Is the psychological counselor certificate valuable?

In 2017, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has canceled the professional qualification certification of psychological counselors. The second- and third-level psychological counselor certificates that were once used as entry certificates have long been discontinued. Now all the "psychological counselor certificates" that can be applied for are essentially training qualification certificates issued by various institutions and associations. They are not legal practice admission certificates at all, and there is no unified "gold content" standard.

Last year, I received a young girl who had just graduated. She was looking for an internship with a consultant certificate issued by a small association. She said that the agency she signed up for promised that "with the certificate, she could earn over 10,000 yuan a month part-time." However, she applied to seven or eight studios and was ignored. When I asked, I found out that she had spent two weeks studying the question bank and didn't even have basic empathy skills. It’s unclear, but this kind of “can-buy” certificate is basically useless paper in the eyes of practitioners in the industry. This is why many people say that this type of certificate is the core reason for the IQ tax – after all, if you really want to do psychological counseling, the length of the case, the system training background, and the supervision experience, all of them are much more important than a training certificate.

But that doesn’t mean that all such certificates are completely worthless, it depends on where you use them. I have an old friend who works as a social worker in the street. He often helps residents in the area to mediate family conflicts and provide emotional counseling. He has more than a year of front-line psychological service experience. Last year, he passed the training certificate from the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. First, when the unit evaluates relevant job titles, he can Formal training experience is a plus. Secondly, when he goes to the community to do psychological popularization for the elderly and teenagers, it is more convincing to take out the certificate than to say "I have studied psychology" in vain. For him, the "gold content" of this certificate is actually reflected in work empowerment, which is completely sufficient.

As for the "you can practice with a certificate" promoted by many organizations, just listen to it and don't take it seriously. Even the second- and third-level certificates from the national unified examination were just a stepping stone to enter the industry. If you really want to get psychological counseling, long-term training that costs tens of thousands of yuan, hundreds of hours of personal experience and case supervision, the threshold for any of these is much higher than the examination. To put it bluntly, the gold content of this piece of paper is never given by the issuing agency, but by the knowledge you have solidly learned and the abilities you have developed during the certification process. If you are pursuing the purpose of "making quick money with a certificate", then its gold content is approximately equal to 0. If you are rushing to supplement the foundation of psychology, add value to your current career, and choose a reliable institution to study seriously, the rewards it can give you are far more than just a certificate.