An applicant for the Practitioner Training included in their application form that they held a degree in nursing and had 12 years experience of psychiatric nursing with adults. They had completed a counselling course 4 years ago and offered an interview. When seen, it became clear that the applicant had extensive psychiatric experience and came across as a warm, engaging person who dearly wanted to change career within the mental health field. However, their counselling qualification was a three month evening course. This had consisted of theoretical teaching and role play with other students only. They had never been in a formal psychological therapy situation with clients.
The applicant argued that they used counselling skills every day in their job. However it transpired that they worked on an in-patient unit and only had ad hoc opportunities to talk to patients. This was usually for a few minutes at a time and rarely in a controlled, set-up, private environment. Regular meetings which could follow on from each other were practically impossible. The applicant did not have experience of offering counselling within the therapeutic boundaries typically observed in psychotherapy.
The interviewers looked for areas which might help to compenmsate for this lack of experience. However but the applicant was unable to talk with much psychological depth about any patient. They did not have experience in any counselling type voluntary setting such as the Samaritans. Neither had they had any personal therapy experiences.
The applicant was not offered a place on the Practitioner Training Course. The decision was made on the grounds that they would have felt out of their depth at the starting level of the course and in relation to fellow students. However along with feedback, the course offered the applicant advice on how to obtain basic counselling experience, and invited them to apply again in the future.
