This module will provide learners with a variety of experiential personal development workshops designed to promote self awareness appropriate to foundation level counselling and helping roles. A specific feature of the module will be a focus on creative methods to facilitate self awareness e.g. mindfulness. Learners also complete a minimum of six personal therapy sessions externally, with an accredited counsellor or psychotherapist, as a form of structured personal development work to support their learning in this module.

1. Demonstrate capacity for self reflection through engagement with personal therapy.
2. Evaluate their experience of structured personal development activities ie workshops.
3. Describe and discuss their experience of self reflection.

4. Identify areas for future personal development.
5. Discuss the application of personal growth to real world contexts.

In this module, learners will be given an overview of the history and evolution of counselling into a profession that is underpinned by a broad range of theoretical models. Learners will be introduced to the three main schools of counselling; psychodynamic, cognitive‑behavioural and humanistic. Two counselling models, the person centred approach and cognitive behaviour therapy, will be studied in more detail.

1. Demonstrate a broad knowledge of the history of mental illness and its treatment.

2. Explore the application of the three main schools of counselling in practice.

3. Describe the key assumptions of person centred therapy.

4. Examine Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

This module provides a foundation level training in basic counselling skills that are suitable for use in a variety of helping roles. Learners will gain an understanding of the helping relationship and will develop skills in active listening and other basic responses as well as developing an awareness of the self. The foundational counselling skills will be conceptualised within the Relating Understanding Change (RUC) model (Nelson-Jones, 2015). Through experiential learning and reflection learners will develop personal qualities, capacity for empathy, and the appropriate skills and techniques required to develop a working alliance, while understanding the role of professional context (BACP, 2020).

1. Demonstrate a capacity for counselling related interpersonal engagement in a classroom setting eg active listening.

2. Describe foundational helping skills and their predicted outcomes.

3. Demonstrate foundational helping skills, reflecting an understanding of their importance, in simulated practice scenarios with peers.

4. Transfer and apply theoretical knowledge of counselling skills to nontherapeutic real world helping situations.

5. Identify the scope (benefits and limitations) of interpersonal work with clients in counselling and other helping contexts.

6. Reflect critically on strengths and areas for further development in their counselling skill set in order to improve.

In this module, learners will be introduced to theories, concepts and the language of psychology. How we think, learn, explain our own behaviour and that of others will be explored in this programme. Psychological research methods and the path of human development, milestones, landmarks and significance of relationships will also be examined. Learners will gain a basic understanding of the application of psychological theory to counselling practice.

1. Identify the major psychological changes (cognitive, social and emotional) that take place across the lifespan and examine the contribution of significant developmental theorists.

2. Outline theories of attachment and have an understanding of its importance to both child development and later life choices and behaviours.

3. Examine learning theory and how the principles of learning can be used to understand and manage behaviour.

4. Application of psychological research methods

Building on the relationship building and active listening skills developed in Year One, learners are introduced to basic action oriented counselling skills appropriate to a variety of helping roles. The focus of this experiential skills training module is understanding change in others and in oneself through the study and application of conceptual and practice based frameworks such as the Stages of Change model (Prochaska & DiClementes, 1983) and Motivational Interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). Recognising the autonomy of the client or help seeker, learners will consider how to respond to empathic opportunities with counselling skills that support change. Contextual aspects relating to role, referrals, support, and supervision are explored.

1. Describe basic action oriented skills and their predicted outcomes.

2. Demonstrate the ability to use foundational action oriented skills in a simulated setting with peers.

3. Demonstrate the ability to conduct elementary client assessment and plan basic interventions in simulated practice.

4. Critically consider the benefits and limitations of action oriented intervention.

5. Identify strengths and areas for further development in their counselling skillsetrecognising the role that support and supervision plays in learning and development.

In this module, learners will be introduced to factors impacting on mental health and mental illness. We will explore how different health models have sought to explain and treat mental illness. Some of the most common psychological disorders will be examined taking into account typical causes, maintaining and protection factors and treatments. In addition, the learner will study aspects from positive psychology which aim to identify behaviours and attitudes known to enhance mental wellbeing. Learners will gain a basic understanding of some typical psychological problems seen in counselling.

1. Understand some of the main models of health

2. Explain major disorders of mental health

3. Recognise some of the behaviours and practises known to contribute to positive mental health.

4. Examine the influence of technology on our sense of wellbeing.

In this experiential module, participants will learn about elementary group processes and engage in groupwork in a supportive and facilitated environment. The emphasis will be to build capacity for insight through structured reflective practice, individually and with peers. The group will provide a space to explore, and be supported with, ongoing work/ role issues. The use of creative facilitation methods will provide a space for participants to explore and reflect on a range of identity positions (e.g. health, ethnic, racial, poverty, cultural etc.) in ways that are accessible to all participants. Students will draw on these creative methods to design and create a mechanism for communicating this information in an attractive and intelligible way, that can be easily modified in accordance with the changing resource landscape and communication technology.

1. Participate in creative and reflective exercises in a group context.

2. Engage effectively in the group appreciativeof the need for understandings of heterogeneity and professional support.

3. Transfer and apply theoretical knowledge of group processes to personal experiences in the group.
4. Give and receive feedback in accessible and culturally sensitive ways appreciative of power dynamics.

5. Critically reflect on health, ethnic, racial, poverty and cultural discourses.

6. Critically reflect on practice to identify areas of competence and limitation, in order to develop.

This module addresses elementary professional and ethical issues related to the use of introductory counselling skills in helping roles, for example, the impacts of technology, diversity, or multiculturalism on counselling. This will take place within a broader exploration of best practice in the counselling profession within which the learner will examine the limitations and responsibilities of the novice helper. The learner will have the opportunity to consider their suitability for a career in counselling and to identify possible further learning and/or career paths.

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the application of the basic philosophical concepts underpinning ethics tohelping work.

2. Recognise ethical contexts and situations which are governed by codes of ethics and legislative requirements pertaining to practice.

3. Engage in appropriate structured reflection in relation to continuous professional development.

4. Access and comprehend at a foundational level, field specific research literature.