Chrysalis courses
View company profile →
CLOSED MINDED STUDENTS
** My review is mainly going to focus on my class time experience as lots of the reviews are about the course itself, while you are only having lessons once a month, I still had to turn up to these classes at least 16-18 times throughout the 2 years I was on the course, as well as going to study groups. I paid up 2 years in advance so felt bound to complete it. I was on the chrysalis courses a few years ago and my experience was very strange. A lot of the students seemed very uninterested in the subject and would talk about trivial matters instead, very few had an interest in what was being taught, in psychotherapy/psychology/self help. A lot of the people on my course were stuck up, closed and lacked empathy and it felt like they were just there to change career, as opposed to really wanting to help people as well as the course is at the end of the day a lot cheaper than doing a degree. It also confused me that a lot of people refused to work on their own issues even though they wanted to be counsellors, how can you help people if you're unstable? The first year tutor would talk about getting therapy but people didn't take this seriously. My first year teacher was professional, my second year was not. On one occassion she publically humiliated me (and allowed other people to do the same), when I brought it up she said, "there's nothing wrong with me giving you tips...", Instead of apologising for being rude and I didn't ask for her tips or show that I even needed them. Might I add that the students on my course were mostly 35 years old +, I was 21 when I first started, the older students would tune out the younger students like they had nothing interesting to say, like they were older so obviously knew better, I felt patronised on a few occasions during my 2 years on the course. Whenever I gave my opinion on the course there was always someone debating it or telling me I was wrong so I generally tried not to give my opinion much as it didn't seem worth it and I would feel very guilty about speaking due to feeling so judged by closed people. I started to dread turning up to the course as it's required to work in study groups during the lessons and sit in a semi circle facing each other, it made me anxious to be around such disinterested and detached people month in month out. You have to have meet ups at people's houses to practice work, the group that I was in would mock/laugh about the tutor, I thought this was juvenile behaviour for grown adults and also seemed like they couldn't be bothered to practice the work. It seemed like the tutors were quick to rush through the work as well, my second year tutor would let us leave early every lesson even though we were only there once a month! we could of used that time to practice our counselling skills etc. By the end I just felt drained, I learnt a few things about myself and how to deal with past trauma and developed better communication skills but didn't feel confident to be a counsellor as a career, so I ended up going on to do a degree in psychology instead. The subject content was good and very useful in places and wishy washy in others. I saw it more as a self development course as opposed to establishing a career- an expensive stepping stone. I had a lot of anxiety about my time on chrysalis courses for a long time due to how the students were/second year tutor was, it was odd behaviour from grown adults. I understand that this was just my experience and other groups might not be the same but if you're someone who is really interested in psychotherapy/psychology, you have empathy and have a genuine regard for helping others (I don't mean in a grandiose way obviously), keep in mind that lots of people that take this course do not feel the same as some people see the chrysalis advertisement for 'earn £50 an hour' and see it as a career change only. You also don't have to have particular qualifications to take this course so some people have never read up on certain subjects or have no interest about these things in depth in the first place.