Counselling (DCouns)

The Counselling Doctorate programme meets the needs of professionals/educationalists wishing to attain the highest level of professional and academic achievement.

OVERVIEW

The programme of taught modules combined with the research component allows students to undertake study and research that is clearly relevant to their professional practice, will support them to contribute to professional knowledge in their field of practice and will enable their career development.

A professional doctorate provides a rigorous programme of advanced study and research, equally rigorous to the purely research orientated PhD. The taught modules which occupy the first two years of the programme, provide opportunities to develop students’ skills and knowledge in key areas to facilitate career development, whilst the research component allows for development of skills in critical appraisal and the ability to develop the rationale, methodology and methods for research studies. The modules also allow development of other transferable skills such as project management, problem solving, information management and academic writing.

The Counselling Doctorate utilizes the expertise of the academic team across the whole of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences as well as experts from the clinical field to support the student’s development, research and scholarship; many of whom may be nationally and internationally renowned researchers in their own field.

Within the Doctorate, students may wish to exit at key points prior to completing the whole programme and in doing so may be awarded either postgraduate diploma or masters in health sciences. This design is intended to provide flexibility for professionals studying whilst working in high pressured health service roles.

Candidates must normally have completed a post graduate master’s degree in a relevant subject (advice on alternates can be discussed with the route leads) or have relevant equivalent extended clinical practice. Worked a senior practitioner with evidence of an advanced practice role and/or evidence of experience of practice research or evaluation (e.g. post graduate certificate in research and evaluation, published papers), at the discretion of the programme lead.