Counselling Studies
MA
Course overview
The MA in Counselling Studies aims to meet the requirements for developing advanced theoretically and research-informed practitioners who are positioned to take lead responsibility in agencies in terms of clinical practice and in a wider context to make a contribution to the profession in terms of developing professional knowledge.In order to do this, the course of study provides:
- perspectives from social sciences and other disciplines on debates about counselling and psychotherapy
- critical appreciation of the key debates, research methods and professional issues in counselling and related fields
- transferable interpersonal, conceptual and analytical skills, including critical thinking, self-evaluation and research
- an inter-disciplinary learning context that promotes a deeper understanding of the wider health and social care context of counselling.
Please note that this course is for professionally qualified counsellors only.
Core modules
Self-Managed Learning in Counselling
This module will provide the opportunity for you to become co-creators of a learning community which will support their development as independent learners. The learning community will offer a supportive interactive forum for you to develop a range of skills required by an advanced counselling practitioner. These skills focus on the ability to pursue ongoing self-managed learning and further development of critical thinking which will promote an effective confident engagement with the wider professional community. In order to achieve this, you will be introduced to learning style theory, including Gardener's multiple intelligences model that will support a more autonomous approach to learning and professional development. You will then negotiate an appropriate area of interest in counselling to develop as a presentation where you will be supported in identifying a range of appropriate counselling resources for this project. The presentation in the group will take the form of an interactive seminar wherein you will be required to articulate complex arguments and defend a personal position in relation to the material. Participating in a series of seminars both as presenter and audience will provide the opportunity for you to integrate critical thinking skills with advanced communication skills. This module will be assessed through a 3,000 word essay and a portfolio of evidence. The essay is a critically reflective account of conducting a personal learning audit. The portfolio presents evidence for researching and presenting a suitable counselling-related topic and critically reflective skills in evaluating the learning gained from this process.
Advanced Critical Perspectives in Counselling
The theory and practice of counselling is informed by a rapidly developing knowledge base and the wider social and political contexts. This module is designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge to critically reflect on how current developments, such as the impact of mindfulness and neuroscience, are shaping the professional field. It will include an in-depth examination of particularly important historical trends such as the importance of the therapeutic relationship and the move towards integration. Current debates, such as evidence-based practice and regulatory mechanisms for the profession, will be considered along with different perspectives on counselling as a type of cultural practice. This module is designed to equip you to develop your understanding of the range of factors operating in complex ethical dilemmas as well as the wider legal context in which counselling operates. It will also develop your understanding of counselling in accord with current theory and research in order that they may continuously update their therapeutic practice. This module is designed to develop advanced practitioner level with regard to the ability to articulate robust currently-informed rationales for therapeutic interventions and to engage effectively and persuasively with the wider community comprising clinical professionals, service providers and knowledge produces in counselling. It is assessed through a 6,000 word essay.
Research Studies
This module is designed to provide you with a critical overview of the main methodologies and designs applied to research within health and social care, professional practice, regulation and policy. It provides you with an opportunity to explore the theoretical dilemmas which underlie the process of inquiry and its relationship to practice. The module will provide a framework within which to select, evaluate and justify the research methods chosen by you for your research project. Here, you will prepare and write a research proposal which will normally lead to a level 4 dissertation. Hence prior knowledge of some research approaches at level 3 is normally expected. This module is taken by students on a variety of courses. Learning will usually be with a group of students who bring different academic and/or professional interests to their study, thus providing a community of collaborative learning well suited to interdisciplinary exploration.
Major Project
The Major Project, which is central to the Masters award, enables you to demonstrate their ability to synthesise learning from previous modules and use this learning as the basis for planning, conducting and writing up a research or work-based project. This project provides the opportunity for you to demonstrate: the ability to raise significant and meaningful questions in relation to their specialism; depth of knowledge which may involve working at current limits of theoretical and/or research understanding; critical understanding of research methods and its relationship to knowledge; awareness of and ability to develop solutions to ethical dilemmas likely to arise in your research or professional practice; the ability to draw meaningful and justifiable conclusions from information which may be complex or contradictory; the capability to expand or redefine existing knowledge to develop new approaches to changing situations and contribute to the development to best practice; the ability to communicate these processes in a clear and sophisticated fashion; the capability to evaluate your work from the perspective of an autonomous reflective learner. This module will be assessed through a report of a research/work-based project of up to 18,000 words to include a critical discussion of application to practice and critical reflection.
