Mental Health Services Certificate

At present, there is no nationally unified mental health service access professional qualification certificate in China. All training certificates on the market cannot be used as a basis for independent practice. Their value is only linked to the industry recognition of the certification body and the practical value of supporting training. There is no saying that "you can enter the industry with just one certificate."

Oh, yes, the exception is the previous Level 2 and Level 3 Psychological Counselor Qualification Certificate, which was an entry-level qualification certificate issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in the early years. Its value is still recognized by the industry, but the exam has been suspended in 2017. Now those on the market who claim to be able to "make up for Level 2 or Level 3" are all scams. Last year, I helped three friends who wanted to join other industries screen the admissions brochures of nearly 20 certificates, and there were a lot of pitfalls. The one who impressed me the most was a girl who had been working as an HR for three years. She had watched a short video before and saw "Take the psychological counselor certificate and work part-time as a consultant to earn 800 an hour." She suddenly spent 7,660 to apply for the "International Registered Psychological Supervisor" certificate. After three months of completing the questions to get the certificate, she applied to seven or eight psychological institutions, but did not even receive two interview invitations. The HR either said she had never heard of this certification agency, or asked her directly if she had any case experience, and the certificate did not even serve as a stepping stone.

Not long ago, I participated in an offline salon of the Provincial Psychological Association, and when the topic of certificates came up, there was an immediate quarrel. Academic teachers in colleges and universities generally feel that the certificates on the market today are all "tools to make quick money." Without more than three years of full-time clinical psychology system training, even if you get ten certificates, you can't do consulting. A professor from the 985 Department of Psychology said directly, "When I recruit interns, I first look at whether they are from a major. No matter how many certificates they have, it is useless." But the director of the street psychological service station sitting next to me disagrees. She was originally a civil affairs officer in the community. In 2019, she passed the basic psychological counseling training certificate of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She worked with the district supervisor for two years as a group counselor and took on public welfare cases. Now half of the station She handles all cases of teenagers, and her parents’ renewal rate is higher than that of many freshly graduated psychology masters. She often says, “For those of us who provide grassroots psychological services, a certificate is a threshold for entry. It proves that you have received systematic basic training. To do well, you still have to rely on experience.”

There is nothing wrong with both sides. The mental health service scene is far different. Long-term psychoanalysis for high-risk patients and emotional counseling for the elderly in the community require different ability models. It is unrealistic to have to obtain a unified standard card.

If you really want to take the exam, it's actually not that complicated. Don't believe those propaganda with the words "international", "global" and "national qualifications". Last year, the Cyberspace Administration of China also reported a batch of fake international professional qualification certificates. Many of them were printed by small domestic companies and cost less than ten yuan. Give priority to certificates issued by formal scientific research institutes and national industry associations, such as the basic training certificate of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the relevant training certificates of the registration system of the Chinese Psychological Society, and the mental health service skills training certificates organized by institutions affiliated to the National Health Commission. These are generally highly recognized in the industry, at least when submitting resumes, they will not be directly screened out. Oh, by the way, don’t just focus on the certificate itself. Be sure to check whether the supporting training content includes practical links, whether there are case observations, simulated consultations, and supervision hours. I have seen too many people holding the certificate who can’t even figure out the difference between “empathy” and “reasoning.” When they come up, they say to the visitor, “This is nothing, just look at it.”

Many people struggle with "whether there is a certificate with the highest value." In fact, to be honest, a certificate is like a ticket you buy at an amusement park. You can get in with the ticket, but whether you can have fun and learn something does not depend on whether the ticket is printed well or not. It depends on how you go around after entering, whether you want to queue up to buy items, and whether there is a familiar person to guide you. When I first entered the industry, I also followed the trend and took two certificates. Now they are at the bottom of my desk drawer. Whether I go to an agency for an interview or accept a company's EAP project, the most asked question is always, "How many hours of case experience do you have?" How long will you be under supervision? Which cases are you good at? ”, the certificate can only be glanced at at most, no one will take it and look for the anti-counterfeiting mark.

But you said the certificate is completely useless? No, last year our community purchased grassroots psychological services, and the bidding requirements clearly stated that "project service personnel must hold mental health-related training certificates." A friend who has been consulting for a long time was not even qualified to register because he did not take such a certificate, and he watched the project being taken away by others. There are also many schools recruiting psychology teachers and companies recruiting full-time EAP specialists, and they will also use relevant certificates as a hard threshold for resume screening. No matter how capable you are, you can't even touch the threshold, and you won't have a chance to show it, right?

If you really plan to take root in the mental health service industry, there is really no need to spend too long on choosing a certificate. Find a formal training to lay a solid foundation first, and while learning, look for public welfare cases and grassroots service practice opportunities, accumulate experience, and find supervisors. It is much more useful than accumulating ten or eight useless certificates. By the way, don’t believe the nonsense that “you can earn over 10,000 yuan a month by taking a certificate.” This profession is similar to that of a doctor. It relies on experience. Without three to five years of accumulation, it is difficult to even support yourself. If you are here to make quick money, you might as well change your career as soon as possible.