Integrative Counselling - NA

University of Winchester

The Foundation Degree (FdA) in Integrative Counselling offers a supportive, experiential route into becoming a counsellor. Choosing a counselling course is a very personal decision. Becoming a counsellor involves exploring who you are, how you are in the world and how you connect with other people. It involves understanding other people and how they are in the world. Understanding the problems people have and why. Helping them work through problems, grow and develop. When deciding which counselling programme to do you would need to explore the right therapeutic orientation which fits who you are. Every person is unique, uniquely them. As such we need different ways to understand people, to understand their process, and therefore different ways to aid them. Whether you study person centred counselling, which at its core is about being with the other person, offering unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence, enabling them to grow. Or gestalt therapy, an existential, phenomenological, relational approach which involves, experimentation, exploration and embodiment, all ways to aid our clients to understand their blocks to connection and growth. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a solution focussed approach; it also offers a way to understand why people have the problems they have and use tools and interventions to enable people to overcome problems they are facing. As people are unique, sometimes they may need CBT and other times gestalt therapy or a counsellor who will be with them, a person centred counsellor. Or more probably an integration of the three approaches. So, on the course we teach you person centred counselling, gestalt therapy and CBT. We teach you how to integrate them and find the best way of working with your clients’ process, so that you have a holistic way of working with your clients. Through experiential learning, skills practice, personal development, supervision and professional placement, you will build the confidence, competence and professional identity needed for contemporary counselling practice. We recognise that counselling continues to evolve. Throughout the programme, you will explore counselling across a range of settings, including face-to-face, and online, while engaging with current research. You will explore difference and diversity, analyse ethical dilemmas and examine professional issues that shape the profession. On successful completion, you will be prepared for employment in a range of counselling settings and for progression towards professional accreditation, as well as further academic study. In the second year you will engage with supervised practice at a clinical placement, where you will hone your counselling skills and knowledge, helping you build insight, confidence and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a counsellor.