Please note: teaching takes place over two academic years on a part-time basis, one day a week, which remains the same for the two years you are with us (plus three Saturday workshops each academic year). The cohort for 2020 will meet at the Stratford Campus on either Wednesdays or Thursdays.

There is no facility to complete this course full-time. Because we are BACP accredited, the course must be completed in full and we do not accept any prior qualifications gained in counselling and psychotherapy. However, that experience may well strengthen your application.

The third year MA top-up is over one calendar year, part-time. You will have your own academic supervisor.

Once you have passed assessments in the first semester you will be eligible to secure a placement and start recording hours of supervised client work. If you have not reached 100 hours before the end of your second year you have another year to make up the total in order to qualify for your diploma.

A maximum group total of 25 in years one and two and 20 in year three will ensure you will benefit from an excellent student/tutor ratio.

Our teaching staff have extensive clinical experience and have written and published widely. Several have or still do contribute to the work of BACP committees.

You will develop your practical skills in our suite of six on-campus interview rooms with video recording and playback equipment. There is an emphasis on working in groups and the programme contains regular interactive structured exercises.

Other modes of learning include workshops, lectures, clinical supervision groups, personal therapy, individual tutorials, self-directed private study and assessed written assignments.

“Current research shows that the theoretical approach is by no means the most important thing in counselling and psychotherapy,” says Course Leader Gordon Jinks. “It’s about responding to the individual needs of the client sitting in front of you.”

The course is designed to provide an education and training in an integrative approach to psychological counselling and therapy to a level appropriate for safe, ethical and effective practice.

Topics of study on the Diploma, which constitutes the BACP accredited training course, include: theory and practice of counselling and psychotherapy; models for integration; theoretical frameworks (for example, person-centred, cognitive-behavioural, mindfulness based cognitive therapy and gestalt); and professional and clinical studies – including the BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice.

You will also engage in practical skills training, personal development and clinical supervision; you will study social context/multiculturalism and common client presenting problems, including mental health issues.

If you choose to stay on for a third year to take your MA, your work will be based on clinical practice and an independent research project or dissertation.

In recent years, around half to two-thirds of students leave after completing their Diploma (which is the professional qualification), with the remainder staying on for a final year of MA study.

In either case, you will be able to work towards the next level of professional standing by seeking individual accreditation within the BACP, which requires 450 hours of supervised working. Past students have attained this level two or three years after graduating.

Even if you do not go on to work as a counsellor or psychotherapist, this course is a strong supplement and support for work you may already be doing in health, social care or education.

Completing the course often leads to career progression. Many past students have returned to previous jobs while establishing and developing their own counselling practice as a second strand to their careers. In several cases this has proved successful enough to become their main source of employment.

“Many of our graduates become portfolio workers,” says Course Leader, Gordon Jinks. “They leave the course and carry on doing whatever they have been doing, but they also start doing some sessions as counsellors.

“Two, three, four years down the line they are spending more time on their practice than their other employment.”