Are you thinking about becoming a counsellor? Perhaps you’re already in training. Or you might simply be wondering what we get up to all day and what being a therapist online these days is like. Here are a couple of typical days in my current experience.
Day 1
7am: I’m up and about having breakfast, chatting with the family and catching up on the news. If I have any new client enquiries or any messages from clients, I’ll pick them up here and try to respond swiftly.
8:30am: Prepping for the day at my computer by checking my schedule, reading my notes and preparing for supervision later.
9am: Out to the studio to see my morning clients, usually with a thermos of coffee and a snack of some sort to nibble on between sessions. My work is always varied. I am frequently astounded by the ground covered and the different areas into which my work takes me. I love celebrating successes with clients - even and especially the small ones - but I’m also very prepared to be there when the week’s been tough or there have been setbacks or it’s simply hard to voice what’s going on.
Noon: Back to my desk to write up my notes, record my hours and keep on top of my online banking.
1pm: Lunch with my partner, who also works from home.
2pm: Might be back to the studio for another client here or, if not, using the time to post something mental health related on my Instagram account (@kirsty_counsellor) or catch up on some reading. I’ve always got a counselling related book on the go, even if it’s only loosely related. I’m currently reading Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell.
3pm: Supervision, which I have once a fortnight (some counsellors book this once a month: I prefer a shorter session every 2 weeks while things are fresh in my mind). I can take anything I’m struggling with to my supervisor, who is a more experienced counsellor who checks I’m working safely and ethically and that I’m not overwhelmed. I usually emerge from supervision feeling lighter and more confident!
4pm: My daughter arrives home from school and we have a cuppa and a bit of a chat. Once she’s gone to do her homework (or Minecraft) I start thinking about dinner. We sit down as a family around 6 tonight and catch up on each others’ days. My news is always very general because I can’t share anything about what I’ve been doing - counsellors take the confidentiality of their clients very seriously. I will say something like “It’s been a day of all sorts of emotions” or “felt like a productive day overall” but my family totally understand that I won’t say any more than that.
7pm: Back to the studio for my evening clients.
9pm: Write up my notes and I’m done for the day. Love to unwind with a bit of comedy, chamomile tea and something chocolaty!
Day 2
The same start as yesterday, except today my client work begins at 10am, giving me time to nip to the local shops and run a few errands after breakfast.
10am: An unusual hitch in the WiFi means we have a little break in our session which - thankfully - doesn’t happen often. We’re soon connected again. Working online has been very smooth on the whole, but these little technical hitches do crop up. I am glad to find that some clients like seeing me in the comfort of their own homes, as they feel more relaxed and can make more time for therapy without a commute to get here. However, for some, privacy is an issue. It will be nice to offer face to face sessions again one day as I do miss having clients in the studio.
Noon: Was planning an early lunch but a letter from the tax office has arrived and it’s very complicated. Doing your tax self assessment and working out what you owe is the hardest part of being a self employed counsellor. Luckily the people on the HMRC helpline are more accessible and friendly than the paperwork is, so I’m never afraid to call them when their letters make no sense.
1:30: A quick lunch before making a flask of tea and heading back to the studio.
2pm: Spend the afternoon doing the final 2 hours of an online course about LGBTQ+ inclusion run by the fantastic charity organisation MindOut. They normally run these courses face to face but during the pandemic they’ve continued to offer their training online and it’s been a brilliant experience. I’ve been working with 25 others to think about ways to make our services more accessible and helpful to the LGBTQ+ community and the time has flown by.
4pm: A bit more family time with comedy TV, a bit of dinner and a cold beer.
8:30pm: After tucking my daughter into bed, I get online to catch up with some fellow counsellors, some of whom I trained alongside. We don’t talk about our clients but we talk about the successes and pitfalls of working online, whether or not we want to extend our training to become supervisors ourselves someday and what we’re doing over the festive break. Being a counsellor in private practice is pretty solitary, aside from those regular supervision calls, so having a network of colleagues to chat with is really valuable to me. It also ensures I have a few names ready to pass onto clients who I either can’t fit in or don’t feel I’m the best fit for.
10ish: I’m never in bed late as I need my sleep!
So there you are: a slice of life as an online counsellor working at the end of 2020. I love my job and would recommend it to anyone for the challenges, the variety and the satisfaction. It suits me to split my hours as I want, so that I can fit in family commitments, and because BACP stipulates that I can only do 20 client hours a week, the training and development and even the admin side of things doesn’t feel too rushed. It also means I will never be rich, but that’s OK. I hope I will always be able to offset that against the deep love I have for the work.
