Psychotherapists are responsible for helping people overcome their emotional issues and cope with challenging situations using a set of psychological treatments, like hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and psychodynamic therapy.
During the course of group sessions or in-person meetings, psychotherapists help people with all types of mental related difficulties, from drug abuse, domestic violence to post-traumatic stress and even eating disorders.
As well as talking to people and helping them deal with their problems, psychotherapists are responsible for assessing service users’ needs and then creating an appropriate treatment plan for them, which will provide them with a structured and focused way of addressing their problems.
Psychotherapists are also expected to maintain records, track their service users’ progress, and write reports.
Salary & benefits
The average annual salary for psychotherapists in the beginning stages of their careers ranges from about £21,000 to £28,000.
Then for the senior psychotherapists with lots of experience, they averagely earn from £46,000 and beyond annually.
Those counselors who work freelance typically earn considerably more as they sometimes earn up to £110 per hour.
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Working hours
As regards the working hours of Psychotherapists, they typically work for five days a week from 9 to 5, although sometimes, extra evening and weekend work may be asked of them to accommodate certain service users. Most psychotherapists choose to work on a freelance or part-time basis.
Entry
Pursuing a career path in this line of work entails that you would be needing an undergraduate degree in any discipline, but specifically studying a subject like social work, psychology, youth work, sociology or nursing automatically increases your chances of landing an entry-level position.
For those with the desire to work for the NHS or other public sector organizations, you ought to in addition to your bachelor complete a postgraduate degree in psychotherapy, with an institution accredited by the UK Council for Psychotherapy or British Psychoanalytic Council. Most prospective psychotherapists undertake these courses on a part-time basis while working simultaneously.
Training & progression
Psychotherapists methods of completing most of their training is using in-house workshops and training sessions. Nevertheless, immediately you’ve acquired some reasonable years of experience, the smartest thing to do is to become an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. This would typically enhance your reputation and give you leeway to a sets of additional training and networking opportunities.
There are psychotherapists who choose to specialize in a specific area of psychotherapy, like CBT or hypnotherapy, after which they focus on growing their reputation and clientele base.
Some enormous organizations, like the NHS, could give psychotherapists the needed opportunity of upward career progression into senior management positions.
Most people chooses to work on a freelance basis as earlier stated. Alternatively, you can always give something back to the community of psychotherapy by picking up a job as a university lecturer and grooming the next generation of psychotherapists.