CPACB -counselling route not friendly to neurodivergence / the disabled
I want to raise concerns about how inaccessible the CPCAB counselling pathway can feel for neurodivergent and disabled students.
Throughout Levels 2 and 3, there were extremely long classroom sessions where students were expected to remain on camera at all times, even during periods of overstimulation. Requests to briefly turn cameras off were sometimes refused. There was also heavy emphasis on constant group participation, emotional check-ins, eye contact, and neurotypical social behaviours, despite some students experiencing alexithymia, autism, ADHD, or sensory difficulties. I also witnessed one student whose nervous system had recently collapsed due to neurodegeneration being told to keep her camera on.
The overall structure of the counselling pathway also feels unnecessarily confusing and financially risky. It is very difficult to clearly understand from the website exactly how qualification, placement hours, accreditation, and progression work. Students are encouraged to apply for Level 4 before finishing Level 3, yet information about local placement availability often only becomes visible after paying thousands of pounds for the course.
For people living in rural areas, disabled students, or those with limited finances, the barriers become even greater. Many agencies have no placement availability, yet this reality is discovered too late in the process. The expectation of 100+ unpaid volunteering hours, extensive admin requirements, and large amounts of paperwork can also become overwhelming. The paperwork is also heavily convoluted requiring the production and tracking of hundreds of files and their completion in a non-linear order.
One major question I have is: why are Levels 2 and 3 allowed online, but Level 4 is not? I have yet to see convincing evidence why “embodied empathy” cannot be assessed effectively through supervised online learning and skills work.
Counselling should be a profession that understands neurodiversity and accessibility. At the moment, parts of the training system feel built primarily around neurotypical norms, financial privilege, and geographical luck.
I also want to kindly request that fellow disabled and neurodivergent candidates write their experiences here so that the problem becomes visible.