I’m David, and I have been a qualified counsellor since 2021, however I have been practising since 2019 as a student counsellor. I gained my SEG Awards Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling from Wakefield College, and my Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills, and Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Studies, both from Swarthmore Education Centre in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
When I started an introduction to counselling course in 2016, I had no idea that it would change the course of my life. The course was only going to be a few weeks, but soon led to a Level 2 Counselling Certificate and I was hooked. A Level 2 Certificate progressed to a Level 3 Certificate, and finally to the Level 4 Diploma course. It was not something I planned, however I was not only enjoying the learning but I also knew it was a new career for me, as I looked to get out of the NHS.
Before Counselling
For 20 years I worked as an information analyst. I was not mathematically minded enough to be a statistician, and not technically minded for computer coding. My talent was that I could see patterns, discern facts and figures, and relay complex information in simple terms. This skill meant I was good enough to keep my job and gain good performance reviews, yet because of things I did not have talents in, I could not progress it as a career. After a while it started to break me and I knew I needed to get out somehow.
Counselling gave me that opportunity and it became clear to me that it was not only my way out of the NHS, but for the first time in a long time it was something I wanted to do. It gave me a new perspective and the training changed me as a person. During the training, you reveal yourself, learn things about who you are, about who you aren’t, and how you relate to people. There were a lot of things I had no idea about, and misconceptions that were dispelled. I needed headspace to reflect on who I was and what I was becoming. I don’t think anyone can come away from the training, or have therapy, without being changed in some way. That’s how therapy should be.
What Counselling Training Meant to Me
It gave me the space to reflect on my life, what I was doing, and why I was doing things. My training, and my own personal therapy, helped with the issues and feelings I had gained from my work situation, and also events in my personal life and how it shaped me. I learned a lot of things about myself that I had never considered. Things I had thought were not issues were, and things I thought were issues that weren’t.
I have seen the same with the clients I have worked with, and they have been as surprised at this as I was when it happened for me. Having therapy, being a client myself, helped me gain a better perspective on working with clients, and working with a wide range of clients at the UK Counselling Network, and bereaved parents at Charlies-Angel-Centre Foundation I developed my skills and therapeutic practice.
Where I Am Now
I look at where I was before and where I am now and things have become so much better for me. I’m a qualified counsellor, in practice with my own clients, and I also work with the NHS, but this time as a therapist rather than an analyst. I have learned much, and I am still learning, always learning. My most recent learning has been to train in couples therapy and it is something I will be branching out in to, but my most important lesson is that I’ve learned who I want to be.
I am a registered member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (registration number 392394) and an accredited member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (member number NCS21-02477) and have completed a BSc in Therapuetic Counselling at Leeds Beckett University, awarded with Upper Second Class Honours.
