r/UKTherapists

Hi, I have done the level 2 and 3 whilst working full time. I am sick of my current job and am strongly considering a total change of career direction. I really enjoyed the level 2 and 3 and am considering level 4. Also if it is relevant, I also have a degree in law (but I am not enjoying my work at all). If I was to do the level 4, what would my prospects be and would I need to do further training?

I am very much open to further training post qualification, but that is largely dependent on whether I can get a role with the level 4 that can keep me afloat whilst I continue studying.

I just want to be careful before I make any massive decisions. Many thanks in advance!

Hi there,

I focus on helping UK therapists and counsellors build an online presence.

I'm offering to design and build your site for free.

Why?

I'm looking for 3 case studies to help build my portfolio to help me drive new business in the future.

I'm UK based and this is totally legit. You could all be online this week.

If you're interested, please let me know?

There is huge upside for you to increase number of enquires, get a professional online presence and get found in Google and AI searches.

Thanks!

Edit: I’ve sorted this now- I’m using the form building tool in Konfidens.

I’ve started to set up my private practice and have got most of my ducks in a row. It’s the aspects that I feel should be fairly straight forward that I’m having real issues with like trying to format my contract document and intake form. I don’t have Word and use LibreOffice and when I’ve managed to do the documents and figure out how to change them into a word format- they are showing up as an error once uploaded to my secure service platform Konfidens.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom or advice for me before I loose my sanity. Has anyone used Konfidens before?

i just graduated with a 2:1 BSc for Psychology and want to go into Psychotherapy but i’m not sure what the best path forward is

i know there is a UKCP accreditation and a certain amount of supervised clinical hours needed

my original plan was to take a year out and then do a masters but i’m not sure if that’s what’s best, currently i am working in a cafe and im going to start doing some online CBT volunteering with Mind

what is the typical path to get into psychotherapy once people have graduated university?

I'm wondering how other therapists experience/do supervision? I'm still a relatively new therapist in CMH for a charity organisation. I have my organisation supervision which isn't the problem. It's clinical supervision I'm wondering about.

I don't know if I'm being really picky or expecting too much from the space and I feel like I'm doing it wrong? I am with my now 3rd supervisor because my first was very inappropriate and my second I found unhelpful, plus I moved jobs.

My current one I'm starting to feel unsure about. I feel like I want deeper reflection and conversations but I feel like they keep it very advicey, like I'll bring up a client issue and they will go on a schpiel on how they would handle it and what I could try, which is helpful of course on some level but I feel like something is missing. She can be a bit snippy sometimes and has disagreed with me in a way that feels she centers herself, I can't give an exact example but I have said something and she'll be like I don't agree, but leaves it as a blunt point with no discussion and it stings. I also know quite a bit about her personal life and history. I am in personal therapy too and wonder if I'm looking for supervision to be more therapyish? I dunno...

I want to bring it up with her but honestly am afraid how it will be taken.

What should supervision be like?

I graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MSc in Psychology of Mental Health (Conversion). Since then, I have worked in arts and cultural project management, including exhibition planning, artist coordination, and commercial operations. I had originally hoped to explore professional or research fields that connect psychology with art, but I have not yet found a clear route into this area.

My master’s programme was designed for students without an undergraduate psychology degree. It provided a theoretical foundation in mental health and psychological research, but the one-year programme did not include substantial counselling-skills training, clinical placements, or supervised client work. I was particularly interested in CBT, although much of what I learned about other therapeutic approaches is no longer fresh in my mind.

I’m currently living outside the UK and am considering whether and how to reconnect with psychology professionally. However, I have not decided that I definitely want to become a counsellor or psychotherapist. I would first like to explore the field through something more practical and professionally meaningful than studying alone at home.

Are there reputable introductory skills programmes, mentorship opportunities, supervised observation, volunteer roles, research positions, or mental health organisations I could join? (online programme is more comfortable for my current situation ).Would it be appropriate to look for a supervisor at this stage, even though I am not yet seeing clients? I would also appreciate suggestions about psychology-and-art-related pathways that may not involve becoming a traditional therapist.

I would be grateful for advice from psychologists, counsellors, trainees, researchers, or anyone who has followed a similar non-linear path.

Hi,

I wasn't expecting to ask this at all. I was just about to hand my finished placement paperwork and only by accident I found out my BACP membership expired in april.

This was completely unknown to me and now I am woried that my placement counselling hours will not count. Condition states Student agrees to be a member of bacp. How serious is this issue?

Is there anyway to rectify this? I know already I can't pay for missed months and get it backtracked, but I really don't want to repeat another year and delay my pracitce and incure more student debt for one lost email

Any ideas are welcome.

Thanks for anything really!

