The stresses of learning counselling: Six recent graduates comment on their personal experience of learning counselling and what can be done to reduce associated harm

This paper presents research that examines the negative and stressful aspects of learning counselling and methods for harm reduction. Using an in-depth semi-structured interviewing approach, six people who recently graduated from a UK university counselling programme have commented on their negative experiences of learning counselling and what helped or would have helped to reduce the harmful effects. This research has produced information which indicates that counselling trainees experience significant disruptions in their relationships with their family and friends; that a sizeable number of trainees report feelings of depression and or stress; and that counselling trainers have not addressed these issues effectively. The study concludes with a suggestion that an extra training component could be built into existing training frameworks that focus on the process of 'becoming a counsellor'.