The issue of regulation clearly touches at the heart of our profession. As the letters, articles and discussions continue, I could no longer keep quiet about what I believe is the greatest threat to our profession and also to those who seek our help.

I feel that tight regulation should be in place – not regulation of the counsellor but regulation of training. I find it shocking that students are awarded diplomas, ie permission to practise, who have never experienced counselling. A sound, authentic and clear therapeutic relationship is vital to successful counselling. I therefore cannot understand how people are allowed to present themselves as counsellors without being required to have reached a certain level of personal awareness. I believe regular personal counselling should be a fundamental requirement throughout every training course. How else are novice counsellors to become acquainted with their own issues and the hazard of projecting them onto clients?

In addition, I believe training courses should be longer than those we have at present. The integration of theories, ideas and ways of counselling, takes a great deal of personal commitment. Why is it then that colleges are allowed to hand out diplomas to students who are still in the kindergarten stage of understanding? It is akin to taking an intensive first-aid course and then being allowed to perform brain surgery. 

Training should demand a high degree of commitment from its students – financially, emotionally and intellectually – as all professions do. If we only allowed those to qualify who had demonstrated a sense of vocation, we would be able to trust our counsellors and leave them free of interference to work in their own unique ways. As we have seen recently with politicians, rules do not work. Rules negate the necessity for conscience and personal responsibility. The counsellor who is appreciative of the sensitivity of the work, committed to their clients’ growth and always alert to their own patterns and possible projections, needs no more regulation than is already in place.

So why is it so easy to gain a counselling qualification? I am afraid my cynical side has little doubt that the dominant reason is financial. Colleges have found it an easy earner. And as for the argument that inexpensive training opens counselling to all who need it – do we really want to offer a cheapened and inferior service, or do we want to ensure, as much as we are able, that we offer quality to our clients? I know which matters the most to me.