You spend years working towards a qualification. But after the structure of assignments and placements - and the company of tutors and fellow students - comes to an end, it can leave you wondering what comes next.

Should you look for employment, start a private practice or something else?

In this episode, I share my own experience of finishing counselling training, share why this stage can feel unsettling - and most importantly, how you can move forward without needing to have everything worked out in advance.

Takeaways:

• The loss of structure that newly qualified counsellors experience and how that impacts them
• How self-doubt can show up after qualification
• Why you don't need the whole plan before you begin
• The importance of support, supervision and community
• Taking the next step towards setting up in private practice

Remember: you don't need to have everything worked out in advance. You don't need the full plan. You just need the next step.

Training: to help you get started in finding clients, I have some short training webinars coming up. You can find out more about them HERE

Setting up in private practice? Download my free checklist HERE

Need ideas for how to get clients? Download my free handout 21 Ways for Counsellors to Attract New Clients HERE

You can also find me here:

The Good Enough Counsellors Facebook Group

Josephine Hughes on Facebook

Josephine Hughes on YouTube

My website: josephinehughes.com

The information contained in Good Enough Counsellors is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this podcast are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this podcast. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this podcast.

Josephine Hughes disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this podcast.

So the fact that once you're out of your course, you haven't got that structure to keep you going, you know, almost like, I know I've got to get this essay done by such and such a time.

I know I've got to attend college on these particular days.

And you can feel a bit lost without that.

You're no longer being guided week by week and no one's telling you what you need to do next.

You finally got rid of those blooming criteria, but actually, you now realize that these, they did give you a bit of a focus.

Welcome to Good Enough Counsellors, the podcast for growing a private practice without the pressure to be perfect.

I'm Josephine Hughes, counsellor and creator of Therapy Growth Group, helping you get the clients you want and create the practice of your dreams.

I remember getting to the end of my counselling training and thinking, well, what now?

So for a long time, I'd had a structure around me.

I'd gone through level two, level three, level four, six.

So it had taken me about four, four and a half years to actually qualify.

And those last two and a half years when I was on my diploma, we'd all worked together as a group.

We'd been through quite a lot together in terms of going through process group together.

There'd been a lot of change and we'd witnessed each other going through hard times and coming out the other side.

So it was a real sense of camaraderie and had the structure of the essays, those blooming CPCAB criteria that we'd all tried to reach, and suddenly it was all over, it just stopped.

And you start the summer and you can feel a bit bereft.

And this may not be true of you, but it was certainly true of me that at that stage in my life when I'd finished my course was that my kids were becoming older, they're growing older and they didn't need me quite as much.

So you might be like me.

You might be in that place where your kids are growing up and leaving home, or it may be that you're looking at your current job and thinking that you want something a bit different.

But wherever you're at, it might be that the next step looks slightly smaller, scary.

And I think for me, you know, looking back now, what I didn't realize was that I didn't actually have to have it all figured out.

I thought that I needed to have a really clear plan.

And as I've said before, I'm not very good at planning.

And that actually really stopped me For a long time, because it felt like there's this great big thing that I had to do and it felt like too big a task.

But actually, what I realised eventually is that I just needed to take it step by step.

So I don't think the problem is, is that you don't know what to do.

I think it's that you might be somebody who values that sort of structure that your course has given you.

And suddenly it's like you're now on your own.

There's almost too much freedom.

What do you choose?

And that can be really hard for people, I think, as they come out of their counselling courses is, well, what is the next step?

But that's just part of the process, really.

You've gone from this structured environment and now it's time for you to structure what you want to do.

And actually, although freedom can be scary, it can actually also be a wonderfully exciting opportunity.

So I thought it might be helpful if we just look at sort of three things that can make this time feel a little bit more difficult than it needs to be, plus maybe some solutions that might help you.

So let's go back to this idea of the structure.

So the fact that once you're out of your course, you're away from college, you're away from your course, you haven't got the.

That structure to keep you going.

You know, almost like, I know I've got to get this essay done by such and such a time.

I know I've got to attend college on these particular days, at these particular times, and you can feel a bit lost without that.

You're no longer being guided week by week, and no one's telling you what you need to do next.

You finally got rid of those blooming criteria, but actually you now realize that they did give you a bit of a focus.

So basically, this can sort of really feel difficult because there's no markers, there's no map, really, of which way to go.

But there is still support out there for you.

You know, here's just a few ideas as to what could support you in this time.

A supervisor.

Obviously, if you're still in placement, you can talk to your supervisor, and your supervisor may well be able to help you think about what your next steps could be.

There's also peer groups.

So just because you finished your course doesn't mean that you never need to see your peers again.

Unless, of course, you don't want to see them again.

Hopefully not.

Hopefully you have got some good relationships there.

But, you know, it doesn't happen for everybody.

And I've certainly heard from people who said, you know, that sense of, yeah, we're all a group and we're going to keep in touch.

It just wasn't there for them.

But there are other sort of peer networks out there.

For example, I run my therapy growth group and that has got.

We've got peer supervision in there, but also we do meet up for community events and also we meet up for coaching calls.

That's another way of being with people as well as obviously the Facebook group that goes with it.

So staying connected can really help you.

And if you're unable to stay connected with the people that you're on your course with, there are other alternatives.

Now, something else that can be problematic is that you may be doubting yourself more than you realise.

And I think often these thoughts aren't in our awareness, but they do hold us back.

And here's just a few ideas of what might be coming up for you.

Especially if you're thinking about starting private practice, and especially if you're starting private practice, as I was when I was in my 50s is, is that you can think to yourself, I'm a bit too old to do this.

