Psychotherapy: Career Paths and Lifelong Learning
By Karen Minikin, CTA TSTA (P) is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, Head of Psychotherapy at the Iron Mill College, Exeter and TA/psychodynamic supervisor
How to Qualify as a Psychotherapist Psychotherapy Courses
The Motivation to Train
I came into training as a counsellor having had some humanistic counselling after a relationship breakdown that I was struggling to understand and come to terms with. Finding the counselling helpful, I felt hungry to understand myself and others better. I never intended to qualify and work as a counsellor or psychotherapist. At the time, I was working in a large organisation designing and delivering learning and development programmes and I was happy there. However, I found the training enlightening, the placement work satisfying, so I felt compelled to continue. Having qualified in counselling, I was feeling in no doubt that I needed to learn more. So, I continued training as a psychotherapist.
The motivation to start training in counselling or psychotherapy varies from one person to the next. However, for the vast majority there is a desire to understand mind, meanings and relationships. Personal and professional relationships are complex and throwing light on what may have been experienced as darkness can be inspiring. In addition to the need to understand ourselves and others is a fundamental need in people to know that their work, their contribution has meaning - that it makes a difference to society and is valued. So, what sort of work is open to you in these fields? Here are some of the opportunities that a long training in psychotherapy may open up.
Career Paths Following Training Programmes: Levels 4-7
As mentioned not everyone comes into this training on a clear mission to become a psychotherapist. The learning is experiential so people may discover interests and opportunity they had not anticipated. However, these are some of the tangible outcomes of the training.
- Integration of psychological studies with current career
If you are currently involved in any kind of work that involves interactions with people, then this training will help. For example, many teachers, nurses, social workers, managers notice radical improvements handling and navigating dynamics in organisations. The training makes an impact on your sense of self, your competence and confidence and we have witnessed many of our trainees gain promotions and receive offers. Whilst this sounds good, it can put pressure to take more responsibility and this can raise dilemmas.
2. Counsellor in Placement
All trainings at the Iron Mill College require students to take up a voluntary placement. This allows people to see counselling clients in a safe setting - one where there is managerial support and possibly supervision. Students build experience and required hours before taking further steps to qualifying. For some, this becomes paid work later as paid counsellors, psychotherapists, assessors, or managers.
- Service Manager
Working as a manager is one way of integrating professional experience with new qualifications. This requires understanding of how mental health services work, such as referrals from GPs, individuals and other organisations. It may include assessing clients, to match clients with practitioners and to manage the practitioners and facilities at the centre.
- NHS Talking Therapies
In 2008, the government launched the service IAPT, (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies). This was to address increasing concerns of the levels of anxiety and depression in our society. It was a push to increase the use of NICE evidenced based therapies and became dominated by structured approaches, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Some psychotherapy graduates have developed careers working with NHS talking therapies full time or part time to combine with private practice.
- NHS Psychotherapist
The NHS has very specific salary scales, (bands) that are dependent on the level of qualifications and experience. Many practitioners in the "NHS talking therapies" service will be on band 6, whereas qualified NHS psychotherapists typically earn £43,742 to £50,056 (Band 7). Salaries for principal psychotherapists can rise to between £50,952 and £68,525 (Bands 8a and 8b). Salaries for consultant psychotherapists can be higher. Service users tend to be at the moderate - severe end. In mental health hospitals, psychotherapists may be working alongside other professionals such as psychiatrists, mental health nurses and occupational therapists. Patients may have had psychotic or depressive breakdowns, may be recovering from addiction or have other life threatening conditions such as eating disorders.
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service
This service, (known as CAMHS) provides treatment for children and adolescents, (11-18) who are suffering from moderate to severe levels of distress. There would be a requirement to do some further training in child and adolescent work, if you are not already working in this area.
- Private Practice Psychotherapist
The idea of working in private practice can be appealing. Private practice offers flexibility and autonomy in how people manage their work, their time and so it can be combined well with child care and other responsibilities. Private practice can help bridge transitions from one career to another. Private practice is best undertaken once people have qualified in counselling or psychotherapy. For psychotherapy trainees, it is possible to start in practice after achieving required training, supervision and personal therapy hours. Supervisors and trainers collaborate with trainees to assess personal and professional readiness for practice.
- Supervisor
Undertaking supervision qualifications and then offering supervision is a satisfying way for experienced psychotherapists to enhance their practice. The supervisory relationship is similar to being a mentor who offers support, guidance, knowledge and experience. In the early days, this helps build confidence and competence in practitioners. Supervision continues to be important
throughout a career and in advanced practice, provides a sounding board so that the work continues to be reflected on and thought about. It can help navigate complex dynamics, including ethical dilemmas.
- Trainer
Working in training and development is another way to build flexibility and learning into a career. In private practice, the work can become isolating, especially when people are working from home. So, developing skills and capacity as a trainer is a way of meeting colleagues and developing the next generation of counsellors and psychotherapists.
- Involvement with Professional Bodies
Some of the work with professional bodies such as BACP and UKCP is offered on a voluntary basis or with an honorarium payment. For example, working with an ethics and professional practice committee or with a team monitoring training standards. These offer great learning opportunities and are another way of meeting and learning with colleagues. Getting involved in this way also offers potential to paid positions for some key roles.
Concluding Thoughts
I started this blog with a personal anecdote regarding my journey into the world of counselling and psychotherapy. I started training in the 1990s and there have been many challenges and tough learning experiences. I am in the final years of my career now and it has been and continues to be enormously satisfying. There is no other profession that provides this level of support in the work. This is not necessarily work that will make people rich financially, but it does offer meaning, hope and value.
Written February 2025
