Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy PGDip

Based on the idea that mental illness is to some extent the result of repressed negative experience, psychodynamic counselling aims to expose the contents of a client's unconscious to make him or her aware of any underlying psychological conflicts.

It prioritises the therapeutic relationship and draws from the work of psychoanalysts such as Freud, Klein, Winnicott and Bion, as well as more contemporary thinkers such as Lacan, Bowlby, Kohut, Mitchell and Benjamin.

The postgraduate diploma teaches models of both long-and short-term counselling, the second of which is particularly relevant to NHS work and employee counselling schemes. It stresses the importance of developing counselling awareness through practice in workshops and provides a sound theoretical foundation to the psychodynamic approach.

The course is accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and therefore recognised as preparing students for work as a professional counsellor. The university is an organisational member of the BACP as well as the Universities Psychotherapy and Counselling Association (UCPA).

Careers

The postgraduate diploma has an excellent reputation in the locality and our students have gone on to hold counselling posts across the public, private and voluntary sectors. Others have progressed to further training or used their counselling skills in their existing professions.

Degree and experience: You should hold a degree or professional qualification, for example nursing or teaching. You need to have successfully completed an accredited, externally assessed counselling skills course that: is at least a level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills which ordinarily involves at least 30 hours of face-to-face tuition at level 2 or level 3 (online courses are not acceptable). Please note L2 Award, Helping Skills and Introductory courses are not accepted; includes both theory and practice were gained within the last six years. You must have experience of working with people in a helping capacity and access to clients throughout the course. Ideally, you will have gained some counselling experience through full or part-time employment, or through voluntary or pastoral work.