And especially looking around now at the amount that we're on Facebook, if you're my age, you might not be on Facebook if you're a bit younger.

But, you know, you're sort of looking around at the online world and everything just seems so techy and you might think, I can't do that, I'm not going to be able to manage to do that and can really stop you and make you pause.

But in fact, what I found is that there's actually quite a lot of help out there to help you with the techy sort of stuff.

So it's surprising, really.

I mean, even if you just look on YouTube and get YouTube to help you by showing you actually how you do something, and you can also ask AI as well, if you've been using AI at all.

You know, for example, chatgpt, OpenAI.com, you can go in there and start a conversation and say, I'm trying to do this.

How do I do it?

And it breaks it down step by step for you.

So, surprisingly, there is help out there, you know, so you might sort of be thinking, I don't know how to run a business.

And I think the thing is, what I'd really like you to remember is that you've already done something that a lot of people would never even dare embark on.

And that's you've completed a counselling course and that is not easy.

And if you think back to the steps that you took, you probably felt quite similar as you took those steps.

I can remember being absolutely terrified at the thought of doing a diploma because I thought I'd never be able to get a placement.

I was really, really worried about getting a placement and how I'd do it.

But when the time came, I thought to myself, I have to get a placement.

And so I sat down and I just worked my way through all the different places where I could apply for a placement.

And in the end I got two.

So, you know, it's amazing you have managed to do stuff already.

And it's about remembering that, reminding yourself of that, allowing these thoughts to come up into awareness and then just thinking, yes, how am I going to resolve that?

And this is where it can be really helpful to have that support around you, because if you really can't think of the answer, you can talk to your peers, your supervisor, to someone like me, and the answers are often there.

Somebody else can actually help you.

So just remember that you didn't know how to do a counselling course, you didn't know how to find a placement, you maybe didn't know how to write essays, but you worked it out.

You probably didn't know how to do those blooming CPCAB criteria, but you worked those out as well.

So you can do it now.

Something else that might come up for you too is what I sort of mentioned at the start.

It just looks really, really big and it might be that you're trying to see the whole path instead of the next step.

And I'm always saying this to people in my group, if it feels like it's too big, you need to break the step down into even smaller pieces.

So you might be feeling really overwhelmed.

You're looking at, oh, I'd have to have a website.

Website.

Oh, my goodness.

I'd have to go on social media and I've got no idea how to do that.

Oh, how am I going to write my directory profile?

And when you think about all those things, you just sort of just want to stick your head in the sand somewhere.

I can't do this.

And believe me, yeah, I've been there as well.

I was completely overwhelmed.

And it did actually take me two years from between when I finished my course to when I got started on private practice.

So, you know, I wasn't particularly quick with it.

So be kind to yourself, you know, it took me two years.

It takes as long as it takes.

And the reason I eventually managed to do it was because I had some support, I had a mentor.

And that's part of why I like to help people, because I had that help.

So, you know, I like to help others to reach the same stage.

You just don't need the full plan, you just need the next step.

Actually, as this episode is coming out, I'm going to be running something next week to help you with your marketing.

It's really about helping you make sense of what to do next if you're looking to get clients, especially if you're feeling a bit unsure about where to start or your existing marketing isn't working.

I haven't got the details finalised at the time of recording, but do check out the show notes where I'll put the latest information, or keep an eye out for me on Facebook.

Or if you're subscribed to my email list, there'll be more in there about it as well.

So thinking about your next step, for example, it might be speaking to someone else who's already in private practice, just asking them how they got started up.

It could be that you've got a profile, you just need to update it.

Maybe it may be even that you give yourself some time off and just let everything settle.

And you don't need to put yourself under pressure to make a decision at this moment.

You could do something like, I've got a download for setting up in private practice, and that goes through lots of different things that you need to do to get set up.

So I just like to sort of remind you that it is okay to pause.

You don't have to rush it, but you could do something like I say, like downloading my little ebook on setting up in private practice, and that would help you feel connected.

Be part of my Good Enough Counsellors Facebook group, because that can help you feel connected as well.

Now, something I thought I'd mention before we finish is that if you listen to the podcast and go back and listen to some of the practitioner interviews, I'm thinking particularly about Katrina's podcast episode, because Katrina said she was absolutely terrified about starting up in private practice.

And also Suzanne and they, they both were really, you know, unsure about starting in private practice.

And I know with both of them that they've both got really successful private practices.

So you may like to go back and listen to their episodes.

Just go through your podcast player.

Wherever you're listening to this podcast, just look at the episodes and you'll be able to find them.

Both of them.

They didn't start out confident, they started out unsure.

But they worked it out as they went and they've made it work.

And I'm sure that you can do that as well.

So if you're at the stage of feeling really wobbly, feeling unsure, and maybe questioning whether or not you can do this, I just really would like to remind you that you've already done something quite hard.

You don't have to have it all worked out in advance.

You just need to take your next step.

And if you'd like, support a little reminder that this is what I do in Therapy Growth Group.

I'll pop the links into the show notes so that you can find out more about Therapy Growth Group and download the free ebook on setting up a private practice if you'd like.

Thanks very much for listening and I'll see you next week.

Thanks for listening.

Do come and join my Facebook community.

Good enough counsellors and for more information about how I can help you develop your private practice, please Visit my website JosephineHughes.com if you found this episode helpful, I'd love it if you could share it with a fellow therapist or leave a review on your podcast app.

And in closing, I'd love to remind you that every single step you make gets you closer to your dream.

I really believe you can do it.

Sam.