If psychotherapy is something you have always been interested in as a career or something you are looking into as a career change, read this article before being ripped off. There are hundreds of places offering psychotherapy training in many different approaches to psychotherapy. Training fees vary considerably depending on which company you choose to train with but almost all of them are very expensive, considering what you get for your money. Before deciding on paying for training there are three questions you should ask yourself in order avoid being ripped off.

Psychotherapy training rip off 1 - MONEY

Almost all psychotherapy training is going to be expensive and most training centers will expect you to pay all the fees up front. This could mean an initial outlay of several thousand, something if you rush into you may quickly regret. One reason psychotherapy training can be so expensive, yet still manage to get enough people willing to pay for training, is that they claim that the training pays for itself. What they mean is that if you do psychotherapy training you can work as a psychotherapist once you've finished the training and pretty soon be earning lots more money than you initially paid out. This is true - if you get work as a psychotherapist. If you rush into paying for training in the hope you get work afterwards but don't then the money is gone and not coming back. An objection could be that even if you don't find work you still have had the psychotherapy training, you still have the knowledge so the money isn't wasted and you haven't been ripped off. This is true, if and only if, you are willing to pay out all that money just to learn and are not counting on earning it back. Psychotherapy training, when it is offered, usually concentrates the selling pitch on the training paying for itself not on the training being worth the money! To avoid being ripped off, be aware of psychotherapy training providers who make a big deal about earning back the money you have to spend.

Psychotherapy training rip off 2 - CONTENT

Before paying for psychotherapy training you need to be sure that the training is worth paying for. This involves checking two things, firstly whether this particular kind of psychotherapy is worth being trained in, and secondly whether the training on offer is worth the money. There are many difficult approaches to psychotherapy, some have developed over long periods of time and have high efficacy rates and others are new approaches with unknown results. If you choose to be trained in something no-one has heard of you need to take into account that no-one will be looking for it when you are ready to accept clients. Another thing to consider if your chosen psychotherapy is very new is that even if it is popular today it might not be in five years time, are you prepared to spend thousands being retrained later? Charging thousands for psychotherapy training you can't benefit from a few years later is a rip off.

Once you have chosen what kind of psychotherapy training you want, to avoid being ripped off you need to carefully check what the training you are being offered consists of. Psychotherapy training will cost about 100 times more than a good book on that subject written by an expert. If you are serious about psychotherapy training you should buy a good book and read it, then ask your potential training provider to give you an outline of the training program. Check to see that the psychotherapy 'training' isn't just a very expensive psychotherapy for beginners. Two things a psychotherapy book will not be able to give you is practical experience and advice on setting up and managing your business. Good psychotherapy training will always offer the former and great psychotherapy training with offer the latter as well.

Psychotherapy training rip off - 3 QUALIFICATIONS

All psychotherapy training promises some kind of qualification at the end of it. Qualifications are only worth having if they are widely accepted. I could say that anyone who reads this article from beginning to end will be awarded a certificate in psychotherapeutic studies entitling them to put Cert.psych.std after their name - it doesn't mean that this 'qualification' will be taken seriously. For a qualification to be taken seriously it needs to be accredited by some organisation others take seriously. Many people seeking psychotherapy training understand that they need their qualification to be accredited and so some unscrupulous training providers rip off their customers by creating their own organisation to accredit their qualifications. To learn more about this, look up diploma mills and accreditation mills.

If you want to avoid psychotherapy training rip off then be wary of providers to make their courses sound very easy, with 100% pass rates and no prior academic experience necessary. Psychotherapy is a complex discipline and so you should expect the training to be tough, if the provider says it isn't, it's probably a rip off.

Psychotherapy training rip off - CHECK LIST

If you want to avoid being ripped off don't hand over any money to psychotherapy training providers until you have done the following:

1. Written a business plan, working out how you are going to make a living out of psychotherapy after training.
2. Chosen your choice of psychotherapy carefully and learned as much as you can prior to training.
3. Checked with your psychotherapy training provider to see exactly what is taught, what practical experience is offered and if any business advice is offered.
4. Checked that the qualification offered by your psychotherapy provider is accredited by a respected authority.

If the training provider to speak to refuses to answer your questions or only gives vague answers, move on and look for another provider.