Counselling and PsychotherapyMSc

Personal and Professional Development 1

This module establishes the foundations of professional practice for counselling and psychotherapy. It introduces core ethical principles and professional responsibilities (including contracting, boundaries, confidentiality, consent, information sharing, data protection and record keeping) and supports you to apply them to common practice situations working in room or remotely with clients.

Alongside ethical foundations, the module develops baseline safeguarding competence. You will learn how to recognise concerns, respond to disclosures, undertake proportionate initial risk assessment, document appropriately and follow referral and escalation pathways for children, adults at risk and other vulnerable groups, in line with statutory and organisational guidance.

The module also introduces Diversity and Equality, Social Justice and Framework (ESJF) issues as a central dimension of professional capability. You will examine how power, privilege, prejudice and marginalisation shape the development and phenomenology of psychological distress, and access to care and therapeutic outcomes. You will be supported in developing cultural humility and reflexivity in relation to your own assumptions and unconscious biases.

Attention is also given to OPT practice and framework, including contracting, safety and safeguarding in this context.

Alongside lectures and workshops, skills practice will provide structured opportunities to translate learning into micro-skills, ethical decision making and reflective professional identity development.

The module includes a professional development reflective group, to facilitate self-awareness and reflective practice.

Placement 1

This module is designed to support you in finding and beginning a supervised counselling placement in accordance with the BACP Ethical Framework and trainee professional practice standards. You will apply the therapeutic theories covered in MSc Year 1 to real client work, supported by regular clinical supervision and reflective practice. Emphasis is placed on safe and effective practice, including boundaries, safeguarding, self-care, and the effective use of supervision to support client work. The module enables you to critically reflect on your developing practice and professional identity, ensuring readiness to work ethically and responsibly within a counselling setting. Within this module, you are expected to have secured an approved placement and supervision.

The placement officer provides information, advice and guidance on the placement seeking process. However, it is your responsibility to look for and secure your own placement. All placement paperwork needs to be uploaded to the Placement Portal before you can start a placement. This includes the Placement Agreement, Readiness to Practise letter, BACP membership letter and relevant insurance documentation.

Please note that all supervised counselling hours need to be supervised in line with BACP requirements for all trainee student members and your placement must be approved by the Placement Officer prior to you commencing work within them.

Research Methods in Counselling and Psychotherapy

This module provides a substantial grounding in research methods commonly used in counselling and psychotherapy, integrating both quantitative and qualitative approaches. You will explore how research is embedded in therapeutic practice, developing an understanding of how evidence is generated, interpreted and applied in real-world clinical contexts. The module introduces key philosophical positions and epistemologies that underpin different methodologies, and considers how these shape what counts as knowledge, evidence and “good” research in the psychological therapies. You will also engage in thinking about ethical frameworks in research and look at how issues of power translate into epistemologies and research practices.

You will critically examine criteria for rigour, quality and credibility in both quantitative and qualitative research, including validity, reliability, trustworthiness and reflexivity. Through structured workshops and guided tasks, you will learn how to formulate researchable questions, select appropriate designs and methods, and plan feasible projects that are ethically robust and clinically relevant. Attention is given to practitioner research , with a focus on how counsellors and psychotherapists can contribute to, and draw upon, the research literature in a reflective and informed way.

Across the module you will work towards generating a coherent research plan, developing confidence in designing and, where appropriate, carrying out empirical work. By the end, you will be able to engage critically with published research in counselling and psychotherapy, articulate the philosophical and methodological assumptions behind different studies, and justify methodological choices in relation to your own emerging interests and practice context. You will also start developing practical skills in project design, data gathering and analysis.

Therapeutic Skills 1

This module will help you to develop a range of core personal and professional skills in preparation for work in supervised counselling placements. It is designed to foster core competencies and reflective skills that underpin effective counselling practice both in room and working remotely. It complements the theoretical and intellectual competencies developed in other aspects of the course through its focus on developing the practical person-centred therapy and CBT skills required to work safely and effectively with clients with differing expectations and needs, both face-to-face and remotely. The module is experiential in its approach and provides opportunities for you to participate in person-centred and CBT skills in roleplay counselling sessions with peers and to critically reflect upon and discuss your experiences with your peers and members of the course team. The module will also help you to develop your critical awareness of the limitations with your own competencies and to take responsibility for addressing such limitations. It thus provides an important context in which your readiness to work in supervised practice placements is developed and assessed.