Husband has a high flying career and is doing very well but is having some major issues with relationships.

He upsets a lot of people and it’s causing him a lot of trouble. He’s finally receptive to help but my Google research is struggling to find an appropriate therapist.

His main issues to me (lay person) seem to be a lack of emotional intelligence, unawareness of how his behaviour is read by other people and how it impacts their views of him. He’s also terrible at managing juniors and this has got him in trouble (e.g high expectations and no understanding of how to appropriately manage under-performers or struggling juniors).

He’s often working 15hrs a day, it’s pretty unforgiving and he’ll need a therapist who understands these kind of work environments.

I am 25F graduated from my masters last December,2025 but my course ended in September 2025. I graduated from University of Liverpool in masters in advanced computer science.

Since last September. I did not apply to a single job. I get very anxious when I think about it. I am a physically weak person.still I chose to do physically demanding jobs and had many health complications over applying for an IT job.Even now, I cry when I think of applying to a job and end up not applying. Am very bad at interviews and talking to people.where I am currently working at(a warehouse) people are very rude to me and say I am slow and do not do my job properly. They are right . I messed up too many times.

I feel like “if I can’t even do a simple task,how can I do something complex”.

I tried as a waitress and I was scolded all the time for being bad at it. I keep forgetting things and I can’t keep track track of time or what’s happening around me. I try harder and harder but it’s getting worse and worse. I keep double checking everything I do to not make mistakes and then it turns out late.If I do anything fast,there’s always a mistake in it

How do I improve myself

I’m considering applying to the British Psychotherapy Foundation (BPF) Foundation Course in London, with the aim of going on to the Psychodynamic Psychotherapy training afterwards.

Has anyone here done either of these courses, or heard from current or former trainees about their experience with the BPF?

I’m interested to hear any thoughts on the courses/organisation overall and whether you would recommend them.

I'm a US-based LCSW, and my client is leaving for grad school in the UK, but not staying permanently. From what I can see, I CAN continue to see her as long as I update my paperwork with her that any disputes or claims must only be brought in US courts...anyone else see an issue with this? My insurance says they only cover US claims. Ofc I'll also be updating the treatment plan/crisis and safety planning... THANKS

Hi there,

I am a 46-year-old freelance journalist in the UK and I am thinking of retraining as a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist. If anyone is able to comment on my plan, I'd be most grateful, as this is a daunting (but exciting!) prospect to take on in midlife with a wife who also works and a 17-month-old son.

1. I have been accepted to the BPF's Foundation Course, which I expect to start in October, ahead of the three-year Psychodynamic Psychotherapy qualification.
2. I have also been accepted to a "self-paced mental health coaching" course by a UK charity called Overcome. The course, which is PCI-accredited, uses Motivational Interviewing and other ACT-related techniques to offer short-term mental health coaching or support to low-risk and medium-risk clients.
   1. I've polled various informed people's views on whether this is a good idea. Some have warned me that learning Overcome's more "directive" techniques will just mean that I have to unlearn these when I proceed with my Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Others have said that, in fact, it will be useful in practice to have experience of more "directive" techniques if a client asks or needs such support.
   2. I am aware that MI/ACT etc stem from a different modality than strict Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. One of my reasons for choosing the BPF path is that it offers ways to be a modality pluralist and I anticipate this is how I'll feel about practice.
   3. The reality is that my journalism work is winding down just as my family needs increase and as I look at a multi-year retraining project. The training that Overcome offers is short, at a hundred hours, even if it is PCI-accredited; so my thinking is that this can offer a modest new stream of work to support my needs as I continue in parallel on the longer-term BPF-oriented objective.
3. I have, meanwhile, also applied to UCL's MSc in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies. The MSc is non-clinical, and rooted in a more pure psychoanalytic tradition, but I can't help but think the extra degree will buttress my marketability when beginning private practice. Nor would I deny that I relish the prospect of returning to the university setting.
4. And as an experienced, grizzled, burned-out journalist, I do feel like all of the above could make for excellent writing material. And I would love to continue writing as a journalist-turned-psychotherapist in the future.
5. So – all of this is to say that I would love to know your thoughts on whether this sounds like a good plan. Any red flags? Any suggestions?
   1. Does anyone have any experience with Overcome? Trustpilot rates them highly but I want to make sure this is a smart move.
   2. Do I take on the MSc (if I'm accepted) full-time to get it out of the way? Do I space it out over two or a few years? Or do I just skip it?
   3. Any tips on how to speed up this whole process? Or tips of any kind?
   4. And finally, having just read a post in this sub from a few months ago, does anyone want to comment anew on potential (lack of?) earnings or unrealistic expectations?

Thank you everyone!

S.

