Course summary

Do you have a passion for helping people, do you feel inspired to make a positive change in people's lives, and to meet society's ever-growing need for help in times of mental health difficulties, bereavement, or any number of life's troubles? Then our undergraduate Counselling course is for you.

Our course integrates current therapeutic approaches in an innovative way to prepare you to become a skilled, competent and reflective practitioner. It offers you a rare opportunity to gain both a BACP-accredited academic degree and a professional qualification, and through 108 hours of placements, you'll be well on your way to becoming an accredited practitioner.

We’ll give you in-depth knowledge of the four major psychotherapeutic approaches:

• Person-centred
• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
• Psychodynamic
• Existential

You will develop your understanding of the key feature of counselling – the therapeutic relationship between counsellor and client. In order to achieve this, you’ll undergo personal therapy yourself, starting in year one. You’ll also practise what you’ve learned in lectures through video-recorded counselling sessions in the UEL labs. We’ll enhance your employment prospects by offering you work placements and a number of volunteering and community action projects.

What you'll learn

We’ve made theory, practice, research and personal development the four pillars on which we’ve built our course.

In year one, you’ll study the foundations of the therapeutic process and practise basic counselling skills. You’ll have the chance to apply your knowledge through supervised counselling work placements during your second and third years. Additionally, in your third year you’ll carry out and write up a research project.

There are many ways of providing counselling, involving more than 400 different therapeutic modalities. The characteristic feature of this course is the highly contemporary way in which it integrates the main therapeutic approaches.

You’ll cover the main and well-established modalities of person-centred counselling, psychodynamic counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy and existential counselling.

Career

A huge bonus of studying for this degree is that you will graduate from a BACP-accredited course, having acquired more than 100 hours of client-work experience.

You’ll have a professional qualification, so you’ll be able to go straight into employment, getting a job as a counsellor or even starting up your own private practice. That’s how many of our graduates have begun their careers.

Other likely employment areas include charities, schools or NHS mental health services. You can work towards the full BACP accreditation of 450 hours of experience while working and getting paid.

And your early work-placement of 40 hours in an administrative role will give you a deeper understanding of the whole process involved within a counselling practice, enhance your workplace skills, help you get a clinical placement and widen your professional network.