Professional Certificate
in Email Counselling
Specialist training for qualified counsellors seeking to offer flexible, accessible, and ethical therapy by email.
NCPS endorsed specialist training to help you build a counselling practice that is much more flexible
for you as a therapist AND your clients.
👉 The waitlist is now open for next cohort starting January 2027
Applications open in September
Why train as an Email Counsellor?
Get flexible working hours
Work at times that suit you and adapt at the last minute whenever life gets in the way.
Take your time to respond
Pause and process what's happening therapeutically without the pressure to keep listening.
All the facts at your fingertips
No need to remember all the facts about your clients. No awkward moments asking them to remind you. Instead you have all their emails to refer back to at any time.
Stand out from the crowd
By offering modern flexible email therapy you will stand out from the crowd and help clients find you.
Offer more accessible counselling
By offering text-based as well as talking therapy you will attract more diverse clients who can't/won't speak.
Increase your income
By offering a specialist email counselling you can charge higher fees for a much more flexible service.
Allison Clough, Counsellor
This course has really given me the confidence to start offering email counselling - and made me very excited to be going in this direction.
Byron Athene, Counsellor
Very interesting course as it invites you to question the way you practice now in a way that you might not have since you started practising.
It also helps you extend your thinking to ensure email counselling is covered in your new improved practice.
Sarah Thorpe, Counsellor
Chloe shares her valuable experience and knowledge of email counselling in this course.
Recorded materials are well written and easy to follow.
Why I chose to train as an Email Counsellor?
When I qualified as a counsellor back in 2016, it was pre-pandemic, and so my initial training focussed solely on traditional in person therapy. I was taught talking therapy was the proper way.
Back then online counselling was looked down on. And I'd never even heard of email counselling.
As a client I always hated having to chug home on the bus after sessions with my therapist, covering up my face and feeling shaken.
After sessions I'd write down what was in my head, and it was there that I began to make so much more sense of what was going on.
Writing became my tool to untangling the mess inside my head.
I noticed there were awkward things that felt too hard to say out loud. I wished there was a way to share these with my therapist, but I was always told I needed to speak, not write.
Then in 2017 a colleague introduced me to email counselling. I found a trained email therapist and gave it a go as a client.
I never looked back.
Email therapy helped me so much and I was able to go so much deeper, quicker and not have that awkward therapist stare and silence as I gathered my thoughts.
Having always specialised in working with queer clients, gender and sexual diversity are common topics that come up. So I knew writing instead of talking could be the key to unlocking a lot of what my clients were holding. So the following year in 2018 I enrolled in a specialist online training which covered email counselling.
What a transformation my private practice took. Finally my clients felt safer to dive into their most awkward and embarrassing topics without the fear of TMI.
As a result email counselling has personally given me ultimate flexibility in my work as a counsellor as well as enabling me to offer a unique and highly accessible service to my clients.
I am on a mission to make email counselling more widely available to more clients.
Since 2023 I have been training fellow counsellors how to set up a secure, ethical and highly confedential email counselling service.
Will you be next to join me?
Louise Worrall, Counsellor
I'll be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect and if my creative skills would translate across to e-mail counselling. I also love face to face teaching.
But the way Chloe presents the information has fitted in to what turned out to be a challenging time personally.
The course has given me hope that I can still support clients, but in a way that serves me and my family, too.
The ideas and modules were really insightful and though I am a deadline dancer, having a deadline has meant I've actually completed it!
5 stars
Holly Tootell, Counsellor
I came to ECA because I had only completed a small section on asynchronous counselling in a course I completed elsewhere.
I found this course immensely useful to have a much deeper dive into how email counselling really can work, and Chloe's passion for it really comes across!
I found the reflective activities and thought provoking questions to be the most helpful.
They really helped me to consider all areas, potential issues and how I might approach them. Thank you!
5 stars
Who is eligible to apply?
This Professional Certificate in Email Counselling is for:
-
Qualified counsellors (level 4 or above)
-
UK-based counsellors
-
Counsellors working in private practice
Still a trainee?
If you are due to qualify before the course start date (next cohort starts January 2027) you are welcome to apply, and if successful you'd be offered a conditional offer, based on qualifying before your ECA course starts.
