Programme summary for Professional Doctorate Counselling Psychology

About the programme

This programme seeks to produce professional practitioners who can utilise and integrate a range of mainstream psychological theories, scientific research and clinical enquiry into counselling psychology theory, practice and research. It will equip you with the core knowledge and skills to practise as a safe and effective professional counselling psychologist. The programme uses models of therapy that centre on the client’s experience and meaning as the focus of therapeutic work.

Professional qualifications

This programme is approved by the Health Professions Council, the statutory regulator for practitioner psychologists in the UK. The programme is also accredited by the British Psychological Society. Successful completion confers eligibility to apply for Chartered Membership of the Society and full membership of the Division of Counselling Psychology.

Programme structure

Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology (PsychD) Please note: All components of the four year part time programme need to be completed to achieve Doctoral status and to become eligible for Chartership with the British Psychological Society and registration with the Health Professions Council.

The structure of the Professional Doctorate Programme is four years part time (attending for one day a week, with at least one day on a clinical placement).

Professional doctorate programmes can be either 'taught' or 'research' in their emphasis (that is, when measured by student effort). Both have equal status and share the same learning outcomes. You should check with the relevant school to find out where the emphasis is for this particular programme.

Career opportunities

The majority of our graduates enter careers as chartered counselling psychologists within the NHS. Others have chosen to work in specialist agencies or within research.

Support

Each trainee has a personal tutor whom they meet formally twice a semester but whom they can make an appointment to meet at any time. We have a placement tutor to support the process of finding, monitoring and completing a clinical placement

Each trainee has a clinical skills tutor whom they meet weekly in some parts of the programme and fortnightly at others.  Weekly programme meetings are held where any relevant issues can be raised and dealt with quickly and efficiently.  Each year group has a programme representative who represents the trainees at programme committee meetings and can represent the trainee group to the programme team. Each year group has a year tutor who is responsible for the smooth running of that year.  Trainees are encouraged to set up peer support groups.  Each trainee is supported in their research by their dissertation supervisory team who will meet with them regularly

Trainees also have access to relevant learning materials available through the learning resource centre which has excellent data bases on line providing many full text articles accessible from UEL or trainees own homes. The learning resource centre also has a range of relevant book and journals and inter-library loans are available.  The Graduate and Quality Assurance department/school are  responsible for providing a focus to the support of our postgraduate research students and for our institution’s research and scholarly strategy.

Professional Doctorate students will have at least two and not normally more than three supervisors, who together demonstrate an appropriate range of academic and professional experience.  One supervisor shall be the Director of Studies with responsibility to supervise the candidate on a regular basis.

Admission

The admissions procedure involves a written application; short listing is conducted by the admissions team.   At least two members of academic staff will review each application before a decision is made.   Applicants with either prior-certified learning or prior-experiential learning that closely matches the specified learning outcomes of the taught part of the programme may be able to claim exemption via agreed university procedures. No exemption can be claimed against the research part of the programme or in situations where a professional body excludes it.

Successful applicants are invited for an interview.

Admissions criteria:

Essential:

·     A good honours degree in psychology ( trainees normally have a 1st or 
2:1) and conferring the Graduate Basis for Chartership with the British
Psychological Society.
· Competencies in oral and written English which should satisfy the University’s entrance requirements. In the case of applicants whose first language is not English, then IELTS 7.5 (or equivalent) is required which incorporates a minimum of 7.5 in writing and speaking, together with a minimum of 7.5 in listening and reading. International qualifications will be checked for appropriate matriculation to UK Higher Education postgraduate programmes.  Such assessment of English language competence must normally have been undertaken no more than two years prior to application, though relevant and more recent study in a United Kingdom Higher Education Institution may be accepted as sufficient proof of ability

• Appropriate personal qualities including, empathy, warmth, genuineness; an awareness of the nature of prejudice and oppression; commitment to self development
• Prior training in counselling skills/relevant work (voluntary or otherwise) of working in helping relationships
• Previous experience of supervised counselling practice

The admissions policy strives to provide equal opportunities to all applicants and does not discriminate on the grounds of age, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.  Applicants are invited for interview on the basis of relevant experience and academic excellence.

The School of Psychology runs a 5 day short course entitled An Introduction to Counselling Psychology. Applicants to this programme may after interview be offered a place conditional on attending and passing this short course.  Further details of this course can be located at  www.uel.ac.uk

International qualifications will be checked for appropriate matriculation to UK Higher Education postgraduate programmes.

Students that apply to enter stages of the programme may be admitted through normal Accreditation of Experiential Learning (AEL) or Accreditation of Certificated Learning (ACL) processes, or through an approved articulation agreement. Therefore such applicants must be able to demonstrate and evidence that they have the required learning outcomes as listed in the modules for which they are seeking exemption.

Key facts

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