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Counselling & Psychotherapy BA (Hons)

UCAS code: BC98

Gain experience with real clients using a person-centred experiential (PCE) model of therapy on our counselling and psychotherapy degree. Learn to help people confront and conquer challenges they face and graduate ready for a rewarding career as a PCE therapist.

Overview

Course length: 3 years full-time
Start dates: September 2023
Location: Edge Hill University
Example offers: BCC-BBC (A Level) or DMM (BTEC) View full entry criteria
Subject(s): Counselling and Psychotherapy
Faculty: Health, Social Care and Medicine
Department: Allied Health, Social Work and Wellbeing

Work with real clients and apply your skills. Develop emotional and relational awareness. Discover how to practice within a person-centred experiential (PCE) model of therapy.

It’s important that you understand your own emotional development during your training. That’s why we provide you with £500 towards therapy in your first year, plus an additional £500 in years two and three for your individual external supervision.

You’ll develop excellent knowledge and practical skills, using research-informed and person-centred experiential models. From supervised sessions with clients to practice-based training, our expert staff will support you throughout your learning journey.

This BA (Hons) Counselling & Psychotherapy course meets the training requirements for professional registration with the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP). It also opens the progression route to individual BACP accreditation. There are other professional membership organisations that you may wish to be a student member of whilst undertaking this degree, or join upon graduation.

Course features

  • International students can apply

  • Professional practice placements

  • Sandwich year option available

What you'll study

Start practising your counselling with support from students and staff. They’ll observe you and offer constructive feedback. Key aspects of the year are self-awareness and emotional insight. Through personal development sessions, you’ll learn the importance of being in groups, encountering and learning with others, and becoming more emotionally aware. Theories of psychotherapeutic change will inform your practice, and you’ll study counselling ethics to get ready for working with clients.

Compulsory modules:

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Developing Counselling Skills
Experiential Person-Centred Theory
Experiential Processes
Introduction to Professional and Academic Skills
Introductory Counselling Skills
Professional Ethical Practice

Offer individual therapy to real clients in practice-based learning groups, learning experientially with students and working with tutors. You’ll explore your own emotional process in relation to the issues clients present in therapy, and learn how to adapt your responses in order to meet their needs. In all modules, there’s an experiential approach to practice-based learning. And weekly personal development groups will provide a learning space for exploring your own emotional awareness.

Compulsory modules:

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Advanced Experiential Person-Centred Theory
Client Issues in Counselling and Psychotherapy
Personal Development
Supervised Practice
Understanding Research

During Year 3 of the counselling and psychotherapy degree, there’s more supervised client work and your tutors will continue to offer you their feedback. You’ll develop a critically reflexive approach to practice in process groups and student-led seminars. The programme ends with a dissertation, where you’ll focus on a vocational interest or concern with the support of your academic supervisors.

Compulsory modules:

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Advanced Supervised Practice
Contemporary Issues in Counselling and Psychotherapy
Integrated Personal Development
Negotiated Learning Shell

One of:

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Dissertation
Primary Research Dissertation

How you'll study

This programme is delivered utilising a variety of teaching and learning approaches, including facilitated workshops, counselling skills practice sessions, group discussions, process groups, tutorials and student-led seminars. An experiential learning approach is adopted in order to support self-reflective practice.

You will be required to undertake counselling placements in years 2 and 3, completing a minimum of 15 hours of client work in Year 2 and a minimum of 100 hours of client work in Year 3. This will entail providing one-to-one therapy with actual clients and will be a supervised practice, ensuring you gain the necessary professional experience to become a competent practitioner.

You will be responsible for travel and parking costs while on placement or attending external supervision.

Timetables for your first week are normally available at the end of August prior to enrolment in September. You can expect to receive your timetable for the rest of the academic year during your first week. Please note that while we make every effort to ensure that timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week. Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities.

How you'll be assessed

A variety of assessment techniques are used including presentations, vivas, seminars and written assignments. Formative assessment is incorporated to support achievement and confidence with the opportunity for constructive feedback prior to any summative submission.

There are no formal written examinations as part of the current assessment methods on this programme.

Who will be teaching you

You will be taught by a highly qualified team with vast experience in the field of counselling and research methods. The degree is led by a programme leader and each module has an individual module coordinator. You will also be assigned a Personal Tutor to support your learning experience. You will have access to excellent library facilities and Library and Learning Services support. Guest speakers with specialised knowledge will also enhance your learning experience.

