In response to the letter by Fiona Ballantine Dykes in last month’s Therapy Today, regarding the lengthier training/greater experience of psychotherapists compared to counsellors, I want to say that, whilst I don’t have much experience of the psychotherapy world, the experience I do have indicates:

1. Psychotherapists seem to go more or less straight from qualification to accreditation. That isn’t the case for counsellors. So, whilst it may be true, in some instances, that at the point of qualification, there is a substantial difference in experience, at the point of accreditation, there will be much less, given the additional hours that counsellors have to accumulate before becoming eligible. And those of us who go the ‘mix and match’ route (where so many units have to be accumulated, each unit comprising either a number of hours of training, or a year of at least 150 hours of supervised practice) may well have a good deal more than 450 hours’ experience, and even (whisper it) perhaps more than would be required for a psychotherapist.

2. Whilst the BACP requirement for the training element for accreditation is 450 hours’ contact time, many counselling courses will deliver more. It depends on the course structure, and how many years’ training is involved. Those taking Masters qualifications will normally undertake at least four years’ training to get to that point, if not more. More and more (as an agency offering placements) we see counsellors applying for placements from degree level courses. And I don’t, on the whole, experience any difference in quality between those trainees applying from counselling courses and those (few) applying from psychotherapy courses; except, perhaps, in an assumption of superiority, coming, as far as I can make out, more from the training organisations than the trainees.

Liz Harris