In episode 124 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, Ken Kelly and Rory Lees-Oakes talk to a special guest about her journey through counselling training. ‘Check-In with CPCAB’ then looks at assessment tools in counselling. Last, the presenters explore the value of psycho-education in counselling.
Who better to tell us about a student’s journey than a recent student herself!
Ken and Rory talk with Julie Naylor, who has recently qualified following a four-year period in which she worked her way through the level 2 introductory course, level 3 certificate and finally level 4 diploma.
Julie talks about her motivations to become a counsellor, and the challenges she faced during this time.
Describing how she was able to overcome these, Julie names several resources that she has found invaluable during her training:
On-demand access to a rich lecture library covering theory, skills, and professional development for counselling students—Mapped to the UK awarding body criteria
“The Student Library has been BRILLIANT, I can’t recommend it enough!
It has been a lifeline in helping me prepare for practice and my first clients. If you’re considering it, go-for-it, it’s absolutely worth it!”
Kelly – Graduated and now in practice.
Rory speaks to Ray van der Poel (Head of Business and Development) at CPCAB (Counselling & Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body) about the use of assessment tools in counselling.
Ray lists various tools – PHQ-9, GAD-7, Beck’s Depression Inventory, CORE-10 and CORE-34 – choosing to focus on the CORE ones as he has recently spoken about these with John Mellor-Clark, one of the founders of CORE IMS, the company responsible for producing these.
Just as CPCAB is the UK’s only awarding body run by counsellors for counsellors, the CORE assessment tools are designed by counsellors for use by counsellors.
The completion of counselling assessment tools is often seen as a tick-box exercise and is explained away to clients as relating only to the need to collect before-and-after data for funding purposes.
In contrast, Ray describes how they can be integrated into the therapeutic process to the benefit of both clients and counsellors.
Comparing assessment tools to a thermometer that can take a snapshot of a person’s current wellbeing, Ray reports that John Mellor-Clark sees their use not as an administrative task but as a clinical skill, offering two key benefits:
Different organisations have different requirements regarding the frequency of completing assessment tools in counselling. They are commonly used at the first and last session, but some agencies choose to use them every time.
If you are in private practice, then of course you have the choice to choose the frequency yourself.
For more information, please see CPCAB’s website.
Rory has also written a handout on assessing clients. You can download this free of charge here; it is also available through the Handouts Vault and Counselling Study Resource (CSR).
Get on-demand Certified CPD that is implementable in your practice
Psycho-education may at first sight seem to clash with the person-centred principle of being non-directive.
Rory explains, however, that understanding of the human brain has come a long way even since Carl Rogers’ death in 1987. His view is that we have an ethical imperative to share with clients information that can help them.
For example, it can be very freeing for a client who has been struggling with shame and guilt at how they reacted in a stressful situation to have this normalised through psycho-education on how the human brain and body respond to traumatic events.
You’ll find various relevant lectures – e.g. on trauma, neuroplasticity and Stockholm syndrome – in the CSR.
Assessing Clients
*Check in with CPCAB is proudly sponsored by CPCAB, the only awarding body run by counsellors for counsellors. To learn more about CPCAB qualifications and to get more detailed information on today’s podcast topic, visit CPCAB.co.uk.