Requirements for applying to become a psychological counselor

At present, there is no official unified "Psychological Counselor Professional Qualification Entrance Examination" in China. All "Psychological Counselor Certificates" that you can apply for on the market are training certificates. The corresponding application conditions are set by the issuing unit. There is no national unified application threshold.

When I help friends who want to join the industry to make plans, the first thing eight out of ten people say is "Can I take the exam if I don't major in psychology?" To be honest, there is really no standard answer to this question - after all, the requirements of different certification units are quite different. For example, the training certificate of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is relatively highly recognized in the industry, has a basic requirement of a college degree or above, or a junior or higher professional title related to psychology, education, or medicine. College students must be in their junior year or above before they can apply. ； If it is a training certificate related to the registration system of the Chinese Psychological Society, the threshold is even higher. Many require a bachelor's degree in related majors and some relevant practical experience.

But if you browse short videos and come across ads that say "You can take the exam if you are over 18, and you can make money by being affiliated with it", then you have to be careful. Last month, a salesman came to me to complain. He said that after graduating from junior high school, he was deceived by institutional sales. He spent more than 3,000 to apply for a so-called "no academic qualifications required" consultant certificate. After passing the exam, he wanted to join an online consulting platform. When he saw the issuing unit of the certificate, he had never heard of it, so he rejected it directly. Not to mention that the money was wasted, and he didn't even get a chance to enter the industry.

Speaking of this, I have to mention something that has been quarreling in the industry for many years: Can non-related majors apply to be psychological counselors?

One group has a very strong point of view: Psychological counseling is about dealing with people's emotional trauma. Without systematic professional training, most ordinary people can't even distinguish between "empathy" and "giving advice."

The other school of thought also makes sense: I have met many consultants who have entered the industry across disciplines. Those who were teachers before are better at understanding adolescent psychology, those who were nurses before are more empathic with patients with chronic diseases, and there are even those who were Internet operators. Their perception of workplace pressure is more accurate than that of many people with professional backgrounds.

There is still no unified conclusion between the two statements. When it comes to the application requirements, it has become the current situation of "different certification units have very different requirements."

In fact, you don’t have to worry about which statement is correct. It’s better to first understand the purpose of your own research.

If it is just a hobby, you want to learn to adjust your parent-child relationship or husband-wife relationship, and you have no intention of practicing, then there is no need to stick to the high threshold application requirements. Choose a course with practical content. It doesn’t matter even if the application requirements are looser. You will not lose if you can use what you learn in your own life.

If you really plan to make a living in psychological counseling, then I advise you to try to apply for a certificate with high requirements - not that the certificate is awesome, but that you can't even meet the higher application threshold, and it will be even harder for you to get the hundreds of hours of case experience and supervision hours required to enter the industry later. To put it bluntly, when recruiting assistant consultants in more formal consulting agencies, the first thing they look at is whether you have a college degree or above. Even if you don't have this, even if you have passed ten certificates, people won't even take a second look at your resume.

It sounds a lot like buying milk tea. The conditions for applying are a minimum delivery fee. Some stores give it away when you spend over 20, and some have a minimum delivery fee. However, whether the milk tea you get in the end is good or not has nothing to do with the delivery fee. It depends on the store's raw materials and craftsmanship - getting the certificate is just the beginning. The long-term training, case supervision, and personal experience that follow are all more time and effort than the two or three months of preparing for the exam.

Hey, to be honest, I have seen too many people struggle with the application requirements for a long time. After finally getting a certificate, they thought they could be a counselor. However, when they received a case for the first time, the visitor cried for half an hour and he panicked for half an hour. He couldn't even get the words right. The application requirements are never a hurdle that holds you back. If you really want to take this path, you will still have a lot of lessons to make up for later. If you just want to learn to play, there is no need to worry about whether the conditions are sufficient, as long as you can learn something.