Not yet in private practice?
If you're planning to set up private practice you're still welcome to apply.
Gemma White, Counsellor
Excellent quality training, so thorough and plenty of generous examples and suggestions from Chloe.
I learned a lot and felt empowered to make decisions that were right for me and my private practice.
5 stars
Claire Lloyd, Counsellor
Very practical.
If you want to become an email counsellor this course provides everything you need to understand the skills and practical processes so you can be up and running in no time.
Chloe is knowledgeable and personable, communicating everything clearly and accessibly.
Sarah Goodman, Counsellor
The flow of the course and delivery is very good and easy to take in.
The info sheets are very helpful too
5 stars
What’s Included in Your Training
Course Description
This Professional Certificate in Email Counselling offers a structured yet flexible aproach to study, combining live workshops, self-paced learning, and ongoing supervision, giving you everything you need to grow confidently as a specialist email counsellor.
This course is tailored to help you build a flexible, ethical, and impactful email counselling practice
Course Content
Module 1: An Introduction to Email Counselling
Module 2: Developing your Therapeutic Writing Skills
Module 3: Ethics and Safeguarding
Module 4: Endings in Email Counselling
Module 5: Setting Boundaries
Module 6: Getting Ready for Clients
Bonus: Step-by-step guide to marketing your email counselling service
Time Commitments
The course is designed to fit around your life and your practice, with a manageable and steady pace.
Your time will include recorded materials, written exercises, live workshops, and group supervision, giving you variety and keeping your learning engaging.
Approx. 90 hours over 6 months
All live workshops are held on Thursday daytimes.
Coming Soon: 2027 Prospectus
More information including dates, fees and what we cover is detailed in the course prospectus which will be available very soon. Add your name to the waitlist to get access to the prospectus as soon as it's ready.
Holly Rees, Counsellor
I joined this course as I was intrigued by the concept of email counselling.
The recorded course materials are very accessible and easy to follow, with thought provoking tasks.
I also loved that the course covers a variety of topics from getting started, working ethically, how to manage ruptures, endings and so much more.
Anita Jones, Counsellor
A very valuable training, learning skills alongside practical & ethical considerations.
Chloe's style is friendly & informative & the content is very generous & accessible.
Sara Tibbs, Counsellor
I really enjoyed the practical nature.
Chloe took us step-by-step through the process they use to ensure that their email counselling practice is professional, ethical and very clearly explained to clients.
Why choose Email Counselling Academy?
ECA's Professional Certificate in Email Counselling is:
-
Endorsed by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (NCPS) having been awarded Quality Checked training recognition.
-
Mapped to the latest British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Competence Framework for online therapy.
-
Flexible and accessible study formats including live workshops and self-paced learning with video, audio and written materials
-
Tutor and peer support throughout, with monthly group supervision and individual written feedback
-
High level of support - small cohort (max 16 students)
Christina Howkins-Griffiths, Counsellor
Well worth the money and will be an interesting new way of working allowing me far more flexibility in the way that I work with young clients.
Chloe has made the information really accessible and breaks down the issues in Email counselling into manageable and helpful lessons with reflective tasks to consider how these can be applied to your personal way of working.
I like that I could listen to each lesson as well as read the pdf as I went along, dual input methods help me to absorb the information well and having the time to pause when necessary and come back or reread the materials has been really helpful.
5 stars
Who is this course for?
You want to stop working evenings and get flexible working hours
You want to reach more clients by offering an inclusive and accessible service
You love writing and find it a powerful way to express and explore thoughts
You would like to have time to think before responding to clients to help you reflect more deeply
You like the idea of learning to read between the lines and responding thoughtfully
You value how writing could help your clients dig deeper and explore topics they might find too embarrassing to bring up in a live session
Who is this course not suitable for?
Therapists who have no intention of running an email counselling practice
Counsellors who do not have a qualification that enables them to practice professionally. This is usually indicated by registration with BACP or NCPS, or being a Trainee Psychotherapist with UKCP
Counsellors and Psychotherapists outside the UK who will find aspects of the course do not apply to their local laws and regulations