Entry criteria

Entry requirements

Typical offer 104-112 UCAS Tariff points. No specific subjects are required.

An interview forms part of the selection process.

If you accept a formal offer from Edge Hill University you will be required to apply for a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Enhanced Disclosure indicating that you meet the mandatory criteria of ‘Clearance to Work with Children and/or Vulnerable Adults’. Further information will be sent to you after you have firmly accepted an offer.

Example offers

Qualification Requirement
A Level BCC-BBC.
BTEC Extended Diploma (or combination of BTEC QCF qualifications) Distinction, Merit, Merit (DMM).
T Level Overall grade of Merit.
International Baccalaureate (IB) We are happy to accept IB qualifications which achieve the required number of UCAS Tariff points.
Access to Higher Education Diploma 45 credits at Level 3, for example 9 credits at Distinction and 36 credits at Merit or 15 credits at Distinction and 30 credits at Merit. The required total can be attained from various credit combinations.

Please note, the above examples may differ from actual offers made. A combination of A Level and BTEC awards may also be accepted.

If you have a minimum of two A Levels (or equivalent), there is no maximum number of qualifications that we will accept UCAS points from. This includes additional qualifications such as Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), AS Levels that haven't been continued to A Level, and General Studies AS or A Level awards.

English language requirements

International students require IELTS 6.0, with a score no lower than 5.5 in each individual component, or an equivalent English language qualification.

If your current level of English is half a band, one band, or one-and-a-half bands lower, either overall or in one or two elements, you may want to consider our Pre-Sessional English course.

How to apply

Apply full-time

Apply online through UCAS

Read our guide to applying through UCAS to find out more about the application process.

International

Apply as an international student

Please see our international student pages for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.

Closed to international applications for September 2023 entry

Should you accept an offer of a place to study with us and formally enrol as a student, you will be subject to the provisions of the regulations, rules, codes, conditions and policies which apply to our students. These are available at www.edgehill.ac.uk/studentterms.

Did you know?

If you join a full time undergraduate degree at Edge Hill University, we will guarantee you the offer of a room in our halls of residence for the first year of your course.

Discover our accommodation

Facilities

Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine

The Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine offers outstanding facilities for the education and training of health and social care professionals.

The contemporary teaching and learning resources include leading edge clinical skills facilities, an 860-seat lecture theatre, and a variety of teaching rooms and social learning spaces.

Where you'll study

Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine

Finance

Tuition fees

UK Full-Time

£9,250

a year

International

£15,500

a year

The UK tuition fee rate is subject to final Government approval for academic year 2023/24 entry. The University may administer a small inflationary rise in tuition fees, in line with Government policy, in subsequent academic years as you progress through the course.

EU/EEA and Swiss students who have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, as well as Irish nationals, may be eligible for the UK tuition fee rate.

Financial support

Subject to eligibility, UK students joining this course can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan from the Government to cover the full cost of tuition fees. UK students enrolling on the course may also be eligible to apply for additional funding to help with living costs.

Please view the relevant Money Matters guide for comprehensive information about the financial support available to eligible UK students.

EU/EEA and Swiss students who have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme may be eligible to apply for financial support. Irish nationals can ordinarily apply to Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI). If you are an EU student who does not have settled or pre-settled status, or are an international student from a non-EU country, please see our international student finance pages.

Your future career

Completing this course will enable you to provide therapeutic support for people using empathic listening skills. You will have gained a qualification in an experiential form of psychotherapy and counselling. You will have also developed transferable skills that are useful across many careers. You may wish to work in a counselling-related profession within education, health, community, or other public and private sectors.

Our graduates go on to become person-centred experiential counsellors and psychotherapists, working in counselling organisations or setting up their own private practices. Others pursue further study with postgraduate courses and PhDs.

Lifelong learning is a big part of our graduates’ careers and continuing professional development (CPD) training is encouraged. Whatever your next steps are, you’ll have developed transferable skills like communication and active listening that are useful across many careers.

Course changes

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this information, however our courses are subject to ongoing review and development. Changing circumstances may necessitate alteration to, or the cancellation of, courses.

Changes may be necessary to comply with the requirements of professional bodies, revisions to subject benchmarks statements, to keep courses updated and contemporary, or as a result of student feedback. We reserve the right to make variations if we consider such action to be necessary or in the best interests of students.

Track changes to this course

Discover Uni: Full-Time Study

Download our course leaflet