Counselling and Psychotherapy Course

Are you keen to help people with Psychotherapy? Interested in gaining counselling skills?

This course provides an excellent grounding in psychotherapy and counselling covering subjects like types of counselling, accompany treatments, mental health conditions, common problems, crisis, abuse and trauma.  This course will be particularly useful for those who plan on working in counselling or want to develop their skills in psychotherapy.

The course is split into bite sized sections to make studying as simply as possible, you will also have your tutor to help you every step of the way. So Start Learning now!

Distance Learning Support

At Start Learning we pride ourselves on our friendly and supportive tutors. Your tutor support will start as soon as you receive your course and will be valid for 12 months. All our tutors are highly qualified with extensive experience in supporting distance learning students. You contact your tutor via email and they are responsible for marking assignments answering your questions and guiding you through the course.

Entry Requirements 

At Start Learning we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and study further, so we try to keep our entry requirements to a minimum.     

Recommended Hours of Study

We recommended you spend approximately 110 hours of your time studying for the Counselling and Psychotherapy course. The pace of study is completely up to you. To give an example, if you dedicate 2 hours a week to the course it would take you a year to complete but if you could spare 4 hours a week you could complete it in six months.

Course Contents

Counselling and Psychotherapy consists of the following:

Unit 1 - The basics of Counselling and Psychotherapy: What is counselling and psychotherapy? - When is a counsellor not ready to counsel? - Who needs counselling?

Unit 2 - Models and approaches of therapy: CBT – Hypnotherapy – DBT - Drama and art therapy - Psychotherapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy – CAT - Person-Centred - Solution focused therapy – EMDR - Gestalt therapy.

Unit 3 - Types of counselling: Addiction – Anxiety – Divorce – Stress - Sexual orientation – PMS.

Unit 4 - Accompanying treatments: Antidepressants - Sleeping tablets - Minor tranquilizers.

Unit 5 - Mental Health conditions: Depression - Eating disorders - Personality disorders – Schizophrenia - Gender identity disorder.

Unit 6 - Delivery of Counselling and Psychotherapy: Individual counselling - Group therapy - Couples therapy - Family therapy - Online counselling - Telephone counselling - SMS text counselling - Video Counselling.

Unit 7 - Listening skills and Validation: Stages of listening - Types of validation.

Unit 8 - How to help someone in a crisis: Suicide - Self harm - Eating distress - Relationship breakdown.

Unit 9 - Common problems in Counselling and Psychotherapy: Supervision - Communication problems - Power and control issues – Aggression - Safety issues.

Unit 10 - Abuse and Trauma: Staying safe - The Law - Sexual offences Act - Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims bill 2003 - Rights of victims – Injunctions – Evidence - Court order - Reporting abuse - Inner child - After abuse - Trauma work.

Unit 11 - Useful strategies: Toolbox - Halting protocol - Writing letters - Feeling safe - Transactional object - Breathing exercises – Mindfulness – Splitting - Projective identification – Stabilisation – Homework – Diary – Boundaries.

Unit 12 - Being a Therapist: Confidentiality - Registration and Accreditation –Insurance - Professional development - Working ethically.

Qualification

At the end of this course successful learners will receive a Level 4 Award in Counselling and Psychotherapy, Plus a Start Learning Diploma.

Start Learning strongly advises you to join the Counselling Society as it is the most forward thinking Counselling organisation in the UK.

As a student of Start Learning the cost is £20 per year and we send you the application form when you order your course.

Membership of the Counselling Society

They run a unique point based system which allows for the assessment of the personal qualities of candidates for membership.

The Counselling Society offers only one grade of membership- Accredited member (MCS Acc). To become an Accredited Member, you will need to be awarded 100 points from an overall framework of measures. Each applicant will also be examined closely for a balance of items and an overall understanding that you are safe, competent, and ethical to practise.

You will notice from the table below that maximum limits are set on all assessment elements. That’s because, again, they feel that accreditation shouldn’t just be about quantity of work done. For example, 200 placement hours done badly for accreditation purposes are not as valuable to a counsellor (or their clients) as 50 hours done well.

Start Learning Distance Learning Course = 30 Points
 
Supervised Practice = Up to 50 points
 
Personal Statement = Up to 20 points
 
Placement (s) = Up to 20 points
 
Personal Counselling Received = Up to 20 points
 
Interview (if required) = Up to 20 points
 
CPD Workshops = Up to 20 points
 
Evidence of Client Success = Up to 20 points
 
Case Studies = Up to 20 points
 
References = Up to 10 points
 
Other relevant personal growth work = Up to 10 points
 
Personal Quality element = Up to 20 points

Awarding Body Information

NCFE is recognised as an awarding body by the qualification regulators ('regulators') for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The regulators are the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual) in England, the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) in Wales and the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in Northern Ireland. The course is recognised in Scotland by the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority).

Assessment

This course is marked through a process of continuous assessment guided by your tutor following NCFE guidelines. This means that your qualification will be awarded according to your performance on assessments rather than by taking an exam.

Language of Course

English