Frustrations

[parnassus]

Thank you, everybody.

Today I enrolled on the first level of a counselling skills course, which will last until December. This won't give me a recognised qualification in counselling (it takes four or five years minimum to become an accredited counsellor) and it's very basic. However, it would help me to learn more about non-verbal communication and other things that I currently struggle with, such as tactful responses to difficult situations.

I am going to leave the psychology for now and make a firm decision about my postgraduate choices once I've had longer to think. I'm going to go and look round Newcastle University before applying for the PhD (something that I wish I'd done with Sunderland!). I will think about it carefully and make my applications over Christmas.

[parnassus]

Hmm...it would transpire that Sunderland University is not the only place in this area with a dyspraxic admin department. I have just taken a closer look at the documents for my counselling skills course (real name 'Award in Communication and Self-Development in a Counselling Skills Context') and have discovered that I will not be starting until April 2009. On the enrolment night I was told that my first class would be on 8th September. As in next week.

Am I never to be free?!

[Creative]

Sorry to hear you have had another complication Vicky. Unfortunatly the world is full of them but you seem to have had too many lately.

My mum's friend is a trained counseller and it does sound interesting. It is not something I would want to do as I think I would find it too stressful.

Good Luck.

[parnassus]

I'm not hoping to become an accredited counsellor, as that would take too long and I'm uncertain about whether I would be any good at it. This course is only short (three months) and its main focus is on understanding body language, working out how your own beliefs and values colour what you say and how you say it, and establishing boundaries in a 'helping' relationship. I think it might help me to develop more tact.

[C]

Hmm...it would transpire that Sunderland University is not the only place in this area with a dyspraxic admin department. I have just taken a closer look at the documents for my counselling skills course (real name 'Award in Communication and Self-Development in a Counselling Skills Context') and have discovered that I will not be starting until April 2009. On the enrolment night I was told that my first class would be on 8th September. As in next week.

Am I never to be free?!

Maybe you have the wrong documents or something and another counselling course starts in April 2009 but yours starts next week? Hope you get it sorted out.

[k9ruby]

I'm not hoping to become an accredited counsellor, as that would take too long and I'm uncertain about whether I would be any good at it. This course is only short (three months) and its main focus is on understanding body language, working out how your own beliefs and values colour what you say and how you say it, and establishing boundaries in a 'helping' relationship. I think it might help me to develop more tact.

Good luck with that! Last year I became a certified peer mentor, and the training courses are really interesting- especially when it comes to looking at body language.

[parnassus]

Here is the course that I'm applying for at Newcastle:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/taugh ... ourses/415

I may not get on the course, as I don't have a First and competition for PhD courses is tough. Hopefully my old cognitive behavioural therapist will be able to write a letter explaining why I didn't get the grades that I was predicted.

[Thirteen-thirty-seven]

Best of luck. The facts you are a published author and got into one of te most competitive Universities in the world have got to count in your favour. I hope you get in. Is there anything else you're applying for if you don't get in?

(edited for typoes)

[Creative]

Hope you get in Vicky.

[Steph]

Hope you get in-I'm sure you will-anyone can see you can cope with the course from the way you write.

[parnassus]

Being a Cambridge graduate will help, but unfortunately Caged in Chaos won't count for anything. It isn't an academic book, and it doesn't demonstrate my ability to contribute something worthwhile to academia. For this I'm going to need strong references (check) and an equally strong PhD proposal. I will put it on here once I've finished researching it.

[Thirteen-thirty-seven]

Good luck with your reserch proposal.

[parnassus]

Thank you, Esther.

[parnassus]

I have taken the unusual step of applying for some undergraduate courses in Linguistics and Jewish Studies as well. I've been trying to write a PhD proposal for the past few weeks and I am slowly coming to realise that some specialist knowledge of Jewish Studies, Hebrew, and possibly Yiddish would be very valuable to my research, even if I want to conduct that research within the field of literary studies.

My academic career seems to be taking many twists and turns. I think I need to seek some advice on what would be best. Linguistics and Jewish Studies would be a sensible choice for somebody with my particular interests, but if I am to do a second BA I will need a paying job and some good advice about money management before I could even consider it.

[Thirteen-thirty-seven]

I read yor blo about the job interview. I hope tat goesweel.

Do you want to study full-time or part-time?