Psychology with Psychotherapy & Counselling

Both sides of this degree course involve a mixture of learning styles and environments. So, while you’ll have lectures, seminars and tutorials, you’ll also have practical sessions in various labs, experiential exercises and small group discussions based on particular approaches to help you develop your counselling skills. An important element of the course is also the ability of the student to reflect on the self and to give feedback to their peer group, which you’ll keep in a personal learning journal.

Assessment is just as varied. On the psychology side, you’ll write essays (both short and long), produce reports on the research that you’ve conducted, present as an individual or part of a group, while the counselling assessments include theoretical and reflective essays, negotiated assignments, projects, presentations, digital skills recordings and naturalistic observations. Throughout it all, you’ll have the support and guidance of an exceptional team.

Year One of the course divides your time equally between Psychology modules and those covering Psychotherapy and Counselling. Upon completing Year One, if you no longer wish to study a mix of the two disciplines through to your final year then you may transfer to any of the Single Honours Psychology programmes in the School (including for example, Clinical Psychology).

In Year 2 you spend two-thirds of your time studying Psychology and a third of your time studying Psychotherapy and Counselling. This balance ensures that you cover the core areas of the British Psychological Society (BPS) curriculum, developing the breadth and depth of understanding that enables you to graduate at the end of the final year with the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the BPS. This means that you are able to undertake postgraduate qualifications within Psychology and, if you wish, pursue Chartered Psychology status.

To enhance your employment prospects, you can choose to take an additional, placement year, between the second and third year of your degree. Alternatively, rather than a placement year, you might wish to take our International Year that permits you to study overseas at an international university. Either of these additional years can be used to build additional skills and knowledge ahead of your final year and to enhance your career potential.

In the final year of the course you again dedicate two thirds of your time to Psychology, including undertaking a research project in a relevant area. The final third of your time is spent developing your counselling and psychotherapy knowledge and skills. One third of the final year modules are determined by your own interests, goals or career aspirations, with an extensive range of modules to choose from.

The wide range of Psychology laboratories in the Darwin Building provides you with an enviable range of facilities in which you can gain additional insights into research relevant to your course. The Clinical, Health and Psychobiology Suite is a purpose-built teaching and research facility. It houses a central conference room, for teaching and discussion, with specialist laboratories located around the perimeter of this central room. The suite of laboratories includes: an interview/counselling room; a Stress Laboratory housing virtual reality equipment, cardiovascular equipment and a two-way mirror to permit observational work to be undertaken. Further counselling facilities are available in Brook Building, the home of Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University.

As part of the course you will have the opportunity to hear about the experiences of service users, carers, patients and public members via our community engagement and service user support groups (Comensus).

We’ve forged an invaluable network of professionals and organisations, from the NHS and allied health professionals, to the police force, local education authorities and professional sports organisations – ensuring that our courses give students like you the skills and knowledge you’ll need in your career.