BA (Hons) Humanistic Counselling

Humanistic Frameworks and Human Development

This module helps you become familiar with some of the major humanistic theoretical approaches to counselling.

The module will familiarise you with aspects of a common core within humanistic counselling with specific reference to the course philosophy and principles. This will enable you to recognise some of the areas where humanistic philosophy diverges, along with some of the differences in counselling techniques.

You will have the opportunity to reflect on their individual responses and relationship to the humanistic framework and develop the ability to link theory with practice and to critically examine humanistic theory.

In this module you will also explore some of the major theories of developmental psychology, looking at the diversity of life-span development models and how critical points in human development influence later life. This will include an introduction to psychopathology reviewed from a humanistic perspective.

This module will prepare you to work with clients from various stages in their developmental process, as well as accommodating the uniqueness of individuality.

Counselling Skills and Ethical Decision Making

This module introduces you to the Person-Centred and Experiential Scale as a humanistic skills learning and assessment tool.

You will be introduced to setting the therapeutic frame with clients and establishing the working alliance. Student practice will be assessed via the PCEPS with particular reference to PC1-6.

You will also be introduced to topics linking with PC7-10 in this module, and to the BACP OPT competences through discussion and experiential work (followed up with a Saturday workshop in Year 2).

The module also demonstrates the need to raise awareness of ethical issues across a range of challenging counselling situations. You will be introduced to an ethical problem-solving model and also explore the significance of counsellor confidentiality, professional boundaries, contracting, risk assessment and counsellor’s limits of competence.

You will explore effective ways of ending a session with clients. Familiarity with BACP’s Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy 2018 will underpin this module, formally introducing you to this framework and its application in remote working.

The module will also discuss professional standards with clients in all OPT communications, including text-based correspondence outside of OPT sessions.

PPD Group One

This module runs throughout the academic year and aims to provide a reflective and creative group space that has no fixed agenda and is based on humanistic principles.

You will have the opportunity to increase your self-awareness and how you function in a group through the experiential group process.

A focus of the group process is to develop knowledge of who you are and how you relate to the group process in the here and now, interpreting the experience in your own way.

The facilitator will follow a humanistic approach and offer sensitive interjections when necessary, outlining ways to set and develop a safe group experience, while exploring differences within the group. This phenomenological approach to understanding difference and individual world views is a key concept throughout the module.

This module will also provide an opportunity to explore and evaluate the implications of OPT working, including an understanding of the disinhibition effect, raising awareness of your own digital competence, experiential learning about the differences between ITR and OPT, and issues around equality, diversity, and inclusion when working across different media.

Professional Counselling Practice; Understanding the Therapeutic Process

This module gives you an opportunity to consolidate your expertise in applying the humanistic competences PC1-10 from the PCEPS Scale part one. You will practise and be assessed in PC 1-10 with a specific focus on PC 7-10.

This module also further develops your professional and ethical awareness, exploring physical contact with clients, counsellor self-disclosure, client outcomes, the process of therapy, maintaining the therapeutic relationship, relationships in therapy, working with therapeutic obstacles and outcome measures.

You will explore the implications of OPT work for the therapeutic process and ethical issues involved in OPT working, including the need to maintain client safety and confidentiality in relation to data protection, technology and data threats.

You will be able to demonstrate your knowledge of assessment processes for face-to-face and OPT work, including working within your competencies and identifying emerging mental health issues.

The module aims to familiarise you with contemporary issues that impact counselling practice. This will involve raising awareness of professional issues such as the purpose and place of supervision in the counselling profession, how to make the best use of supervision, exploring the differences between in-the-room therapy (ITR) and online and phone therapy (OPT), exploring how ITR and OPT can be blended to meet changing needs, and how to monitor safe practice such that we work within our own limits.

PPD Group Two

Providing a reflective and creative humanistic group space, this module focuses on developing self-awareness of personal communication patterns.

Appreciation of difference is further developed as group members share thoughts and feelings that differ from others’. Safety of the group allows for exploration about differences, enhancing further understanding of oneself and others.

The module will also provide an opportunity to explore and evaluate the implications of OPT working, including an understanding of the disinhibition effect. This will include raising awareness of issues related to your own digital competence, experiential learning about the differences between ITR and OPT, and considerations of equality, diversity, and inclusion when working across different media.

Counselling Skills in Context; Client Issues

This module aims to consolidate learning from previous modules and encourages your continuing self-awareness and reflexivity in your casework.

You will also have the opportunity to discuss and receive peer feedback on your counselling work. Where appropriate to the cases presented, this will include reflection on OPT working.

You will explore the range of pathology and mental wellbeing you may see in your clients, ending therapeutic relationships, counsellor response to diversity in clients and professionalism in private practice.

You will also practise and be assessed in PC-1-10 with a focus on PC10, the extent to which the therapist projects a sense of dominance or authority in the session with the client.

The module revisits the impact of the different ways therapy can be facilitated remotely, alongside the associated technology.

