Most people who train as a therapist do it alongside a job, often while raising children, and almost always while paying for it themselves. The training takes years rather than months, it costs considerably more than the course fee suggests, and a good part of it happens outside the classroom.
This is what the route actually looks like in the UK, using the figures the professional bodies publish rather than the ones people guess at.
Counselling and psychotherapy are two different routes
The words get used interchangeably in conversation, but the training routes are not the same, and choosing between them early saves a lot of backtracking.
Counselling is the route BACP sets out, in three stages. An introduction to counselling, usually eight to 12 weeks at a further education college. Then a certificate in counselling skills, generally a year part time. Then core practitioner training at diploma level or above, which BACP says should involve at least two years of classroom tuition and a minimum of 300 guided learning hours.
Psychotherapy is the route UKCP oversees, and it is longer. UKCP puts it at three to six years part time, usually starting at postgraduate level, with around 450 hours of supervised clinical practice depending on the modality. Some organisations offer psychotherapeutic counselling at Level 5, which does not require a degree first.
This is not a hierarchy. A skilled counsellor and a skilled psychotherapist both help people, and plenty of clients would struggle to tell you which they are seeing. The difference is in the depth of the training, the length of it, and the tradition behind it.
How long it takes in practice
Add up the stages and the honest answer for counselling is three to four years from the introductory course to qualifying, if nothing interrupts. For psychotherapy, four to six is more realistic, and psychoanalytic trainings often run longer still.
Almost nobody does it full time. Courses are built around people who work, which is why an evening and weekend commitment stretched over years is the norm rather than the exception.
What the course itself costs
BACP publishes current ranges for the core training, and they vary widely depending on the level you train at.
| Type of training | Cost |
|---|---|
| Diploma in counselling | £2,200 to £3,000 a year |
| Foundation degree | Up to £6,000 a year |
| Master’s level training | £12,000 to £15,000 |
Those are the headline numbers, and they are the ones people budget for. They are also the smaller part of the picture.
The costs that arrive after the course fee
Training carries a set of running costs that continue for as long as you are training, and in some cases for the rest of your working life.
- Supervision. BACP puts this at £30 to £80 an hour, and recommends one hour of supervision for every eight hours of counselling, at least fortnightly. On a busy placement that adds up quickly.
- Your own therapy. BACP’s own figure is £40 to £80 a session. Weekly, over four years, this is often the single largest cost of qualifying.
- Professional insurance. Around £50 to £80 a year.
- Membership and registration fees, which start during training and never stop.
- Travel, books, DBS checks, and the time cost of a placement that is almost always unpaid.
It is worth doing this arithmetic before you enrol rather than in year two. A diploma advertised at £2,500 a year can comfortably cost three times that once supervision and personal therapy are counted.
Your own therapy is part of the training, not an extra
This is the part that surprises people, and the part that costs the most.
UKCP trainings generally follow the standard of 160 hours of personal therapy across the training, a minimum of 40 hours a year for four years, normally with a UKCP registered psychotherapist or equivalent. Psychoanalytic trainings at BPC member institutes ask for considerably more. The Tavistock’s adult psychoanalytic psychotherapy training, for instance, requires analysis at least three times weekly for the whole four years, with a BPC accredited psychoanalyst or psychoanalytic psychotherapist of at least five years standing.
BACP sets no personal therapy requirement centrally, though a good number of BACP accredited courses set one of their own. Check your course handbook rather than assuming either way.
The financial weight of this is real. Weekly therapy at £70 a session, over a four year training, is more than £13,000, on top of the course. Many therapists offer a concessionary rate to trainees precisely because they remember this, and because a trainee commits to weekly work for years rather than months. We keep a list of therapists who do, on our personal therapy for trainee therapists page, with their registering body and session formats on each profile.
The placement, and the question of unpaid hours
Every route requires supervised client work. BACP core training asks for a supervised placement of at least 100 client hours, the majority of them face to face. UKCP puts the figure at around 450 hours of supervised clinical practice.
Placements are usually with charities, counselling agencies, schools, hospices or student services. They are also, almost without exception, unpaid. A trainee can spend a year or more seeing clients, paying for their own supervision to do it, and earning nothing from the work.
