Certificate in Counselling Skills
Your first step to becoming a counsellor
Your first step to becoming a counsellor
- Discover humanistic theory, values and ethical practice
- Use University facilities
- Start your journey to become a qualified counsellorÂ
- Learn to improve your personal and professional relationships
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for teaching quality
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Overview
Counselling is rapidly growing as a profession and is increasingly valued in education, medicine, the caring field and most workplaces.
If you’re looking to become a professional counsellor, our Certificate in Counselling is the ideal first step to start your training.
With this Level 4 course, you’ll begin to develop your counselling skills and understanding. After completing this programme we offer the next stage in counselling training: BA (Hons) Humanistic Counselling. During this BA (Hons) degree you will become a fully qualified counsellor after completing all practical and academic requirements of the second year.
Who is this qualification for?
This course is ideal if you:
- Want to begin your training as a professional counsellor.
- Want to change your current career to become a counsellor.
- Wish to understand and adopt counselling skills to your current role.
- Or would simply like to improve personal and professional relationships.
The Course
What you will study
You will study a range of topics during the course. The topics you will study could include:
Indicative Course Content Phase 1:
- Philosophy of Humanistic Practice
- Carl Rogers Core Conditions
- Acceptance
- Empathy
- Genuineness
- Presence
- Effective Listening
- Non-verbal and Para-verbal Communication
- Giving and Receiving Constructive Feedback
- Introduction to Transactional Analysis
- Introduction to Transference
- Loss and Change
- Perceptions and Attitudes towards Diverse Cultural Forms
Indicative Course Content Phase 2:
- Exercises to Continue Self Awareness
- Resistance and Reluctance
- Immediacy
- Defences
- Challenges (Self and Others)
- Johari Window
- Appreciation of Difference
- Hierarchy of Human Need
- Group Process and Dynamics
- Practice in Small Groups
- Peer Assessment of Taped Interaction
- Core Conditions of Humanistic Practice Accentuated
- Transactional Analysis
- Transference
- Feedback
Teaching and Assessment
How you will learn
The Certificate in Counselling Skills is a free-standing course that has two modules, Phase 1 and Phase 2. There’s a total of 20 sessions (10 in each phase) with two entry points for Phase 1 (September and January) and Phase 2 (January and April).
Both phases combine humanistic theory, values and ethical practice to counselling skills used in one-to-one, face-to-face situations and wider social contexts at work as well as in the community.
The sessions at the University are delivered on weekday evenings and Saturdays to give you flexibility around your current commitments.
Facilities
Use University resources, equipment and study spaces
Use facilities including the Brain Imaging Unit, VR Immersive Suite, Psychological Test Centre, Interview and Observation Suite and individual fully equipped testing cubicles and use industry standard equipment and software throughout your studies.
Learning Resource Centre
The Learning Resource Centre (LRC) contains the library, a café, IT/teaching rooms, and the Support and Information Zone (SIZ).
Library
Our campus library holds more than 200,000 books and over 500,000 eBooks.
Careers
Where you could go after your studies
You can apply for progression onto the BA (Hons) Humanistic Counselling once you complete this Certificate.
Students with additional qualifications/credit can progress from Certificate level to degree level in five years. The BA (Hons) in Humanistic Counselling is also an excellent development for students already holding a Diploma in Counselling.
As a student in the department, you will also have access to a range of opportunities, including:
- Study abroad
- Erasmus
- Internships
- Placements
- Voluntary research assistance
Student
Course Costs
Course Fees 2024/25
UK fee
Part time fees are calculated based on sum of module credits taken per annum.
For further details about fees, please see our Tuition Fee page.
For further details about international scholarships, please see our Scholarships page.
To find out about any additional costs on this course, please see our Additional Costs page.
Entry Requirements
This course is open entry for student by application and reference.
Teaching Dates
September 2023 starters
Phase 1 – September 2023
- Saturday 30 September
- Monday 2 October
- Monday 9 October
- Monday 16 October
- Monday 23 October
- Monday 30 October
- Saturday 4 November
- Monday 13 November
- Monday 20 November
- Saturday 25Â November
September 2023 starters
Phase 2 – February 2024
- Saturday 17 February
- Monday 19 February
- Monday 26 February
- Monday 4 March
- Monday 11 March
- Saturday 16 March
- Monday 18 March
- Monday 8 April
- Monday 15 April
- Saturday 20 April
February 2024 starters
Phase 1 – February 2024
- Saturday 17 February
- Thursday 22Â February
- Thursday 29Â February
- Thursday 7 March
- Thursday 14Â March
- Saturday 16 March
- Thursday 21 March
- Thursday 11 April
- Thursday 18 April
- Thursday 20 April
February 2024 starters
Phase 2 – May 2024
- Saturday 11 May
- Thursday 16 May
- Thursday 23 May
- Thursday 30 May
- Thursday 6 June
- Thursday 8 June
- Thursday 13 June
- Thursday 20 June
- Thursday 27 June
- Saturday 29 June