This module also aims to introduce you to both research methods and some key client issues. Students will have input on research methodology regarding searching for literature relevant to specific client issues. There will be a mixture of tutor and student presentations on the range of client issues.

Expressive Arts Therapy & Existential Therapy

Part one of this module explores expressive arts therapy. It aims to define, discuss and recognise your own personal patterns in relation to art, play and creativity and begin to understand concepts of play, art and creativity as expressive arts within the counselling context.

It includes an introduction to creative arts approaches within therapy. Links are made here to Jungian theory of consciousness and symbolism, discussing these in relation to the key principles of creative arts and healing linked to humanistic principles.

The module will consider how arts and creative approaches may be effective with diverse populations in contemporary British society, because they are not dependent on the spoken word and are holistic. Ethical practice in the creative arts therapies will also be explored.

Part two of the module aims to develop your critical understanding of existential therapy, exploring its philosophical foundations and therapeutic applications, enabling you to evaluate its relevance to your own developing practice.

You will engage with the core philosophical influences of existential therapy, including the works of Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Sartre, and examine fundamental existential concepts such as freedom, responsibility, authenticity, meaning, isolation, anxiety and death awareness.

You will further consider existential therapy in contemporary counselling practice, reflecting on its relevance in addressing modern concerns.

The module will also explore appropriate interventions and techniques relevant to the specialist humanistic approach that are specific to OPT media.

PPD Group Three

In this module, you will develop your self-awareness skills using the group for this process. The focus of self-reflection will be ‘how do I experience myself and relate to others within the group’.

You will explore themes around how issues of authority and intimacy influence your experience. The group provides a reflective and creative space for this exploration and has no fixed agenda.

You will have the opportunity to identify your responses by examining your thoughts, feelings and physical senses. You can then use this information to further explore and analyse your experience, identifying any patterns of behaviour in their reactions.

The module will provide an opportunity to critically evaluate the implications of OPT working, including an understanding of the disinhibition effect. This will include developing awareness of your own digital competence, experiential learning about the differences between ITR and OPT, and issues around equality, diversity, and inclusion when working across different media.

Critical Thinking in Humanistic Counselling & Developing Professional Practice

This module aims to develop your critical thinking skills and understanding of humanistic theory with the aim of considering whether they can coherently integrate aspects of non-humanistic theory into your humanistic practise.

You will make comparisons between Humanistic, Psychodynamic, Existential, Transpersonal and Cognitive Behavioural (CBT) models and critically analyse the models’ varying theoretical perspectives and practices.

You will be introduced to models of integration and evaluate whether they can coherently integrate aspects of other counselling models within their developing orientation. This part of the module is delivered via ten one-and-a-half-hour sessions.

The second part of this module provides you with an opportunity to review and clarify many of the practice issues raised in Diploma-level training, developing your ethical and professional awareness, referring to your current counselling experience and supervision.

Further aspects of professionalism and an appreciation of diversity and power issues in the therapeutic relationship will be explored along with more detailed examination of using the Clinical Outcome in Routine Evaluation (CORE) method.

The module will provide you with the opportunity to extend your knowledge of the particular challenges of OPT to practitioner wellbeing and will revisit issues of confidentiality and data protection with regard to OPT work.

You will have an opportunity to review and clarify your humanistic values and beliefs in relation to professionalism, assessment, outcome measures and contemporary developments in the world of counselling.

You will be informed about aspects of client medication, clients at risk, referrals, diverse work contexts and post-qualifying development.

Brief Therapy & Diversity

The module explores Brief Therapy from a humanistic perspective in depth, and extends your learning beyond generic humanistic counselling practice.

You will reflect on your developing understanding of your own sense of self as a congruent humanistic practitioner and on the ways that this particular model may, or may not, fit with your developing way of working.

In this module you will also explore appropriate interventions and techniques relevant to the specialist humanistic approach that are specific to OPT media.

You will explore the factors that may affect mental health in diverse populations in society, the roots of prejudice and how issues such as difference and discrimination can be experienced as a result. The module will explore how prejudice can be counteracted through policies and projects aimed at equality of provision of psychological services in health and social services.

You will be encouraged to reflect on your own prejudices through a phenomenological approach, which builds on theories explored in the course modules.

Independent Case Study

The dissertation module gives you the opportunity to apply knowledge and competencies gained in other modules to an individual case study from your current professional practice, which must be based on at least 6 sessions with a chosen client, reflecting on ethics, diversity and anti-oppressive practice.

To begin the research process, you will appraise your current therapeutic approach, including your growing edges.

Having undertaken the heuristic research method, the dissertation will conclude with a statement of the new learning from this reflexive module.

You will discuss and evaluate their therapeutic approach from the case study, reflecting on potential limitations of your preferred theoretical models in your work with this client.

The dissertation will also explore appropriate interventions and techniques relevant to each individual case study specialist’s humanistic approach in relation to OPT media.