What qualifications are needed to open a psychological counseling store?

Nowadays, when opening a store that provides psychological counseling services to the general public, it is legally required to only have a business license with a business scope that includes "psychological counseling services (excluding diagnosis and treatment services)". It does not require special pre-approval from the health and civil affairs departments. The online rumors that "you must hold a psychological counselor qualification certificate to open a store" and "you need a medical institution qualification" are all misunderstandings. The former is a professional admission certificate that was canceled in 2017, and the latter is a qualification required to carry out psychological therapy and psychiatric diagnosis and treatment services.

Speaking of which, I accompanied my junior student to apply for a studio license in Chengdu two years ago. When I went to the window of the government affairs center, the other party only saw the rental contract and ID card information. The certificate was issued within three working days without any professional-related certificates. At that time, the junior student was still carrying his training certificate from the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, ready to show it, but it was completely useless.

Of course, this does not mean that there is no need for "qualifications" to open a store. The biggest controversial point in the industry now is that there is no legal access threshold, which is equivalent to handing over the screening power to the market and industry self-regulation. Some people think this is a good thing and will not block those practitioners who have thousands of hours of practical experience but no certification. Others think it is too lax, which has led to many people who have not even learned basic ethics to just open a store with a "senior psychological counselor" certificate issued by a pheasant organization, which has deceived many inexperienced visitors.

Practitioners who really want to open a store for a long time will basically save themselves enough professional endorsements recognized by the industry, such as the second- and third-level psychological counselor certificates of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the professional title of psychotherapist, the registered psychologist/supervisor qualifications of the Chinese Psychological Society registration system, or the clinical qualifications. A master's or doctoral degree in clinical/counseling psychology. Although these are not legal requirements, if you put them at the front desk, visitors will feel at ease when they come in. If there is any dispute, it can also prove that you have received systematic training, which is much more useful than those pheasant certificates that can't even be checked by the issuing unit.

I met a colleague from Shenzhen at an industry exchange meeting before, but he didn't understand the boundaries. The store's promotion dared to say "radical cure for depression and bipolar disorder" and even privately prescribed so-called "mood-regulating nutrients" to visitors. When the visitors' families reported him for operating outside the scope, not only was the license revoked, but they were also compensated 120,000 yuan. It was really not worth the loss.

If you plan to cooperate with schools and communities to open on-site psychological counseling rooms, you may have to meet additional requirements of the partners. For example, some schools will require on-site counselors to hold a teacher qualification certificate, and community public welfare service points may require a social worker certificate. These are requirements at the cooperation level and are not legally required qualifications for opening a store.

In fact, after working in this industry for a long time, I feel that the so-called qualifications are basically two things. One is the legal business certificate from the industrial and commercial industry, and the other is the reputation you have accumulated through each case. The latter is more effective than any certificate. I have seen many people get one. People who piled up Internet celebrity certificates opened their stores, but they closed after less than half a year. I also saw a young girl with a professional background. She didn't take those fancy certificates, and she relied on case studies to do a solid job. Old visitors introduced new visitors, and now her appointments are scheduled for three months.