Counselling and Psychotherapy

Introduction – Why study counselling and psychotherapy?

The Counselling and Psychotherapy Program offered in 2012 will replace the Grief and Palliative Care Program.  For over 10 years the Grief and Palliative Care Program was designed for practitioners working within a grief, bereavement or palliative care context. The Counselling and Psychotherapy Program will expand upon this speciality and actively seeks to promote counselling and psychotherapy knowledge and skills appropriate to a numbers of settings.

The Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma of Counselling and Psychotherapy introduces students to an integrated sequence of courses which will provide students with the knowledge and the counselling and psychotherapy skills to understand, assess and intervene appropriately in a variety of settings. 

The Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy Program will build on this foundation providing students with experiential counselling and psychotherapy skills and supervised practicum in external agencies. It will be a unique Program as the students undertaking Masters will be able to specialise in a number of different streams. These streams will relate to areas of special interest, namely: general counselling, grief, loss and trauma, grief and palliative care counselling, mental health and lifestyle and wellbeing. 

Research methods will be covered in depth in the Diploma and Master’s programs for students wishing to pursue a PhD.

Who is the program for?

The Program is designed as a pathway for students to move towards registration as a Counsellor and/or Psychotherapist. Recent changes to the Counselling and Psychotherapy profession demand that practitioners meet training standards outlined by the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) www.pacfa.org.au.  This program has been designed as a pathway to meet these training standards.

What is distinctive about this program?

The Counselling and Psychotherapy Program offers a unique combination of up-to-date theoretical knowledge and practical skills in counselling and psychotherapy.  Theoretical perspectives are balanced by application of techniques, so that experiential and integrated learning results. 

The program recognises the importance of a holistic orientation in therapeutic practice and acknowledges the connections between mind, body and spirit in all individuals. Self-awareness work is a fundamental component of the Counselling and Psychotherapy program, and is based on evidence that the ability of the counsellor to provide effective rapport, contact and intervention is directly linked to the persona of the counsellor and psychotherapist.