PSYCHOLOGY AND COUNSELLING - BSC/MSCI

Programme overview

Why choose this programme?

BSc (Hons) Psychology and Counselling is a great first step for anyone interested in becoming a Counselling Psychologist, Psychotherapist, or Counsellor. This programme gives you the knowledge, practical skills, and emotional awareness needed for further study and /or careers in the psychological helping professions. The course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).
You will learn about human development, mental health, and distress, while developing listening and relationship skills. The course focuses on helping you develop self-awareness and culturally sensitive communication skills through a range of learning opportunities including individual and group projects, class discussions, and counselling skills practice.

The BSc Psychology and Counselling combines psychology with counselling allowing you to develop a sound knowledge of counselling while still covering core psychology topics. The teaching team includes experienced psychologists and qualified counsellors. This ensures that the learning is informed by real-world practice. Our blended learning approach includes core topic lectures, interactive seminars, and online activities, as well as the University supporting learning further with lecture capture opportunities.
What's covered in this course?

Some modules focus on psychology, while others focus on counselling, but the main aim is to connect the two areas, so you develop strong analytical as well as relational skills. You’ll learn both counselling theory and practical skills as well as psychological theory and research methods. Each year includes practical and interactive learning. In year 2, you can choose to do a short work placement, or a longer placement between years 2 and 3 to gain work experience in an area related to Psychology. As you progress through the course, you get to choose more option modules so you can follow your interests in Psychology or focus more on developing your understanding of counselling.

For the counselling modules, we take a developmental view of counsellor professional identity formation, using a three-stage process model as follows:

Level 4: Thinking about counselling (knowledge and understanding of the profession, historical and theoretical bases of counselling and the development of counsellor professional identity introduction to self-awareness).

Level 5: Applying counselling theories to self (deepening self-awareness and understanding of theoretical knowledge through application of theoretical knowledge to self).

Level 6: Applying counselling theories to others (deepening of reflexive self-awareness and development of culturally competent communication skills application of theory to practice to others through counselling skills and ethics training).

Future Opportunities

During the BSc programme, students can apply to add a fourth year to their degree, turning it into an MSci Psychology and Counselling (a combined master’s degree). This option is only available to students already in the BSc programme and cannot be applied for directly. Students who successfully complete the MSci Psychology and Counselling, complete 100 supervised counselling hours and can apply for registration with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). This makes the BSc program very appealing because MSci graduates can register as counsellors, find counselling jobs, or continue with further psychology training.
Our graduates will not only gain a degree with some of the most diverse career options, but also the transferrable skills to support this.

Importantly, all content is underpinned by active learning - degree content and assessment not only meet the criteria for our accrediting body, but allow flexibility of the learning process, which can be tailored to career goals. Specific modules dedicated to employability skills and creation of impact within the local community will further support this.