Whether that is defensible is an open argument in the profession, and one worth having. In the meantime, the practical advice is to start looking for a placement much earlier than feels necessary. Good ones are competitive, waiting lists are common, and a course that helps you find one is worth paying more for than a course that leaves you to it.
What the training asks of you personally
The logistics are the easy part to write about. The rest is harder to put in a table.
Training changes how you listen. Most people find that unsettling before they find it useful. Conversations with friends and family start to sound different, and it takes a while to work out when to leave your training at the door.
Personal therapy is not an administrative requirement dressed up as development. It is how you find out what it is like to sit in the other chair, to be the person who cannot think of anything to say, to notice you have been avoiding a subject for three weeks. You cannot ask a client to do something you have never done yourself.
Experiential groups, which most courses include, can be exposing in a way the prospectus does not quite convey. So can being observed, recorded and assessed while doing something you are not yet good at.
And life does not pause for four years. A great many trainees go through a bereavement, a separation, an illness or a birth partway through. Courses are generally more humane about this than people fear, and taking a year out is common and not a failure. Some people stop altogether and find the training was still worth doing. That is a legitimate outcome, not a wasted investment.
Questions worth asking before you choose a course
- Which register does it lead to? Ask specifically, and ask whether graduates are eligible immediately or need further hours.
- Is the course accredited by the body whose register you want to join?
- What are the personal therapy requirements, how many hours, at what frequency, and which registers count for the therapist?
- Does the course find your placement, or are you expected to find it yourself?
- What is the total cost, including supervision, personal therapy, insurance and membership, not just tuition?
- What happens if you need to take a year out?
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to qualify as a therapist?
For counselling, three to four years from an introductory course to a diploma, allowing for the placement. For psychotherapy, UKCP puts full training at three to six years part time, and psychoanalytic trainings often run longer. Very few people train full time.
Do I need a degree to start?
Not for the counselling route. BACP’s pathway starts with an introductory course open to anyone, and core training at diploma level does not require a prior degree. Full psychotherapy training with UKCP usually starts at postgraduate level, though some organisations offer psychotherapeutic counselling at Level 5 which does not require a degree first.
What does it cost in total?
The course itself ranges from £2,200 to £3,000 a year for a diploma, up to £6,000 a year for a foundation degree, or £12,000 to £15,000 at master’s level. On top of that, supervision at £30 to £80 an hour, personal therapy at £40 to £80 a session, and insurance at £50 to £80 a year. The additional costs frequently exceed the tuition.
Do I have to be in therapy myself while training?
For most psychotherapy trainings, yes. UKCP trainings generally require 160 hours across the training, a minimum of 40 a year over four years. BACP does not require it centrally, but many BACP accredited courses do. Your course handbook is the authority, and it will also say which register your therapist has to hold.
Is the placement paid?
Almost never. Trainees typically complete their client hours with charities, agencies or schools on an unpaid basis, while paying for their own supervision to do so. It is worth budgeting for a year or more of working without income from the work.
Can I train while working full time?
Many people do, and courses are designed with that in mind. The pressure point is usually the placement rather than the teaching, because client sessions have to happen when clients are available, which often means evenings. Talk to the course about placement hours before you commit.
When you need a therapist of your own
If you are starting training and looking for personal therapy that meets your course requirements, the therapists on our personal therapy for trainee therapists page have told us they offer a concessionary rate to trainees. Each profile shows their registering body, modality and whether they work in person, online or both.
If you are looking for something else, search the full directory by area, modality and session type. Every therapist on The Therapist Finder is qualified, registered and independent, and we check credentials before a profile goes live.
Where these figures come from
Training stages, guided learning hours, placement hours, supervision ratios and all cost ranges are from BACP’s careers and training guidance. Psychotherapy training length, level and the 450 hours of supervised clinical practice are from UKCP. The 160 hours of personal therapy figure is the UKCP standard from its Standards of Education and Training. The three times weekly analysis requirement is from the Tavistock and Portman’s adult psychoanalytic psychotherapy training. Figures were checked in September 2026 and course fees change, so treat them as a guide and confirm with the course.
