Counsellors are required to help couples, groups or families to deal with difficult situations. Their roles are not related to medical training, so they are not qualified to treat medical based conditions, but they can listen and advise people in need. Among problems that these workers can assist are personal conflicts such as bereavement or coming to terms in cases of infidelity.

A Counsellor usually performs many of the following tasks:
• Advising people.
• Referring clients to medical professionals.
• Meeting with families or groups.
• Creating reports about cases.
• Encouraging agreements.

• Having excellent observation and listening abilities.
• Being respectful for client’s confidentiality.
• Being impartial.
• Having strong ethics.
• Having organisational and business knowledge.
• Being trustworthy.
• Having good interpersonal skills.
• Being patient and tolerant.
• Being able to work with people from different backgrounds.
• Having abilities to understand client’s feelings and emotions.

There are no specific qualifications to be a Counsellor because many people in that area work on a voluntary basis. It is recommended to have studies from UK Council of Psychotherapy and BACP. There are different qualification levels needed for courses, but some options do not require specific degrees. Courses offered by those institutions last two or three years in part time mode and one year studying full time.

Other degrees related to this sector are human sciences, psychology, and social sciences. Entry requirements for these courses are five GCSE’s grades (A-C/1-3) and A levels/three H grades as a minimum.