Chrysalis courses
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Very good grounding in Integrative Therapy & Hypnotherapy
As with all courses, the more one puts in (and the better the tutors), the greater and the more phenomenal one's experience and outcome will be. The course tutors I had were lovely warm individuals and very experienced professionals from whom I learnt a great deal, and the course's recommended reading is also an essential part of the tuition as this is a course that also relies a lot on one being enthused and self-motivated. My fellow students were very lovely people that I enjoyed study and practice with. The Chrysalis courses have been life changing personally as well as professionally, and I really can't imagine life without the richness of perspective that I now have! One caution, make sure that that you are fully aware of what is required of you if your goal is BACP or UKCP membership, and do this before you start a course. I have no reservations in recommending Chrysalis as I did the courses while in full time employment, and what they offered suited my scenario. Addendum: I am so sorry that others had such a different and awful experience and feel very fortunate. I took my course in South Hertfordshire and we had three very experienced tutors, Karen Ferguson (Hypnotherapy), Lorna Cordwell (Psychotherapeutic Counselling), and Melanie Phelps (Advanced Psychotherapeutic Counselling). You can do a web search on the instructors that I had and you will find that they are very highly regarded, and from my experiences with them I can see why. I learnt so much from them about being a good therapist. All three gave us practical work to do with fellow students during classes (and to do in our study groups during the month). The essays were challenging but I learnt a great deal from doing them too. I agree with criticisms about classroom organisation, but again we were fortunate to have class mates who contributed biscuits, tea bags, shared, and who had local knowledge of where to get sandwiches if we forgot etc. I agree printed materials were not physically of the highest grade, but their content taught a great deal. It appears that consistency of training is the issue, and I feel even more fortunate to have experienced Chrysalis as they intended it to be. I agree that administration was somewhat haphazard, but any concerns I had were voiced to both instructor and Chrysalis directly, reporting my experience and suggesting a solution. In my third year my results (case study marking) were delayed two months because it had been sent for second marking by independent examiners - Chrysalis do this for self auditing. I dreaded the worst because of this delay of course, but that was because of my invested effort to be the best therapist I could be (as we all do) magnified my feelings. Chrysalis did not contact me to tell me this is what was being done so I pointed out how awful the experience was from a student's perspective. They appeared to take this on board when I discussed it with them. I was delighted when I eventually found out that I had been given a distinction but the delay was awful for me, it was however for practical reasons even if handled clumsily from my perspective. I could complain about the stress of a delayed result, but isn't this something that I also needed to address and understand properly? No matter what my academic result was, hadn't my case study made the most amazing progress? It taught me that this was the most important thing to me, it was them that mattered above all else. I had used my training and reading to the full, and I could go for further training if the worst came to the worst (something we do anyway later). This challenge was itself something of an opportunity for me to look at myself. The horrifying experiences of others do leave me speechless, but I want to point out that the courses do what they are supposed to in other locations, and that there are other quite amazing tutors. I realise that this no consolation for you if your experiences have been horrible, and Chrysalis need to address your complaints if they have not been already. My heart definitely goes out to you.