MSc Counselling and Psychotherapy

This MSc program in Counselling and Psychotherapy aims to equip you with the knowledge and expertise to become professional person-centered/humanistic counselors.  The course integrates your counseling skills practice with the academic study of counseling-related theory at the Masters’s level and facilitates students’ personal and professional development, as well as offering you a grounding in research methodology. The course is founded on a person-centered view of personhood and person-centered ways of being and the core training offered by the program is in the person-centered approach. We accept the overwhelming evidence of the theorists that the major factor in helping human beings change in a desired positive direction is a relationship in which they feel safe, valued, and challenged.  Therefore, we view the relationship in counseling as central, and support Carl Rogers’ belief in the ‘self-therapeutic capacity and wisdom of clients’. However, we also take a strong ‘anti-schools stance which reflects our sincere respect for other, non-person-centered practices and practitioners. Our starting point for the Keele Counselling Model is thus a unifying ethos that enables us to respect and welcome a diversity of professional skills and orientations. Additionally, the centrality of a secure and constantly reviewed ethical position, based on the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions, is presented to the program members as a major personal responsibility.

Core Modules

• Exploration in counseling (15 credits)*
• Understanding in counseling (30 credits)*
• Integration in counseling (15 credits)*
• Practicum 1(15 Credits)*
• Practicum 2  (15 credits)*
• Research Methods (15 Credits)*
• Dissertation (60 credits) 15,000 words. The preparation and submission of a dissertation will give students the opportunity to research, in-depth, a counseling topic or issue of interest to them
• Personal and Professional Development and Reflexivity (15 credits)*

Personal therapy and Counselling placements

For the Practicum module, students must have a minimum of 20 hours of personal therapy. They must also complete a minimum of 100 hours of supervised counseling practice at a suitable counseling Placement.

Employability

Keele counseling students go on to work in a wide range of counseling and mental health fields in the UK and internationally as well as progressing on to further study, research, or specialist training.