What qualifications are needed for psychological counseling

At present, there is no unified national professional qualification for psychological counseling in China. The validity of a practitioner's qualifications is often supported by the three dimensions of official technical title, industry association certification, and system training background. It is difficult to directly judge whether the other person is qualified for consulting work by looking at a certain certificate alone.

When talking about this, many people’s first reaction will be to mention the second- and third-level psychological counselor certificates before 2017. It was a professional qualification certificate issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. It was withdrawn from the professional qualification catalog after 2017, and the exam has been stopped long ago. The certificate obtained before is still valid, but it only means that the certificate holder passed the basic theory examination at that time, and it does not mean that he has the ability to handle cases independently.

In the current official system, what is directly related to psychological counseling is the professional title of psychotherapist issued by the National Health Commission, which is a health professional technical qualification and requires a professional background in medicine and psychology to apply for it. Practicing in public settings such as hospitals and community health service centers is basically a requirement; the other is the registered psychology in the registration system of the Chinese Psychological Society Although it is an industry certification with no mandatory effect, it requires at least 2 years of systematic training, more than 120 hours of supervision, more than 100 hours of case experience, and must be jointly recommended by two senior practitioners. It is highly recognized in the industry, and universities and professional consulting organizations will basically give priority to this certification when recruiting people.

When I was working as a resident supervisor in a private psychological institution in Hangzhou two years ago, I met a young girl who had just entered the industry. She spent more than 8,000 to sign up for an online training called "obtaining a senior psychological counselor certificate in 45 days." A traumatic flashback, the visitor collapsed on the spot crying and wanted to harm herself with broken glass. She was so frightened that she didn’t even know the basic crisis intervention procedures. In the end, it was me who rushed over and stabilized the situation for half an hour to stabilize the situation. Later, she herself said that the crash training did not even teach the most basic ethical principles and identification of mental disorders, and the certificate she got was of no practical use other than being used as a publicity stunt for the organization.

There are actually quite a lot of differences in the identification of qualifications in the industry. Some people think that they must have an officially issued qualification certificate to be compliant. Otherwise, consultants in non-public settings will be operating without a license. Some people think that the current certification model is more suitable for psychological counseling. Due to the characteristics of the consulting industry, after all, this is a job that relies on practical experience. The certificates obtained by memorizing the test questions cannot screen out those who can actually do consulting. On the contrary, the registration system's model of training, supervision, and practical experience can better screen out the kind of "paper consultants" who can only do certification.

In fact, to use an inappropriate analogy, looking at the qualifications of a psychological counselor is like looking at the level of a chef. You can’t just look at whether the person has obtained a chef training certificate. You have to look at whether he has practiced in a regular restaurant and whether he is an experienced chef. Customers who have been trained by his chef and have eaten his food have given positive feedback. Many of the much-hyped "international certifications" and "senior psychological counselor certificates" are the same as the "excellent chef" certificates that can be obtained for ten yuan on the street. They are both attractive and useless.

Of course, different scenarios have different qualification requirements. If you go to a public psychiatric hospital for psychological consultation, the consultants will basically have psychotherapists or licensed medical practitioners, and compliance is the highest. If you go to a psychological counseling center in a university, the counselors will basically have a registration system certification or a psychology-related teacher qualification certificate. If you are looking for a counselor on a commercial platform, the threshold is much more flexible, and you have to pay more attention to the other person's practical background. Don't place an order easily just by looking at a bunch of dazzling certificates on the homepage.

If you are a newbie who plans to enter the industry, don’t be fooled by the market propaganda that “you can earn over 10,000 yuan a month with a certificate”. There is really no psychological counseling qualification that can directly get you started after taking a test. You can study systematically for two or three years, find a regular supervisor, and have enough personal experience before slowly accepting cases. These accumulations are more useful than saving ten useless graduation certificates.