MA Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy for Children, Adolescents and Families

Train in counselling and psychotherapy and become eligible for individual practitioner registration with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, working with children and adolescents.

This three year part-time postgraduate degree is designed to provide you with the skills, knowledge and expertise necessary to have a positive impact on children and young people’s emotional and psychological health, as well as their overall development.

The programme is designed to support your development as a therapeutic practitioner able to work one-to-one with child and adolescent clients who present with diverse psychological issues in a variety of settings including both mainstream and special education, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) as well as youth and community support services.

You will develop the skills necessary to be critically reflective about your own developing practice, along with an enquiring attitude to theory, research and evidence-based practice in complex areas of therapeutic work with children, adolescents and their families.

How you'll learn

You will be taught by experts in the field who lead on cutting-edge research projects and who have excellent links to school based counselling and child and adolescent psychopathology underpinned by our leading research.

As well as cognitive and reflective skills, you will also learn practical ways of working with your clients in a therapeutic relationship to address conscious and unconscious needs and produce a change in emotional and cognitive processes and behaviour. This involves integrating complex and advanced skills, and responding creatively to complex, novel and unpredictable situations.

This three year part-time postgraduate degree includes an infant observation in the first year. Based on the Tavistock model of child observation where the primary focus is on the experientially developing your capacity to become a receptive observer, you will be expected to complete twenty hours of observation in your first year. You will gain an in-depth understanding of the role of play in child development and as a therapeutic metaphor in order to develop an understanding of the child-centred theory and non-directive Play Therapy skills through which to engage with a child, to develop a therapeutic relationship and to help the child to make sense of difficult life experiences.

Career options

You who will be able to work with child and adolescent clients one-to-one,? in a variety of settings including primary and secondary schools, children’s hospitals and children’s and adolescent’s mental health (CAMHS).

Specific entry requirements: Professional Qualification: Applicants hold a relevant professional qualification relating to working with children. These include: Social Work (DipSW, BA in Social Studies with DipSW, Masters in Social Work MSW); Nursing (Nursing BN, Nursing BA/BSc); Teaching (PGCE, B.Ed, MA/MSc in Education); Occupational Therapy (BSc, MSc); Speech and Language Therapy (BSc, MSc); Counselling/Psychotherapy Postgraduate Diploma, MA, MSc); Clinical Psychology/Educational Psychology (PhD, MSc) OR 1b) Academic Learning: Applicants hold a good second-class honours degree (2.2 or above) in Psychology or related subject AND Professional Experience: Applicants must have considerable experience of working directly with children and families. This must include a minimum of two years post qualifying experience (from professional qualification or degree).