Good evening everyone
I finished an MA in May and graduated last month/registered with BACP. Feels great to have great to have gotten to this stage after a busy 3 years!

I've gone straight into a freelance contract with a small counselling organisation locally. I'd started as a voluntary placement and then once qualified switched to a paid position, which meant I was able to start getting paid straight away - all good.

But now I have the reality of non-student working. Of my 4 weekly clients 2 have just said they want to pause counselling due to outside factors and 2 have asked to go to fortnightly sessions. So now I'm down to one session a week, and feeling a bit demoralised.

The organisation have said that referrals/enquiries are typically down over the summer, and I've heard elsewhere that is true, and likely to pick up from September.

I'm sure this is a common theme and the fact I'm just starting out and have only a small number of clients makes these instences have more impact. And I know that the transitions/starts/stops of clients is going to be present through all this work.

Just wondered if others had/have similar experience and if you have any tips for how to manage this personally? Also any advice of things you wish you'd known/done at this early stage of work would be much appreciated.
Thank you.

Hey!

My partner and I are looking for a couples therapist and before people refer me to psychology today or self space we have tried both of them. We have seen a few and still haven't found one we think is deeply helpful, I didn't feel like it was particularly insightful.

I have an amazing psychologist for myself and they and I have been seeing them for years but they are based in Australia from when I lived here and I zoom with them from here still so they don't have recommendations in the UK. We will most likely do via zoom but d anyone is in east London could go in person.

I'm looking for someone a bit more insightful and experienced and if they can help as my partner and I navigate around things coming up such as navigating growing our family whilst having ADHD and etc.

So recommendations for specific people would be amazing.

I am an outpatient physiotherapist diagnosed with autism & ADHD, and and struggling significantly with burnout. I am considering alternative career choices, and am drawn to the possibility of working as a neurodiversity assessment practitioner I.e., working as part of the MDT to help inform diagnosis for the main assessor (particularly for autism). I suspect that this would be less overwhelming than my current job but open to your insights My questions are:

1. is it possible for a physio to do this job?
2. would this role be less overwhelming and more sustainable than my current job?
3. how do I become one? I need Ados training and experience - how do I get experience in this field as most companies want this before applying? I am training to work with paediatric pts in MSK which may help.

Any insight is appreciated. Thanks

I'm a student with The Centre of Therapy and Counselling Studies (CTCS) on their Level 11 CBT postgrad programme (Scotland).

I'm posting this here as a PSA for anyone looking to train as a psychotherapist in Glasgow/Edi.

If you're looking for a programme with support and guidance, especially if you're changing careers like I am, PLEASE do your research before studying with this organisation. However, I'd personally recommend that you... don't.

Their Level 11 is now awarded by Abertay University, so I enrolled thinking that though they're a charity, the programme would be run at a professional university level. This has not been the case whatsoever. Abysmal doesn't begin to describe the experience I've invested nearly £10K into. I genuinely can't get over how they're even still in business at this point. No consistent student support. No clear communication. Awful.

Tutors never seemed to know what the details of specific assignments were and had to ask the admin team (???), there were similar issues with supervisors. Constant uncertainty. Never any straight answers. Safety planning was covered months after we started with real placement clients. So unethical. The list goes on and on. Absolutely nothing was straightforward and the entire experience has essentially been self-led and just so so disappointing.

There were even instances where many in my cohort felt concerns were minimised and dismissed when we raised them internally with staff. I will say the majority of staff/tutors seem like competent psychotherapists at the mercy of a poorly constructed programme though. However, their CEO seems to deflect real issues unlike anything I've ever seen. The irony of someone, who is a therapist themselves, not taking accountability for the state of this programme is beyond me. And Abertays lack of oversight is worse. This experience has taught me that regulation needs to be so much tighter in this vocation.

On that note, I should say that I've heard CTCS are trying to make improvements because of recent complaints put into Abertay by some other students but, in any case, my experience (and my wider cohort's) has been so bad that I felt it was almost a duty of care to post this for anyone looking to start training. Maybe I was naive and this is a common experience within other therapy training programmes, but I thought I'd share all the same.

Hi all,

For those who transitioned from another career, perhaps corporate where the salary is higher than a full private practice, how did you deal with the idea of going towards a pay cut? How has this impacted your life?
I'm about to embark on a five-year MSc and I currently have a very well-paid corporate job. My salary in PP, even assuming a premium rate and full practice, will never reach the same amount I'm making now. I'm a bit scared about how my quality of life will be impacted by this and at the same time I'd love to become a psychotherapist.

I wonder if any of you have been in this situation before training or if you had to consider this as well?

I know that this career should not be considered for money but it is inevitable that salary is an important part of our lives, I'm a bit torn about this dilemma.