The term "Chartered Counselling Psychologist"  is a protected title, and the route to Chartership with the British Psychological Society requires at least 6 years of full time university training. Chartered  Counselling Psychologists can register with the Health and Care Professions Council, a governing body for the health and care professions,  as "Practitioner Psychologist" (another protected title). As a client, this  guarantees  you a certain level of training and experience, as well as adherence to certain ethical standards .  The term "counsellor", for instance, is not a protected title, meaning that pretty much anyone can call themselves a counsellor. You may get lucky and see a highly trained and experienced counsellor, or you may not.

Like Clinical Psychologists, Counselling Psychologists are "scientist-practitioners". That is, they have a background in the science of Psychology, and at the same time are experienced psychotherapists, having to complete a minimum of 450 client hours before qualifying. Attendance at personal therapy is also a requirement during training, and this gives us a good insight into what it is like to be a client, and helps us address personal issues that may otherwise interfere with the therapeutic process. Both of these are not a requirement in Clinical Psychology training.

So you could say that we are combining the best aspects of Clinical Psychology with those of psychotherapy in our training, turning us into well rounded, experienced practitioners by the time we qualify.

Counselling Psychology has at its core a person centred philosophy, meaning that the experience of the client is what is most important, and should guide the therapist, rather than the other way around. I believe that this and all of the above are what makes us so successful with clients.