Counselling MSc

About This Course

Our MSc in Counselling aims to prepare you to take an active role as a member of the professional counselling/psychotherapy community.

This course explores a range of psychological approaches and therapeutic methods to provide holistic training in adult counselling. You will learn about the Humanistic approach and person-centred therapy, psychodynamic approach and psychoanalytic therapy, behavioural approach and behaviour therapy, and cognitive approach and cognitive therapy. You will also be introduced to several integrative approaches, such as REBT and TA. In addition, you will take part in practical activities to develop your communication skills and introduce therapeutic techniques into your practice.

This extensive curriculum will equip you to work with clients across various settings, and provide you with a toolkit of evidence-based techniques and relationship-focused methods. This course will also include a solid foundation in Psychology and Research, so that you will graduate with all of the skills needed to apply for doctorate level study or work in an empirically-based practice.

Course Content

What will you study on this course?

This course trains you in integrative counselling, and this means that your training will combine elements from different approaches and therapies around therapeutic principles:

A relationship between the therapist and client which incorporates the core conditions will provide a framework for therapeutic work leading to change;
Thoughts, feelings, and behaviour reflect past patterns of relating and can be reformed by exploring experiences within the boundaries of this therapeutic framework;
Cognitive schemas and behavioural patterns established in this past and reinforced in the present can be modified for the future through challenge and experimentation both within and beyond this safe therapeutic relationship.

Careers

One in four adults experience at least one mental health difficulty in any given year and mental health issues account for the largest single cause of disability in the UK (Mental Health Taskforce Strategy, Feb 2016).

The NHS committed to a transformation of mental health care across the UK and pledged to invest more than one billion pounds a year by 2020/21. As a result of this commitment and the increasing need for mental health support, employment opportunities in counselling are likely to expand in the near future. Graduates from this course will be particularly well equipped to succeed in this growing market.

You must have one of the following academic qualifications: 2ii or above undergraduate degree in psychology or counselling (or closely related) subject or 2ii or above undergraduate degree in unrelated subject AND certificate in counselling or relevant professional experience AND evidence of academic capability to postgraduate level.