoyoc, S. (2009). A Short Introduction to Counselling Psychology. London: SAGE. Kapitel 1-6

 

There are three categories for training; master level programme, doctoral level programme, independent programme of study.

UK:BPS qualifications in counselling psychology or university based BPS training programme, 3 year long full time study or part time for becoming Graduate Basis for registration.

The independent route; BPS qualifications in counselling psychology, a pattern of evidence requirements and assessments. The origin was in BPS diploma in counselling psychology.

Since 2005 every professionals have to have a doctoral level, this raises problems for the independent route and Irish counselling psychologists.

Ireland: Master level, 2 year long full time study or part time and 400 hours of supervised client contact.

USA + Canada: professionals should have license to practice in the wanted state and this demands a doctoral level in psychology, some do however give licence to masters degree level. APA provides doctoral programmes, internships and post doctoral residency programmes. A doctoral degree level consists of theory and practice as well as 1 year of pre-doctoral internship.

In Canada there is a difference between the French-speaking part and the English-speaking part, where the English-speaking part has its training like in America, however with more research and the French-speaking part which doesn’t provide specific training.

Australia and New Zealand: 4 years of full time academic study in psychology as well as post-gradual training and supervised experience or a master degree level and 2 years of experience. Training requirements must be gotten in the relevant state.

Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan: as counselling psychology is not well defined yet in these countries the training is neither. Some demands practical training, others do not.

India and Israel: neither counselling psychology or training in the subject exists in these countries.

South Africa: demands a master level training, 1 year academic or practical training, 1 year internship as well as submitting to one or several research projects and sit in the national examination.

Attention to context, social, cultural and politic problems is important for training in the different countries and for counselling psychology’s philosophy.

The shift in training in the UK in 2005 meant a bigger focus on research and the medical model, but made it possible for counselling psychology to get jobs in the NHS. This creates tension between research and practice as well as the clinical, medical philosophy and counselling psychology’s philosophy.

There is a cooperation in Europe to provide training that can create free mobility, this consists of 6 years of training, combining undergraduate with postgraduate studies.

40 hours of personal therapy is a minimum for everyone in training according to the BPS. This gives the trained the opportunity to learn about him self, his growth, his values and attitudes and about the experience of being in therapy. This can be related to the findings that the therapist self-relatedness and self-congruence can predict better outcome for the client.

The big amount of theory in counselling psychology because of it’s pluralistic perspective can be difficult for students to make, but the bigger authoritative attitude about theory is something that divides a doctoral degree level from a master degree. The different illnesses must be discussed openly through all training from a constructivist perspective.

The scientist-practitioner has been accepted as a part of counselling psychology. Some criticises that it was not followed in practice in many counselling psychology settings. Different approaches to epistemology have given different power and create tension between research and practice. The scientist-practitioner is an effort to create a new approach to epistemology, but it presents several issues in relations to perception. In an attempt to compare the scientist with the therapists qualitative methods are used. There is a tendency to bring evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence closer together.

Practice and research demands supervision and this will help the professionals to personal growth within ethical guidelines. Furthermore there is a demand for continuing professional development (CPD) of 40 hours per year.