What makes a good counselling or psychotherapy course?

Making sense of the vast range of courses available

Although estimates vary, there are currently at least 500 different counselling and psychotherapy models on offer around the world. This situation is chaotic and bewildering for all concerned, especially members of the general public seeking help and those trying to help them, such as their families and GPs.

It also indicates a general lack of shared perceptions about how best to help people. In other words, generally, psychotherapy and counselling is still at a relatively primitive level of development (there aren't that many schools of physics or chemistry!)

It is important, therefore, to consider the following points when choosing training.

Tips to help you select suitable training

» Firstly, there is no distinction to be made between the terms ‘counselling’ and ‘psychotherapy’. Counsellors and psychotherapists deal with the same range of problems. The only distinction that can be made is, how well they do this – whatever they call themselves and however they are qualified.

» Many counselling and psychotherapy courses are designed around ideologies and these should be avoided, as should any course that insists on students having ‘counselling’ sessions themselves since research conclusively shows that this practice does not make people better counsellors. *Refs

» People have counselling when they are emotionally disturbed and feel they need to talk to someone about their problems. They may be sent to a counsellor by their GP or another professional who recognises that they need more time to resolve their difficulties. Typically the majority of people who go for counselling are suffering from a combination of the following: frustration, stress overload, anxiety, depression, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, psychotic symptoms, an anxiety disorder, an addiction, or anger disorder. Such states inevitably arise when a person’s emotional needs are not being met — to such a degree that it is affecting their relationships, work or the way they connect to the wider community.

It follows, therefore, that a good counselling or psychotherapy course, such as the Human Givens Diploma Course, equips its students with an understanding of the psychobiology of emotional disorders and the best knowledge of how to go about bringing a beneficial change in the person as quickly as possible. What they teach will be in tune with the latest brain science.

» A good course will also inform you about the research into effectiveness. For example, brief, solution focused and social skills training orientations are known to be effective with a wide range of emotional problems, including depression and anxiety disorders, and psychodynamic approaches are known to make these conditions worse.

» A good course will teach you how to structure effective counselling sessions so as to ensure that clients leave each session feeling better and knowing that they are making improvements. It will not teach you that psychotherapy is a painful process. If is it effective, therapy is not painful.

» A good course will teach you rapid rapport building skills which arise out of our innate human abilities to connect and communicate.

» A good course will teach students about the language we use, particularly abstract language patterns known as nominalizations, and how to respond.

» A good course will teach you how to empathetically reflect back the feelings a patient is having without becoming emotionally involved yourself.

» A good course will also teach you how to quickly get good quality information from your patients.

» A good course will show you how to access the resources and strengths a client has that they can use to overcome their difficulties.

» A good course will teach about the metaphorical pattern-matching nature of the brain and how patterns can be reframed and enriched in such a way that people can get back in control of their lives again.

» An effective counsellor has to be a good storyteller since we learn and grow through metaphor. So developing your storytelling skills would be part of a good course.

» Relaxation skills are essential since most people’s problems are held in place by emotional arousal. A good counselling course would teach you a range of ways to relax people.

» A good course will teach you about the connection between excessive dreaming and depression and how to lift depression (which is remarkably easy to do in most people once you have the understanding).

» A good course will teach you how to deactivate traumatic responses (PTSD) and phobias quickly.

» A good course will help you understand how addiction develops and how to help stop addictive behaviour.

» To bring about change quickly people have to vividly rehearse the required changed behaviours in their imagination. So guided imagery and visualisation skills are an important part of an effective counselling or psychotherapy course.

The above was prepared by the research group at the European Therapy Studies Institute (ETSI).

 

* References
1. People do not need counselling before doing counselling: The objective evidence for this view is overwhelming. See Russell, R. (1993), Report on Effective Psychotherapy: Legislative Testimony. Hilgarth Press, which was later endorsed by the American Psychological Association.
2. See also Hogan, D.B. The Regulation of Psychotherapists, 4 vols. Ballinger.
3. Dawe, R. M. (1994). House of Cards: Psychology and psychotherapy built on myth. Simon & Schuster.
4. Dineen, T. (1996). Manufacturing Victims: What the psychology industry is doing to people. Robert Davies

 

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