If a counsellor is in a situation in which a normal person would need councelling, would they have to go and see someone else in their own profession or would they have the knowledge to work their mind in the right way to get through the situation?
All counsellors have their own counsellor anyway, but they also have the ability to sort out many of their own problems.
I think they are required to see their own counsellor every so often just to make sure they are coping themselves and not letting clients problems get to them.
I'm not altogether sure, but I used to know a psychiatric nurse who suffered from manic depression to the extent that she was briefly sectioned a couple of times at a unit elsewhere in the county. As she wasn't the only one that had been affected like that then it seems that it may have been local practice to treat staff away from their own workplace which is logical given that it takes them out of the stresses and strains of their own environment as well as keeping them out of the eye of their own patients.
Counsellors, nurses, doctors, psychologists all have clinical supervisors if they work for a reputable place & NHS, not sure about independent counsellors but I imagine any reputable body that validates them would have a condition about having Clinical supervision.
Gef, sorry I can't agree with you there! You may not ever have been in a situation where you needed couselling, but many people do benefit from these services. Think of parents of seriously ill children, rape victims, physically and mentally abused children and adults ... etc. For these and many others, counselling can be vital to their return to a 'normal' life. Please try not to be so judgmental!