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Are there any extra costs involved in the training?

You really need to have an internet connection that is reliable and a computer to undertake our courses, as well as a private, reliably-available space for confidential classwork. For online sessions we use Zoom, which you can download and use for free. Your assignments are submitted via online web-forms, or Powerpoint-compatible files for presentation materials, which you can create and edit in Microsoft Office, or if you prefer, a compatible alternative such as the free-to-use LibreOffice which can be downloaded and used for free from the internet.

What can I do to improve my chances of being accepted onto the course?

We offer places to eligible course applicants in date order of application. You need to meet the criteria listed on our website, and as listed in the course specification for CSK-L2 listed on the CPCAB website, but we do not 'cherry-pick' candidates or compare applicants with each other. Where the course is near to its start-date, we may prioritise those applicants who respond promptly to our request for an interview over those who appear not to be responding, due to the time-constraints of the process involved with interviewing.

Counselling trainings stretch candidates at times, and you may identify yourself out of your 'comfort zone' at times. In interview, your interviewer may explore if you are in a life situation where you can cope with this. For example, they may choose to check how robust your personal support-system is outside the classroom how heavily your competing life-responsibilities currently weigh on you, and for life-events which are counter indicators to embarking on the training (eg. a recent bereavement). In certain cases, our centres may advise that you reapply later or (normally for those progressing on their existing training path) our centres may make an offer that is conditional on your engagement in personal therapy.

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Is it possible to my entire training online?

Above Level 3, not entirely. If you decide to follow the training route set out by CPCAB, then you can train online for levels 2 and 3, after which point (at Level 4) CPCAB require that there should be an element of face-to-face training. Our centres offer starter-level trainings at Level 2 as a fully online option as well as an online Level 3 follow-on course. For CPCAB's Level 4 counselling training, the majority of your training would be on-site, so at that point in your training you would need to enrol with a local provider.

If you intend to take a non-CPCAB training route after Level 3, or are looking for a more specialised training (eg. for pastoral care, working with children, or where the provider has other special requirements) you should check with your chosen provider to make sure you will meet their requirement at that point in your training.

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What is the difference between CPCAB and BACP?

The Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body (CPCAB) is the awarding body for your course qualifications. our centres liaise with CPCAB to ensure that our counselling courses and their tutors are rigorously and independently assessed, and that our training centre meets the professional standards of CPCAB. CPCAB is the only awarding body in the UK run by counsellors for counsellors, which makes it ideally placed to assess the standards to which its centres operate..

BACP (the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy) is a key professional membership body for UK-based counsellors and psychotherapists. It has a role in setting standards and protecting the public and represents the interests of the counselling profession.

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What qualifications and experience will my tutor have?

Our trainers are all highly experienced practitioners in counselling and are CPCAB-approved. All our teaching staff have over a decade's as practitioners in counselling and psychotherapy. The teaching staff at the centre have experience in other counselling training contexts and have taught counselling training groups in multiple training contexts at Levels 1-6. Our team members have previously programme-led or taught counselling-courses for Guildford College, Banbury Counselling Academy, Newbury College and University of Greenwich.

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There are lots of options for training. How do I find the right one?

First think about where you want to end up. If you want to be recognised by a particular professional body, If you want to be recognised by a particular professional body, or be acceptable to a particular employer, check with the professional body, training school, or employer in question, and find out what they need from you to be accepted..

Make sure, if you are selecting a starter-course, to make sure that it will be sufficient to take you to your qualification at the next-level. Not all starter trainings are equivalent, and may not necessarily be what you need to be accepted on a CPCAB Level 3 training. To know if a prior training is sufficient for entry to your next course, ask the training centre providing the further training, not the centre offering the previous training, as they may not have up-to-date information, or may not reliably know the current status.

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