Optional modules
Advanced Relational Practice in Counselling
A reflective and proficient counsellor is interested in broadening and deepening their professional practice. The premise on which this module is constructed is that relationship is fundamentally important in individual therapy and group work. This module explores the relational depth of therapy through considering a wide range of theoretical perspectives, and models. There are two central aspects to be explored; the relationship between client and therapist as they work together and the relationship that the therapist has to themselves, this inter subjectivity with others can be explored via a group context. Relationship is an ontological part of therapy and the interaction between therapist and client is where the work of therapy takes place. The exploration of the client therapist relationship is a central tenet of counselling and is therefore the ground that the module explores. You will examine your own practice in the light of a range of relational theories to deepen your understanding of your craft. Each aspect of the therapeutic encounter will be deconstructed to look at the dynamics that are evolving. The second aspect of learning is the therapist learning and understanding of the inter-subjective field between oneself and others. It is that space between individuals which helps create our subjective world. A process group will be the vehicle for exploring that field between individuals. You will be expected to fully participate in this deep personal exploration. The module will be assessed via a 6,000 word essay in which you will articulate your understanding of relational theory in counselling practice and demonstrate the impact of your deepening understanding of relational theory on your practice using case examples and learning from experiential course work.
Collaborative Practice for Integrated Care
The World Health Organization (WHO) convened a WHO Study Group on Inter-professional Education & Collaborative Practice in 2007 to articulate a greater understanding of this issue within a global context. It was tasked with providing guidance to member states on how they could use inter-professional collaboration to scale-up and build more flexible health workforces that enable local health needs to be met efficiently and effectively while maximising resources. A programme of work was undertaken with engagement and consultation with a variety of partners and this culminated in the publication of WHO's Framework for Action on Inter-professional Education and Collaborative Practice in March 2010. International students who access this module will be able to evaluate the current status of inter-professional collaboration and education in health and social care around the world and make comparisons with the mechanisms that shape collaborative practice in their own areas of practice and in the UK. From a policy perspective they will be able to critically reflect upon the strategies and ideas that can help policymakers implement the elements of inter-professional education and collaborative practice that will be most beneficial in their own areas of jurisdiction. In the UK recent successive policy documents such as A Health Service of all Talents (2000), Shifting the Balance of Power (2002) Liberating the Talents (2002) and recently National Service Frameworks have promoted greater collaboration and teamwork between professionals to promote a better and more flexible integration of services in partnership with the user. As part of the government's agenda for modernisation the role of individuals is central, as evidenced by the creation of consultant practitioner's posts e.g. consultant nurse and consultant therapist. These posts function across professional and organisational boundaries and provide strategic direction to their particular area of expertise equally in social work, inter-professional work at the health and social care interface is gathering momentum evidenced by closer links being forged in terms of policy, practice and organisations. Social workers are currently building and sustaining purposeful relationships with people and organisations in community-based and inter-professional contexts taking lead roles in or contributing to integrated care and partnership working. Implementing this policy is often fraught with difficulties and inter-professional working/partnerships require the development of skills and knowledge in order to build capacity for shared understanding and maintaining relationships or focus. Little attention is given to these skills in training or CPD; this module therefore seeks to address some of these most salient issues.
Global Leadership
Businesses, whether private, public or third sector, operate in a world facing a range of urgent global issues. This module examines the fitness of business in both health and social care and other sectors and individuals to tackle such issues, based on the Global Leadership model developed by lecturers at this university. This model consists of four elements: effective decision making, adoption of a global approach, creation of a new business paradigm and a contemporary mission. The module also considers the related concept of misleadership, which looks at how leaders have often failed to achieve the optimum outcomes for those they lead. Leaders predominantly create context and this module will explore the skills required to successfully mould and develop the context in a complex evolving environment. Assessment will take the form of a group presentation and development of a Wiki on a specific global issue, together with an individual 4,000 word report assessing how successful a specific organisation has been in tackling the issue.
Advancing Professional Decision Making
The aim of this module is to advance your decision-making skills through critical reflection particularly in the area of advanced organisational practice. This module will also be an optional module for other courses in the Masters framework within the Faculty of Health, Social Care & Education. The module is designed to be delivered via a taught route and via distance learning. The demands of modern healthcare systems require the development of roles for confident autonomous organisational practitioners, who possess the knowledge and skills to implement complex decisions in a rapidly changing health sector environment and to play key roles in service development. This is particularly important in advanced organisational practice and you will be encouraged to focus on new or advanced areas of service developments and consider issues such as ethics, legislation and quality assurance. You will need to be able to utilise both strategic and operational decision making skills within an area of advanced organisational development and or practice and to develop strategies to facilitate the implementation of the outcomes of the decision making process, either as an individual or within a team/organisational context. You will contextualise these skills to their own area of service and expertise.