Therapeutic Theories 1

This module aims to develop your knowledge and understanding of Person-Centred and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) approaches, with a critical awareness of how power, social injustice, and intersectionality shape clients’ lived experiences and therapeutic processes. In particular, it supports the development of an understanding of the philosophical, theoretical, and empirical underpinnings of these core modalities, alongside a critical evaluation of their applied effectiveness in relation to diverse client needs. These therapeutic frameworks will be directly mapped onto the therapeutic skills and competencies you will be practicing and developing in the adjacent module Therapeutic Skills 1 (PY7202)

In addition, the module begins to introduce you to the rationale and methods for integrative theory and practice, providing a foundation for the development of your integrative relational approach as you progress as a trainee practitioner.

The module will also introduce you to the theoretical frameworks and concepts underpinning Online and Phone Therapy (OPT).

Dissertation

This module is designed to consolidate and develop the knowledge and skills you have acquired throughout the course. Your research interests will be mapped to a suitable supervisor who will guide you through the different stages of the research process, including selection of a suitable research topic, obtaining ethical clearance, study design, analytic approach, and dissemination of the findings via a research report and a poster presentation. The research project must be informed by relevant theory and research of relevance to counselling and/or psychotherapy and agreed with your supervisor prior to commencement and should adhere to the principles of open science.

Final Project

This capstone module brings together the research and clinical strands of the programme through a final empirical dissertation and the completion of clinical training requirements. It supports you to design, conduct and write up an independent research project in counselling and psychotherapy, while also evidencing your clinical development through placement hours and a cumulative clinical portfolio that meets BACP requirements.

Teaching will help you develop a viable research topic grounded in your clinical experience and/interests, formulate research questions, and choose appropriate qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods designs. You will be guided through each stage of the research process: planning and project management; navigating ethics and governance; recruiting participants; gathering and analysing data; and drawing defensible conclusions that are relevant to practice. Particular emphasis is placed on issues of positionality, reflexivity and power in research and to ESJF relevant to counselling and psychotherapy practice, and on the responsible application of research knowledge into practice.

Alongside research-focused workshops, the module includes your ongoing clinical practice in placement. This involves tracking placement hours, supervision arrangements and clinical learning, and supporting the development and organisation of your clinical portfolio across the two years of training. By the end of the module, you will have produced a substantial written dissertation and a complete clinical portfolio, both of which demonstrate your capacity to integrate research and practice, to work ethically and relationally, and to contribute thoughtfully to the evidence base in counselling and psychotherapy.

Personal and Professional Development 2

This module builds on Personal and Professional Development 1 and focuses on the advanced application of ethics, safeguarding and inclusion in complex practice contexts. It supports you to integrate ethical reasoning with legal and organisational responsibilities, and to manage ambiguous dilemmas where competing duties, power dynamics, uncertainty and risk considerations must be balanced and clearly documented. It will cover topics such as: trauma-informed care and complex trauma, dissociation, self-harm and suicidality, domestic abuse and coercive control, substance use, safeguarding in the context of exploitation, and working with clients who present with multiple intersecting needs. The module also develops your understanding of working with severe and enduring mental health difficulties, and understanding key features of psychiatric settings, pathways and pharmacology in so far as they affect engagement, therapeutic work, and risk management. It will address the ethical and practical challenges of working across systems alongside professional resilience, vicarious trauma, and the use of supervision and consultation to sustain safe practice.

