Towards the end of my previous blog, titled “Expectations: How to get the most out of your counselling sessions”, I spoke about staying with a counsellor just for the sake of it, even if you feel their way of working isn’t serving you and how this could be harmful for you in the long run.
Although there’s no sure-fire way of figuring out if a counsellor is a great fit for you, there are certain questions to ask a counsellor that allows you to get an overall view of a counsellor, which can help you make a decision either way. After all, you wouldn’t work with a personal trainer without first doing some checks on their suitability. The same goes for psychological support.
So, let’s talk through the kind of questions to ask a counsellor.
Question 1: What are your qualifications?
I feel like this isn’t asked enough and it really should be. You may not be aware of this but the counselling, psychotherapy world, within the UK, is actually not regulated and therefore anyone could call themselves a counsellor and there are many that do. The problem is that such people have not had any or enough training to be able to genuinely support people and this can lead to harmful, unboundaried ways of working that can actually leave a person worse off than when they started.
Having said that, there are professional membership bodies that are not regulatory bodies, but they do offer some level of safety for clients as they have a certain level of qualification (they have rationale for this), that they have set, for people in order for them to be classed as qualified counsellors within their membership. In other words, if you don’t meet the qualification criteria, you cannot sign up with them.
In order to be transparent, I have listed my qualifications on my About Me page and you can also click the BACP badge at the bottom of my Home page which takes you directly to my BACP registration.
This takes me on to my next question to ask a counsellor.
Question 2: Which professional body are you registered with?
Professional bodies within the counselling industry are membership bodies and not regulatory bodies but they do have a standard that they hold their members too, as well as an ethical framework (set of principles and values that the counsellor agrees to follow) and certain criteria that counsellors agree to follow and the membership body asks you to keep evidence of this.
For example, The BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy), of whom I am a member, asks me to keep a record of the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) that I engage in (30 hours minimum per year, according to the BACP criteria), and when I am asked for this, I would need to send them a document evidencing these hours. They have a template which is time consuming, (let’s hope they don’t read this!) but rigorous. If I could not produce this evidence then there would be certain processes to follow but ultimately, I may lose my membership.
Having a certain standard of qualification and other such criteria for membership means that they are guaranteeing anyone that is on their membership, has successfully completed qualifications and is working to a certain base level and quality of practice. This in turn gives clients a certain level of safety.
Also, just a heads up that there are many membership bodies within the UK. I tend to lean towards BACP for my own personal reasons, but I can also congruently say that there are many others within the UK that do a great job in supporting the counsellor- client relationship. Here are a few that are quite well known:
- BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy)
- NCPS (National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society)
- UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy
- COSRT (College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists)
For a more extensive list, click the link: https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/accreditation.html#whatisaprofessionalbody
Question 3. Are you supervised?
Counselling supervision is quite different from regular work supervision in that it consistently looks at a counsellor’s way of working within the counselling session. (In order to become a counselling supervisor, the person must be a qualified counsellor and have a certain amount of experience and counselling hours before they can start their supervision qualification and training.).
Supervision allows a counsellor to reflect and review their work within sessions to ensure that they are working ethically and effectively. If a counsellor is not in regular supervision, it should set alarm bells ringing, as it may mean that there isn’t anyone overseeing their client work.
Again, membership bodies ask that you have a set amount of consistent supervision if you wish to be a part of their membership. For the BACP this requirement is 1.5 hours of supervision per month, and this also depends on your client load. More clients would require more supervision. This allows space for a counsellor to consistently reflect and evaluate their work with their clients to ensure that they have the client’s best interests at heart.
Question 4: How long have you been providing counselling?
Initially I wasn’t too sure about this one, if I’m being honest. However, I asked a number of people what kind of things they would want to know, and this question came up and so I took time out to reflect on this and now believe that it should be included.
Having said that, I think that maybe there is a belief that the longer someone has been providing counselling, the better they are. I personally and professionally feel that there is a need to differentiate between number of years and number of clinical hours. A person may have been practising for multiple years and have minimal clinical hours whereas someone who has been practising for 1 year may have gained much more clinical hours. The more clinical hours, the more experience.
I feel the evidence, of professional bodies requiring a certain number of clinical hours, before allowing counsellors to apply for accreditation, supports the above view.
Question 5: Have you been in therapy yourself?
This is an interesting one. During most counselling training, budding counsellors are required to go through personal counselling. (My training required me to evidence a minimum of 46 hours of personal counselling. However, because I had already started personal counselling before I started my training, I just continued throughout and still see a counsellor today).
The reason it is good practice for counsellors to have personal counselling is because they too are human and have their own issues and it makes sense for them to have a dedicated space to work on processing their “stuff” otherwise there is a risk of those issues being triggered during a client’s counselling session. Sounds simple really.
Question 6: How much of what we talk about is confidential?
You definitely want to know this before disclosing anything personal to someone you do not know. Is the criteria for confidentiality detailed in their contract? Are there any exceptions to this?
I think it’s important to know the boundaries of your relationship with your counsellor before committing to anything, as clarity is the foundation for building a trusting relationship.
Question 7: Do you have experience working with my specific issue/background/culture?
Again, I semi struggled with adding this question as I felt pulled in two different directions. On the one hand, I feel that it may be “easier” to talk to a counsellor who has experience of your situation as it means that they will pick up on things and terminology, without you having to explain in detail. However, I also feel this isn’t ideal as each individual is unique and so what may mean something to you, may mean something entirely different to me.
Having said that, I think I would be looking for a counsellor who has awareness of difference and diversity as well as awareness around different issues so that they know to ask open questions and are mindful to not make assumptions about situations.
My list of question to ask a counsellor is a lot longer, but I feel that I’ll stop here for now and let you process and reflect on these questions, and I’ll post a Part 2 soon! (Part 2 is now up. Click here to read).
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.