The world of Counselling in Manchester has changed since I first trained in 1984.The first Counselling course I undertook was a Certificate in Counselling at a local college in Manchester, in the summer of 1984.It was a one Years course, it introduced, me for the first time, into the whole world of Counselling.
I learnt about various ways of Counselling, such as the Rogerian and Egan models.One a Process model of Counselling, the other a Task oriented model of Counselling.As well as learning about the different models of Counselling I also learnt how to apply the models through role-play and practice.This I enjoyed greatly, even though it was quite daunting at first, as I had done nothing like this before, as my profession was as a college lecturer, in Politics.
To obtain the Certificate in Counselling I had to do 30 hours of Counselling with a ‘Real’ client, this was even more concerning as “Real”Counselling was far more anxiety provoking than all the previous role plays I had undertaken on the course. However I learnt a lot, and the tutors indicated I was quite “good” at Counselling, which pleased me greatly.I survived the course, and after finishing the course, I looked around at what to do next in the field of Counselling, as I had enjoyed the course and especially working with clients.However at that time in Manchester, there were no further Advanced courses in Counselling as there is now.The BACP had not yet emerged, and the Counselling world was small compared to the time of writing in 2013.
I decided that I wanted to pursue the dream of Counselling, and I considered starting up as a private Counsellor in Manchester in October 1985. However I also loved teaching Politics and was hesitant to give this up, for a world I was not certain I would be a success in. I decided to continue for the time being, as a lecturer in Politics, and considered doing perhaps an advanced course in Counselling, if I could find one.It seemed that I would have to travel outside Manchester if I wanted to continueMy studies in the world of Counselling
The above picture then shows how limiting the field of Counselling was in the mid 1980s.I decided however if I had to travel outside Manchester it was to be in the area of Psychotherapy and not counseling.
Bob Cooke 2013
