Dip HE
Counselling
Start date: Tuesday 17 September 2013.
Why study with us?
We offer rigorous courses that support your professional, personal and academic development towards qualifying as a professional counselling practitioner. The university (formerly as St. Martin’s College) has an established reputation as a provider of quality counsellor education and training, with our courses attracting BACP (British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy) Accreditation since 1999.
This course has a Person Centred core content, however also includes learning about other therapeutic approaches and contemporary developments within the broader spectrum of Person-Centred/humanistic models. We hold the belief that the Person Centred Approach has, at its heart, the meeting of human beings and work to ensure that the course experience is congruent with the Person-Centred philosophy of facilitating the unique potential of individuals through respectful, open and collaborative relationships.
Finance
Fees and financial support for higher education 2012/13.
What can this course lead to?
This is a new course that has been developed from our existing BACP-Accredited programme and as such, includes all elements to meet the training requirements for application for BACP individual Counsellor/Psychotherapist Accreditation. On successful completion of this course you will be eligible for the MBACP category of membership.
*This course is accredited by the BACP*
Resources and facilities
We are amongst the UK’s leading health and social care faculties and are proud of the high level of support we are able to offer to our students. We provide a wide range of high-quality courses supported by expert academic and clinical practice staff.
If you join us you will enjoy great facilities and learn alongside caring, committed and experienced professionals. Our employment record is excellent.
Have a look at our learning resources for Counselling.
Course summary
This course has been designed to:
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Offer you a high quality blend of professional and academic qualification, and deep learning in keeping with the changing needs of the profession
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Develop an appropriately supportive and challenging learning environment involving you, fellow students and staff
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Enable you to develop as a competent, reflexive and ethical practitioner, within a variety of settings
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Develop your abilities to work at relational depth, and be self-reflexive - understanding your personal process and its impact on the counselling relationship
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Enable you to develop a complex understanding of diversity and the socio-political context of relationships and use this to work towards developing a non-discriminatory and non-oppressive way of working
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Provide a clear, comprehensive and critical exploration of Person Centred theory and practice, including comparison with other therapeutic approaches
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Develop your skills in understanding and evaluating research methodology, practice and literature, including evidence-based practice.
This course runs one full day a week in Lancaster over two 12-week semesters in years 1 and 3, with an additional 5-week semester in year 2, plus a weekend residential and Saturday workshop.
As is usual practice you will need to do 150 supervised counselling practice hours with ‘real’ clients over the duration of the course, plus 50 hours of non-clinical work based learning to meet BACP training requirements. You will be expected to make arrangements for your own supervised practice, with support from the counselling courses team. We maintain a database of counselling placement opportunities along with all the necessary documents, logs, agreements and information to assist you in the process.
Extra costs:
The course includes a range of costs which are additional to the tuition fee, and will be payable at appropriate points throughout the course. These include:
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Residential during year 2 of the course – cost to be confirmed (this cost £180 for students in 2011/12)
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Student membership of BACP and insurance; this cost £64 per year in 2011, but is subject to change
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External supervision – you require regular supervision whilst in practice with a supervisor from our list of ‘approved supervisors’ from the time that Supervised Practice begins and until the end of the course (supervision is an ongoing requirement for members of BACP even when qualified); the cost is usually £30-£40 per hour
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Insurance – where your Supervised Practice Settings insurance does not effectively cover you, you will have to pay for insurance yourself
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Personal Counselling/Psychotherapy – you must undertake a minimum of 10 hours of personal therapy during the course. This is intended to support your personal development (a crucial component in becoming a Person Centred Therapist) in a 1:1 setting and to increase your awareness of the process of being a client within the model that you are training in. The cost is usually £25-£40 per hour
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Supervised Practice related costs – this will usually include travel to and from the Supervised Practice Setting(s);
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Recording and playback equipment, books, etc.
Entry requirements
See course specific entry requirements listed below.
More about levels and credits
Selection criteria
You will need to provide one satisfactory reference in support of your application and will need to become a student member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). You will also need to complete a satisfactory Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) Clearance.
Academically one A2 level pass or equivalent is required. If you do not hold this level of academic qualification you may be considered for ‘non-standard entry’ which would involve satisfactory completion of a pre-course assessment task at interview.
If you require further information please contact us by using the contact us link above.