Attention is also given to safe practice in digital and hybrid contexts and OPT work, including managing risk remotely, maintaining confidentiality, and ensuring accessibility and inclusion. The ESJF and EDI strand move from foundational awareness to advanced, critical and action-oriented practice. You will explore intersectionality, anti-oppressive and anti-racist approaches, reasonable adjustments, and culturally responsive assessment and formulation in relation to your own practice. This includes working ethically with difference in situations of conflict or rupture, responding to discrimination within services, and engaging sensitively with culture, faith, migration and asylum experiences, disability and neurodiversity, and diverse gender and sexual identities. Non-Western models of therapy will be introduced

Throughout, the module emphasises reflexivity, accountability, and advocacy, supporting you to identify and challenge oppressive dynamics, strengthen inclusive practice, and translate learning into concrete service and practice improvements.

The module includes a professional development reflective group, to facilitate self awareness and reflective practice.

Placement 2

This module supports your progression through a supervised counselling placement in line with the BACP Ethical Framework and trainee professional practice standards. Building on the supervised clinical hours you accrued in year 1 you will engage in continued direct client work, supported by regular clinical supervision and reflective practice. The module places particular emphasis on safe and effective practice, including maintaining professional boundaries, safeguarding, self-care, and the effective use of supervision to enhance client work. This module requires the completion of a minimum of 80 hours of supervised clinical practice, which contributes toward the minimum 100 hours of clinical practice required to fulfil the MSc Counselling and Psychotherapy training requirements.

You will be encouraged to critically reflect on your developing practice and professional identity, consolidating your readiness to work ethically, responsibly, and competently within a counselling setting. A minimum of 100 hours of clinically supervised counselling practice is required to meet module requirements.

In this placement module you may choose to change your placement or add a second placement. However, please note that all supervised counselling hours must comply with BACP requirements for trainee student members and all required course placement paperwork submitted prior to commencing any new placement. Any new placement must be approved by the Placement Officer prior to you commencing work within them.

Once you have accrued 100 hours of clinical practice you must remain in placement until the end of the MSc Counselling and Psychotherapy training in line with BACP requirements.

Therapeutic Skills 2

This practice-based module focuses on developing advanced clinical skills in psychodynamic formulation and, later in the year, integrative practice. Working primarily with your own and peers’ case study material, you will learn to think psychodynamically about clients’ lived experience, presentation and relational patterns, and to translate this into coherent formulations that inform therapeutic focus and intervention. You will be able to reflect on therapeutic processes and relational patterns which impact the client’s experience and progress. Teaching takes place in small, student-led case discussion groups, facilitated by a staff member who holds and structures the reflective space.

The module places strong emphasis on the therapeutic relationship and the use of self. You will deepen your understanding of inter- and intrapsychic processes, including transference and countertransference, and consider how these processes are shaped by social, cultural and organisational contexts. Attention is given to issues of power, difference and marginalisation, and to how these manifest in clinical encounters.

As the module progresses, you will be supported to move from a predominantly psychodynamic frame to a more integrative stance, drawing on other therapeutic models covered in Year 1, in a theoretically coherent and clinically sensitive way.

Risk, safeguarding, ethical practice and professional responsibility are addressed through students' live case material w. Case presentations form a central learning vehicle, enabling you to link theory, personal reflection and clinical practice in real time. By the end of the module you will have strengthened your capacity to formulate complex cases, work reflexively with relational processes, think critically about context and power, and manage clinical risk within an ethical, supervisory and organisational framework.

Therapeutic Theories 2

This module is a continuation of Year 1 theories module. In the module you will be initially exploring key psychodynamic theories and concepts. As the module progresses, you will be introduced to integrative frameworks which cut across particular modalities and promote creative, person centred, relational and reflective practice. As part of the module, you will explore classic psychoanalytic and object relations perspectives alongside more contemporary relational, intersubjective and attachment-based conceptualisations. Building on this foundation, within a relational focus, the module will support you in developing an integrative practice, drawing together psychodynamic, person-centred, cognitive-behavioural and other relevant perspectives in a way that is clinically meaningful and responsive to client need. Special attention is given to the application of ESJF principles in clinical work, from formulations, choices of intervention and the use of self in practice. Teaching is delivered through tutor presentations and interactive class discussion, with a strong emphasis on case studies and clinical practice examples. You will be encouraged to link theory to your own developing practice, reflect critically on different models, and experiment with creative ways of integrating ideas in a coherent and relationally attuned way.