The difference between psychological counseling B certificate and C certificate

C certificate is an entry-level psychological knowledge popularization certification, while B certificate is an advanced professional application certification. It should be noted that neither of them belong to the national unified professional qualifications for psychological counselors. Most of them are trained and issued by local education systems and regional psychological industry associations.

Last year, I helped a district education bureau in the Pearl River Delta sort out the application materials for the psychology teacher reserve. Among the more than 200 submitted qualifications, more than 120 were C certificates, and only 37 met the requirements for B certificates. The teacher in charge of the review at the time said with a smile that the difference in value between the two certificates can be clearly seen by the number of applicants.

Take the psychological certification system implemented by the Guangdong education system in the past few years as an example. The application threshold for C certificate is really not high. In-service teachers, normal school students, and even school administrators, dormitory managers, and community workers, as long as they are interested in psychology and want to master some basic psychological knowledge to assist in work, can apply. The entire training plus examination only lasts for 40 hours. Most of them are online classes plus a half-day offline open-book examination. The tests are all about basic knowledge points of general psychology and developmental psychology. Anyone who listens carefully to the class can basically pass it. I have been in contact with a logistics director of a primary school before. He often had to deal with children who had conflicts during lunch breaks and were homesick and crying. In order to better understand how to communicate with children, I signed up for C certificate training. I successfully obtained the certificate in more than half a month. Now I can deal with children's emotional problems much more easily.

But the threshold for B certificate is much stricter. The prerequisites for applying are basically that you have obtained the C certificate for one year, or you have graduated from a psychology-related major, or you have more than half a year of practical experience in psychological services. The training hours are directly extended to more than 120 hours, and more than half of them are offline practical training. They need to practice listening and empathy skills, write case reports, and finally take a practical test of simulated consultation. It is not something that can be passed by relying on knowledge points. Last year, there was a class teacher who had been teaching for three years. He usually helped the children in the class with emotional counseling and felt that he had enough experience. When he was taking the B certificate exam, the case report had to be revised three times before it passed. The teacher's card was reviewed to see if counseling techniques were actually used, rather than ordinary chat comfort.

Many people are confused about the applicable boundaries of these two certificates. I once met a fresh graduate with a C certificate who applied for a full-time psychology teacher in a private school, but his resume was directly rejected by HR. To put it bluntly, he did not understand the positioning of the certificate. The C certificate is more like a "psychological knowledge pass certificate", which proves that you have the basic ability to identify psychological problems, can do psychological science, help people around you with simple emotional counseling, and know how to refer serious problems to professionals. It is suitable for positions such as class teachers, classroom teachers, and community grid members to empower yourself, but it cannot independently carry out individual case consultations, nor can it be used as a hard certificate for entry into full-time psychological positions.

The B certificate is a real “proof of application ability”. Generally, those who get the B certificate are either the school's full-time psychology teacher reserve candidates, or the full-time staff of the community psychological service station. They can independently undertake consultations on general psychological issues, and can also take the lead in small psychological group counseling. In many districts of the Pearl River Delta, when recruiting full-time psychology teachers, evaluating psychological education-related professional titles, and applying for special projects, the B certificate is a clearly recognized bonus item, or even an implicit requirement.

Oh, by the way, here is a point that has been controversial in the industry: some people think that since these two certificates are not national admission qualifications, it is completely useless to take the exam. It is better to directly take the more common third-party training certificate on the market.； Some people also think that within the local system, the recognition of these two certificates is much higher than the general training certificate. My own experience is that there is nothing wrong with both of these statements. The key depends on where you want to use it: if you plan to enter the local education system or community to do psychology-related work, it is very cost-effective to take the B certificate. After all, it is a qualification recognized by the local system. ； But if you want to work as a full-time consultant in a business consulting agency, or to develop in other places, the recognition of these two certificates is indeed limited. It is better to spend money on systematic long-term training and case supervision.

There are also many institutions that will boast that these two certificates are "national-level professional qualifications" and that you can open a psychological counseling studio after obtaining them. This is definitely a lie. The current national requirement for psychological counseling services is to have corresponding professional capabilities. However, if you really want to take on a case, it is not enough to have a B certificate. You must also have continuous supervision time and personal experience time. Otherwise, if you encounter a complex case, you will not only be unable to help the client, but also easily cause harm to both parties.

Recently, many normal school students have asked me whether they should spend several thousand to apply for B certificate training from an institution. I generally advise them to figure out their career plans first before making a decision, and not to spend money randomly by the institution.

In the final analysis, these two certificates are simply the "stepping stone for entry" into the local psychological service system. The higher the level, the more professional training you have received. But if you really want to make a living in psychological services, just having a certificate is not enough - after all, no matter how many certificates you have, it is not as effective as real case experience and continuous professional growth.