This is something I was looking to do a number of years ago and did levels 1 to 3 in Counselling Skills (Humanist). These were relatively affordable as evening classes at the then local college of Further Education and I discovered I had a skill for this. The next step was to be the Diploma and then Degree, whilst these could be done part time, the hours required to do so meant that as a self employed person, I had to factor in at least a day, possibly two per week for study and along with the cost of the courses, made the overall cost prohibitive, especially when factoring in the limited working hours you can do once qualified.
I figured that this was possibly one of the main reasons why the majority of Counsellors here in the UK are middle class white women, hubby works, their kids have flown the nest and they wanted something else to do.
Ideally, I would have liked to have found an employer who would be prepared to send me on the courses whilst I was working, although the level 3 qualification wasn’t quite enough for any of the positions being advertised.
Tenacity and perseverance are good things and this instance, I didn’t employ them. There were certainly opportunities for voluntary work with organisations such as Relate and Cruise (relationship and bereavement), whereby they would provide appropriate further training, but as was then, would only be recognised by themselves.
Have a look at the British Association of Counselling and Psycotherapy (BACP) for much more info. On a personal note, the BACP’s code of Ethics and Values could be taught at schools for its excellent approach as to how to be and interact with others.
Good luck OP
