Qualified counsellors follow almost the same route as new practitioners, including volunteering for our Marriage Preparation service. Please see the Pathways for more information.

All of our counsellors are volunteers. Marriage Care provides ongoing CPD, supervision, local/regional support, travel expenses and insurance. Trainee counsellors do not have to find their own placements or clients – this is managed by our appointments service.

We ask all of our counsellors to give a minimum of 2 counselling sessions per week. You should be aware that there are additional time commitments – a minimum of 1.5 hours supervision per month, for example, and time for academic work and training , if you are a trainee.

Yes, you can.  We will be accepting applications without Marriage Preparation experience in the early Autumn of 2026.  However, please note that, whilst it will not guarantee a place on our counselling training programme, prior volunteering in our Marriage Preparation service will be valuable experience and will be considered a desirable attribute in your application.

We are in the process of reviewing our course, and so the precise course length is to be confirmed. However, you can expect the academic phase of training to take up to two years, part-time. The CRC is awarded when all the academic requirements have been met and 160 hours counselling hours completed.

Our counselling training is currently free of charge. However, we do ask for a contribution towards costs, and always welcome donations. We are a charity that does not receive any government funding, and who relies upon the fees and donations that we attract for our services, as well as fundraising, to provide our relationship support.

Discover more about our marriage preparation service and/or make contact with us at volunteer@marriagecare.org.uk

Contact Beth DeGraft-Johnson beth@marriagecare.org.uk if you are
interested in our training. Discover more about the various pathways according to your prior
counselling experience.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of resources, Marriage Care is unable to offer counselling placements to students on external courses. The BACP has a placement data base (for BACP student members only) which might be helpful. 

Although our course is closely aligned with BACP’s list of competencies for Column A, and our service is informed by the BACP’s Ethical Framework, we are not a BACP-accredited course. This means that, as with many courses,  you may have to take some additional steps post-qualification in order to achieve their Certificate of Proficiency. Marriage Care’s Certificate in Relationship Counselling has enjoyed validation from York St. John University, and will soon receive further validation from St. Mary’s University College Belfast.

Many of our counsellors have done this, but usually after building experience first and deepening their basic knowledge and skills wih further CPD.