MSc/POST-GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN PERSON-CENTRED COUNSELLING
The Postgraduate Diploma in Person-Centred Counselling is professionally validated
by COSCA and is designed to run over two years. At the completion of the
Postgraduate Diploma, programme members will then be eligible to progress for the
Masters programme.
The counselling programme has been designed and developed to take account of the
increasing demand for nationally recognised and validated courses in counselling at
Postgraduate level. This parallels the move towards the development of a national
register of counsellors, reflecting the widely held recognition of the need to set and
maintain professional standards.
CORE THEORETICAL STATEMENT
The theoretical model and philosophical ethos of the programme is based on the
person-centred approach developed by Carl Rogers (1902-1987).
Person-centred counselling is based on particular attitudes and values commonly
described as the core conditions of empathy, unconditional positive regard, and
congruence. A person-centred counsellor seeks to work alongside the client by
holding these therapeutic attitudes and so develops a relationship and climate of
safety within which the client can move towards a more fulfilling way of being. The
counsellor is not, and does not aim to become, the ‘expert’ in the client’s life. Rather
it is believed that the individual person has within him or herself vast resources for
self-understanding, for changing self-concept and attitudes, and a capacity for selfdirection.
The learning climate of the programme is designed to demonstrate the personcentred approach to training; therefore we will endeavour to involve the participants
as fully as possible in the programme planning. Our intention is to create an
environment within which participants will be encouraged to identify and address their
learning needs in relation to their chosen direction within the counselling profession.
At all stages participants will be encouraged to take responsibility for their own
learning and safety and be responsible to others in the training group.
PROGRAMME AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The overall aim of the programme is to offer a sufficiently safe, supportive and
challenging learning environment that will enable students to develop and
demonstrate those personal qualities and professional skills deemed necessary for
competent and reflective practitioners within a person centred framework. Selfawareness, counselling theory, practice and research are integrated to a level that
enables course members to engage with therapeutic processes in a range of
counselling relationships.
The programme aims to enable students to:
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Understand the philosophy, theory, and research concerning the personcentred approach.
Develop a high level of awareness of and competence in person-centred
counselling relationships.
Understand person-centred therapeutic processes.
Develop awareness of their professional developmental needs and of the
importance of the full use of counselling supervision.
Evaluate the importance of personal development in relation to training as a
person-centred counsellor.
Consider the effect of personal experience, values, and attitudes on the
counsellor’s practice.
Develop critical understanding of the place person-centred counselling
occupies in the field of counselling and the role counselling plays in society
as a whole.
Place individual counselling practice within a sound ethical framework as
outlined in the BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling
and Psychotherapy and the COSCA Statement of Ethics and Code of
Practice.
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
The Postgraduate Diploma will run over two academic years and will provide 400
student/tutor contact hours covering theory, observed practice, personal
development, and group supervision as required by COSCA. Individual supervision
and personal tutorials can be added to this total.
Programme members are required to complete at least 180 hours of supervised
counselling practice within a suitable practice setting prior to graduation. COSCA
guidelines state that 100 of these hours should be completed within a period of 18
months of the end the diploma programme.
In line with COSCA policy and that of the School of Education the Postgraduate
Diploma should be completed within five years.
The 2014-2016 programme will meet on Tuesdays from 10am - 5pm. However, the
programme will begin with a four-day intensive week and will end with a three-day
residential meeting. In addition, a residential weekend will be included around the half
way mark of the programme. This is arranged by the programme members at a time
and place to suit everyone.
The four courses or modules that make up the postgraduate diploma and that must
be successfully completed prior to graduation are:
Course 1 - Foundations of Person-Centred Counselling
Course 2 - Therapeutic Process in Person-Centred Counselling
Course 3 - Development of Professional Counselling Practice
Course 4 - Reflexivity and Professional Enquiry
Although the programme is structured on a modular basis it is conceptualised as a
comprehensive experience.
The programme has four strands running throughout and linking the separate
modules:
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Counselling Relationship and Therapeutic Process
Counselling Theory and Research
Personal Development
Professional Development
These four components are present in, and weave throughout, the programme
forming its foundation and bringing about an integrated whole. The core content of the
programme will be presented at different times and in different ways throughout in
order to well integrate theory and practice with personal and professional
development.
METHODS AND APPROACHES TO LEARNING
A wide variety of methods and approaches to learning will be used, these include:
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Experiential workshops
Seminars and lecturers
Community Meetings
Personal Development Groups
Individual and group supervision
Observed practice
Study groups`
Audio-recordings of counselling sessions
Private study with substantial reading
Personal journaling
These training methods will run through each module to provide different
opportunities for enhancing personal awareness and counselling practice. Community
Meetings and Personal Development Groups will offer the opportunity to experience
the offering and receiving of empathy and unconditional positive regard as well as
offering the opportunity to explore personal and inter-personal issues. Experiential
workshops will offer the chance to work in small groups on specific issues. Observed
practice sessions will involve counselling fellow group members in order to
experience and explore the roles of counsellor and client.
PROGRESSION TO MSC
The requirement for the student to progress from the Postgraduate Diploma stage to
the Master’s stage is the achievement a CAS mark 9 across all 4 courses of the
programme (120 credits).
The Master’s stage of the programme consists of the participation on the ‘Work Based
Project and Dissertation Course’ (WBP&D).
The WBP&D course is a 60 credit course at SCQF level 11. The course supports the
student to frame, specify, plan, carry out and report an academic or work-related
research-based investigation or development to complete a Master’s degree. The
WBP&D course requires autonomy and sustained independent research.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Julie Anderson
Programme Secretary, MSc in Person-Centred Counselling,
School of Education, MacRobert Building,
King's College,
ABERDEEN - AB24 5UA
Tel: +44 (0) 1224 274673
E-mail: pgecounselling@abdn.ac.uk