Assessment
Teaching and learning strategies aim to produce advanced reflective practitioners who are able to critically engage with theory and articulate a coherent theoretically informed position in relation to counselling. You will be expected to explore and analyse your own practice and personal experiences in order to achieve a synthesis of theoretical research-informed and clinical practice-based knowledge. In addition to this, the following activities will be utilised to facilitate learning:- provision of student handbook, module guides, pre-course reading list, University rules and regulations
- training workshops, presentations and clinical demonstrations
- critical reflection on theoretical issues in relation to clinical practice
- individual and group tutorials
- guided reading, discussion and debate
- open group process work
- research studies seminars
- VLE support
- experiential learning e.g. role play.
The course team tutors have excellent links with professional networks. Students will be encouraged to expand their horizons and engage in counselling-related professional activities such as attending events organised by the Anglia Ruskin University Counselling Society.
Course delivery
The course is delivered in a classroom setting supported by Anglia Ruskin's virtual learning environment (VLE). Students must have access to a computer and the internet and have basic IT skills.
Course support
Tutorial support from the course team is available via email, telephone and the VLE. This includes one to one support from the module leaders, your personal tutor, IT helpdesk and the student adviser.
Online facilities
You will have internet access to many of Anglia Ruskin's facilities through your 'My.Anglia' account which will be set up for you once you have registered as a student. This account will give you access to the digital library, the VLE, rules and regulations, and your own email account. As a student there are a vast number of high quality resources available to you through our digital library; including access to electronic journals, e-books, databases and other resources through the internet. This means that resources are available whenever you choose to study, whatever the time of day.
Our University offers well-equipped lecture theatres and seminar rooms. Our Faculty has a number of specialist rooms including a dedicated counselling training room and a shared observation suite.
This is a non-clinical award and is thus not subject to professional body accreditation. However, it is important to note that the recently issued QAA benchmark statement on counselling and psychotherapy stated that qualifications for this discipline should be set at graduate and postgraduate level. Therefore this course meets the requirement for professional counsellors with non graduate qualifications to meet these standards.
| Entry Requirements: | This course is designed for experienced counselling practitioners who hold relevant entry qualifications. The following minimum entry criteria meet the current requirements of Anglia Ruskin University. Evidence of attainment of a Bachelor Degree with Honours or equivalent. Candidates who do not possess a first degree but who have attained an academic or professional qualification approved by the Senate (or a committee acting on its behalf) as equivalent to breadth and depth to a UK Honours degree. Candidates who do not possess a first degree but can demonstrate extensive relevant practical experience, either on its own or taken in combination with other qualifications, deemed by the Senate (or a committee acting on its behalf) as evidence that an applicant possesses the appropriate knowledge and skills equivalent to an Honours degree. All candidates need a recognised professional diploma in counselling and extensive relevant practice experience i.e. a minimum of 125 hours supervised practice. Ideally, candidates should be in practice as a counsellor, either paid or as a volunteer, or in a job for example nursing or social care in which counselling skills are used. |
- Evidence of attainment of a Bachelor Degree with Honours or equivalent.
- Candidates who do not possess a first degree but who have attained an academic or professional qualification approved by the Senate (or a committee acting on its behalf) as equivalent to breadth and depth to a UK Honours degree.
- Candidates who do not possess a first degree but can demonstrate extensive relevant practical experience, either on its own or taken in combination with other qualifications, deemed by the Senate (or a committee acting on its behalf) as evidence that an applicant possesses the appropriate knowledge and skills equivalent to an Honours degree.
- All candidates need a recognised professional diploma in counselling and extensive relevant practice experience i.e. a minimum of 125 hours supervised practice. Ideally, candidates should be in practice as a counsellor, either paid or as a volunteer, or in a job for example nursing or social care in which counselling skills are used.
How to apply
Location
Duration
2 yearsTeaching times*
Wed 9.30am-1.30pmAvailable starts
SeptemberFaculty
Health, Social Care & EducationDepartment
Family and Community StudiesContact us
UK and EU applicants:- Call 01245 686868
- Complete enquiry form
- Call +44 (0)1245 493131 ext 2609
- Complete enquiry form
*Teaching days and times are for guidance only and are subject to change each academic year. We advise all applicants to wait until they are in receipt of their timetable before making arrangements around their course times.
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