Formal institution for psychological counseling training

It has school-running qualifications endorsed by regulatory or authoritative industry associations, courses that comply with the domestic consensus framework for cultivating psychological counseling talents, teachers with both front-line clinical experience and professional teaching capabilities, and all other gimmicks of "certificate included", "earning millions a year", and "quick start in all schools" are all additional marketing elements. If you can't meet these three thresholds, don't apply no matter how cheap you are.

A while ago, I was helping a junior college student who wanted to join the industry to screen institutions. The first one she set her sights on was one she saw on a certain news site. The poster was very flashy, saying that it cost 2,980 yuan to study for three months, and she could be affiliated with the "International Psychological Counselor Certificate" and earn hundreds of thousands a year. I asked her to ask the customer service staff to get the qualifications to run a school first, but the other party hesitated for a long time and only issued a business license. The scope of business did not even include "vocational skills training" items, let alone the "Private School Operating License" issued by the human resources and social security department, or the training cooperation registration of the Chinese Psychological Society and the Chinese Mental Health Association.

Oh, yes, someone here must ask, hasn’t the second- and third-level professional qualification certificates for psychological counselors been canceled long ago? Are there any officially recognized qualifications? This has been a point of contention in the industry for a long time. The fact is that although professional qualifications have been cancelled, the industry's entry threshold is actually moving in a more professional direction: formal institutions must either have a school license approved by the social security department, or be registered in the registration system of the national psychology industry association. Both of them account for at least the same amount. If nothing can be produced, it is essentially a company selling courses. If there is a problem, you can't even find a place to defend your rights.

After passing the qualifications, the next thing to screen is whether the courses are adequate. Last month I had dinner with Mr. Wang, the supervisor of the registration system. He complained that many courses in many institutions now include 90 of the 100 recorded lessons on general psychology and developmental psychology textbooks. The content that really involves counseling ethics, basic skills in interviewing, and case simulations totals less than 10 hours. After the course, the students don’t even know what to say in the first sentence when the visitor sits across from him.

Don’t believe the propaganda of “Mastery Classes for All Schools”. Anyone who is really knowledgeable knows that there are at least dozens of schools of psychological counseling, and it will take several years to fully understand psychoanalysis alone. Regular institutions will never boast of “mastering all schools in three months”. Instead, they will give you a basic assessment first to see if you want to enter the industry with zero foundation, or if you already have experience and want to advance, or even just want to grow personally and regulate your emotions. The matching courses are completely different. No matter what the course is, there are two contents that must occupy a large part: one is consulting ethics, which is the lifeline of the industry. Taking on cases without taking an ethics class is the same as driving on the road without learning traffic regulations. It will harm others and yourself. ； The other is practical supervision. I have participated in an introductory CBT course in a Chinese-German class before. During the class, the teacher directly released the private information of the cases he had done 10 times, and asked us to work in groups to conceptualize the cases. If we made mistakes, we would catch them on the spot. My palms were sweating in that class, but after class, I felt that everything I had been thinking about in the previous six months had been understood. Oh yes, there are also internships. Regular institutions will connect with resources such as community psychological service stations, school psychology rooms, and corporate EAP projects, so that you can actually follow senior consultants to see how to receive interviews, instead of talking on paper every day with PPT.

Speaking of teachers, this is also the hardest hit area. The teachers on the promotional pages of many institutions have a long list of titles, such as "International Master of Hypnosis Therapy" and "Distinguished Professor of a certain university". You can't find a relevant paper about him on CNKI, and you can't find his supervisor number in the registration system. He doesn't even have more than 1,000 hours of case experience, and he only relies on words to teach.

To be fair here, it does not mean that you have to find a well-known teacher to be called a good teacher. Many teachers who have worked in hospital clinical psychology departments and university psychological counseling centers for more than ten years do not use the Internet very much and are not well-known. But they talk about the pitfalls they have stepped in and the real cases they have seen. They are much more reliable than those who post photos with celebrities every day and boast that they have more than 100,000 cases. Think about it, a consultant can take up to 4 cases a day. Otherwise, he won’t be able to keep up with his energy. He will have to work 1,000 hours a year, and he will have to work 100,000 hours for 100 years. Isn’t this nonsense?

Many people asked me, can I apply for a class that says "getting a certificate guarantees employment"? From an institutional perspective, it is true that some formal institutions cooperate with psychological counseling platforms and community service centers and will recommend internships and case-taking opportunities to outstanding students. However, anyone who dares to say "100% guaranteed employment" or "affiliate earns hundreds of thousands per year" is 100% a liar. Just ask independent consultants in first-tier cities. Which one didn’t spend three to five years, accumulating enough supervision time and case experience before slowly gaining a stable client base? You can earn over 10,000 yuan a month after just three months of study, which is completely inconsistent with the rules of the industry.

Some people say, I just want to learn some psychology to adjust myself, so I don’t need to find such a formal institution, right? I met a netizen before who signed up for a "psychoanalysis growth class" in Yeluzi. The teacher made everyone talk about their childhood trauma in public and did not do any emotional protection. She suffered a depression immediately after the class and stayed at home for half a month without being able to go to work. The original intention was to regulate her emotions, but instead it caused a bigger problem. Do you think it was a loss or not?

In fact, it is difficult to find a formal institution, but it is also easy to say. Don't believe those pie-in-the-sky propaganda. Check your qualifications and take trial classes. When listening, don't just look at whether the teacher can tell jokes, but also look at whether he can tell you about the pitfalls you have encountered during consultation and the difficult cases you have encountered. If you can tell you these things from the bottom of your heart, it is probably not the same. If you are really unsure, go to the official website of the registration system of the Chinese Psychological Society and look through the list of cooperative training institutions. All listed in it have been reviewed at all levels, so the probability of being scammed can be minimized.

Oh, yes, one final word. If you really plan to enter the industry, don’t think about it quickly. This industry is a slow process. The time you spend on personal experience and supervision will not lie to you at all.