Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling

Appli­cants must have a Cer­tifi­cate in Coun­selling Skills and The­o­ry (Lev­el 3)

Mature stu­dents or stu­dents who do not have the above qual­i­fi­ca­tions can con­tact our admis­sions team on 01733 214466 or admissions@​ucp.​ac.​uk to dis­cuss equiv­a­lent qual­i­fi­ca­tions or rel­e­vant work experience.

You must have GCSE Eng­lish lan­guage and math­e­mat­ics at a min­i­mum of grade C or grade 4.

If Eng­lish is not your first lan­guage you will require a recog­nised Lev­el 2 Eng­lish lan­guage qual­i­fi­ca­tion or an IELTS score of 5.5 (with 5.5 min­i­mum in each skill) or an equiv­a­lent Eng­lish Lan­guage qualification.

An enhanced DBS check is required.

EU STU­DENTS AND OVER­SEAS QUALIFICATIONS

We can accept a wide range of over­seas qual­i­fi­ca­tions and use UK NAR­IC to com­pare qual­i­fi­ca­tions. For advice about over­seas qual­i­fi­ca­tion con­ver­sion call the Admis­sions Office on 01733 214466 or email admissions@​ucp.​ac.​uk.

ACCRED­I­TA­TION OF PRI­OR CER­TIFI­CAT­ED LEARN­ING (APCL) FOR ENTRY

APCL relates to learn­ing com­plet­ed through an ear­li­er course of study. If you have pre­vi­ous­ly com­plet­ed a course which is rel­e­vant to your pro­posed course you should make this clear when you apply. For this to be eli­gi­ble for con­sid­er­a­tion you must be able to pro­vide cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, which shows your suc­cess in a final assess­ment for that course. Learn­ing must be com­plet­ed in the last five years or fur­ther evi­dence of updat­ing will be required. Sim­ple par­tic­i­pa­tion in a course or an atten­dance cer­tifi­cate is not sufficient.

EXEMP­TIONS BASED ON ACCRED­I­TA­TION OF PRI­OR LEARN­ING (APL)

We offer stu­dents flex­i­bil­i­ty in their stud­ies, by recog­nis­ing learn­ing they may have com­plet­ed else­where before they apply. The Accred­i­ta­tion of Pri­or Learn­ing process ensures that we can take this into account when deter­min­ing the mod­ules you must study. It is impor­tant that you iden­ti­fy any rel­e­vant pri­or learn­ing when you apply. If your pre­vi­ous study specif­i­cal­ly relates to mod­ules on the course you wish to under­take we may approve a reduced pro­gramme of study, thus short­en­ing the time it takes to obtain your award. Where this relates to learn­ing com­plet­ed through an ear­li­er course of study, this is called Pri­or Cer­tifi­cat­ed Learn­ing, and where learn­ing has been achieved through rel­e­vant work or expe­ri­ence, this is referred to as Pri­or Expe­ri­en­tial Learn­ing. Claims must be approved before you com­mence a course.

EXEMP­TIONS BASED ON ACCRED­I­TA­TION OF PRI­OR EXPE­RI­EN­TIAL CER­TIFI­CAT­ED LEARN­ING (APEL)

It is impor­tant to under­stand that the APEL process does not award aca­d­e­m­ic cred­it for expe­ri­ence alone, but for learn­ing which can be shown to have been achieved through that expe­ri­ence. Stu­dents are required to pre­pare an indi­vid­ual case for the cred­it aris­ing from their learn­ing expe­ri­ences. This nor­mal­ly means that a stu­dent receives sup­port in the prepa­ra­tion of a port­fo­lio, which evi­dences their claimed exemp­tions for entry. This port­fo­lio of evi­dence is then sub­mit­ted for assess­ment and the pos­si­ble award of aca­d­e­m­ic cred­it. Alter­na­tive meth­ods of assess­ment of evi­dence may be avail­able but needs to be dis­cussed with the Admis­sions team or Course Leader.

Through­out the dura­tion of your course you will be assessed by the fol­low­ing methods:

Year one for part-time stu­dents
Course­work and Exams

Year two for part-time stu­dents
Course­work and Exams

We will pro­vide, by the begin­ning of the first week of each semes­ter, a cur­rent mod­ule guide with all the infor­ma­tion you need for each mod­ule, includ­ing details of assess­ment tasks, the dead­lines for these tasks, the required for­mat and any rel­e­vant guidance.

The course costs £5,500, which can be paid in instal­ments. The course ful­ly cov­ers lev­els 4 and 5 of the sub­ject, giv­ing a com­pre­hen­sive under­stand­ing of the top­ic. For those who require finan­cial assis­tance, there is the option of tak­ing out an adult learn­er loan to cov­er £4,299, leav­ing only £1,201 to pay.

After suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the Diplo­ma in Ther­a­peu­tic Coun­selling, you have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­plete the Lev­el 6 of the BA (Hons) Per­son Cen­tered and CBT Coun­selling & Psy­chol­o­gy (Top-up) course to obtain a full hon­ours degree with a fur­ther year of study.

This course qual­i­fies you at prac­ti­tion­er lev­el as a Coun­sel­lor. You could gain employ­ment in the coun­selling field or relat­ed psy­cho­log­i­cal professions.

Year 1

• Coun­selling The­o­ry: A Cho­sen Approach 
• Super­vised Prac­tice in Counselling 
• Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards in Counselling 
• Coun­selling Supervision 
• Work­ing with Grief and Loss 
• Work­ing with Trauma

Year 2

• Super­vised Prac­tice in Counselling 
• Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards in Counselling 
• Coun­selling Supervision 
• Work­ing with Anxiety 
• Work­ing with Stress 
• Research in Counselling 
• Set­ting up Practice

Stu­dents must have the abil­i­ty to secure 100 hours of coun­selling practice.

As the course is timetabled on the same day dur­ing the week when stud­ied part-time, this also gives you the flex­i­bil­i­ty to find a work place­ment, intern­ship or vol­un­teer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty which will improve your employ­a­bil­i­ty after you grad­u­ate. All stu­dents are encour­aged to iden­ti­fy work expe­ri­ence to aid their career development.