A counsellor is a trained professional who provides guidance, support, and assistance to individuals, couples, families, or groups to help them address personal, emotional, psychological, or social challenges.
Counselling is not about offering advice, sharing opinions, or engaging in casual conversation like you would with a friend. Instead, the therapist supports the client in gaining deeper self-awareness and empowers them to discover their own solutions for managing or overcoming their challenges.
At Iron Mill College, we train our counsellors to work in an integrative way, as we believe that no one model holds the answers for every client.
Training to be a Counsellor
The main professional bodies for counsellors in the UK are the BACP and the NCPS. They set out standards of education and training for the counselling training courses that they quality check or accredit.
The BACP recommends a three stage route to qualifying which can take three or four years. As well as attending tuition, you’ll spend a lot of time on independent study, placements, supervision and, in some cases, personal therapy.
Stage 1: Introduction to counselling
Taking an introductory course will help you decide if counselling is the right career for you.
Stage 2: Certificate in counselling skills
This will develop your counselling skills and give you a deeper understanding of counselling theories, ethics and self-awareness. This training may also be useful if your job involves advising or helping people, even if you don't plan to become a therapist.
Stage 3: Core practitioner training
This will give you the skills, knowledge and competence to work as a counsellor. Your core practitioner training should be at the minimum level of a diploma in counselling, but could be a bachelor's degree, master's degree or doctorate.
Your training should be an in-depth professional practitioner training programme, based on internationally recognised standards of quality and competence, providing training in reflective, competent and ethical practice. To meet BACP membership and accreditation requirements it must include:
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knowledge based learning - for example, psychological theories and their application to practice, philosophy, human development, common medications, ethics and the law, functioning of groups and supervision
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therapeutic competences - for example, monitoring and evaluation, relationship building, communications, strategies and interventions, self-awareness, reflective practice and use of supervision
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research awareness - for example, critical awareness of research findings, methodology and application
Your course should be at least one year full-time or two years' part-time classroom-based tuition. It should also include an integral, supervised placements of at least 100 hours, allowing you to work within an organisation and practise your skills with clients under supervision.
At the Iron Mill, all our counselling courses are all quality checked and accredited by the BACP or NCPS.
The Iron Mill route to qualifying
As counselling profession is currently self-regulating which results in many courses being advertised at various levels and different costs. This variety even extends to online courses.
It’s also important to remember that Levels ascribed to other types of vocational courses may not always equate to counselling training. This can make it difficult for you to choose the best course and it is more reliable to choose a counselling course based on number of hours studied and the organisations which accredit or quality check courses. All Iron Mill courses are accredited, or quality checked.
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Step 1: You need to complete an Introductory Course which offers a minimum of 72 hours directed learning. The Iron Mill offers a 12 day, NCPS quality checked, Certificate in Counselling course or our Blended Learning Certificate which will give you entry to the next stage of counselling training. I
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Step 2: In order to qualify and work as a counsellor, you need to complete a 2-5 year course in Counselling. Typically, this is a two-year taught programme of theory, skills practice and personal development lasting a minimum of 400 hours in total. In addition, you will also have to complete 100-150 hours of supervised counselling practice with clients in an organisation which can be completed during the taught part of the course, but which may take up to another 2-3 years to complete. You will also need to undertake 40 hours of personal therapy. This can be achieved through our Advanced Diploma in Integrative Counselling course or our Foundation Degree in Integrative Counselling course (validated by University of Worcester)
The Foundation Degree is eligible for a Higher Education loan; the Diploma is not. Both courses are accredited by BACP. Both courses also offer training in competences to counsel young people. Successful completion of Step Two qualifies you to work as a counsellor. The Iron Mill courses offer immediate entry to BACP registration as a counsellor.
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Step 3: If you have completed an acceptable Diploma or Foundation Degree course of study, you can apply for a Degree in Counselling. This one-year course offers you graduate status. Iron Mill College offers an NCPS accredited BA (Hons) in Integrative Counselling(validated by the University of Worcester)
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Step 4: Accreditation is, currently, an optional advanced status in the counselling profession. This is the hallmark of the qualified counsellor and involves further CPD, supervised practice as a counsellor and a written application outlining your style of counselling and ethical practice. Accreditation can only be granted by a professional counselling body. The Iron Mill offers a viva exam which helps students prepare for accreditation.
Our diagram demonstrates the study progression if you choose Iron Mill College as your training provider.
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