At present there are no national standards for counselling and psychotherapy.
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Under current regulations anyone can set themselves up as a psychotherapist or counsellor and charge patients for consultations. This leads to a wide variation in the level of competence and expertise available.
Those individuals using counselling services should be aware of what to expect from a counsellor and should be encouraged to work with counsellors who subscribe to professional bodies and adhere to recognised codes of ethics and practice.
Counselling is different from other forms of help; the focus is to enable you to clarify the issues about which you are troubled. This will involve you in exploring those issues in private with someone who is trained to listen and has no other role in your life. Through this confidential process, your counsellor will be seeking to enable you to clarify your thoughts and feelings. Counselling is a positive process, which is often associated with times of personal crisis. It may involve talking about painful parts of your life and therefore, you may feel worse before you feel better.
Counselling and psychotherapy can be helpful for a wide range of difficulties such as:-
- depression
- relationship problems
- stress
- anxiety/panic attacks
- low self-esteem
- eating problems
- sexual problems
- bereavement and loss
- trauma resulting from accident, assault or abuse.
Many counsellors work within the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy's (BACP) "Ethical Framework for Good Practice" which ensure that what you speak about in your session remains confidential.
