BSc (Hons) in Humanistic Counselling

Director of Studies: Dr Alan Priest

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We are excited to announce that Metanoia Institute has begun the process to be able to award its own degrees. We are currently waiting for the outcome of our initial submission to the Office for Students (OfS) with the intention that all students on undergraduate and taught postgraduate programmes will be enrolling for Metanoia Institute degrees from September 2022. For full details please see Update on our application for degree-awarding powers 

Course Overview:

The BSc (Hons) provides training for those wishing to take up a career in counselling. The course runs over three academic years. Please note that this course is currently undergoing revalidation. As a result of revalidation, the number of training days, entry requirements,  and fees may vary from what is currently published on the Institute’s website.

The course will provide you with a strong knowledge base and the expertise to practise as a humanistic counsellor. It is designed to equip students with a set of relational competencies which have application across the ever- broadening range of settings with which counselling is being practised. The course includes counselling theory, skills training, personal development, and practical experience of working with clients. Upon graduation you will receive a BSc (Hons) in Humanistic Counselling awarded by Middlesex University.

All teaching takes place on a Tuesday from 11.00 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. There are 26 taught days in year one and two and 11 in year three.

Course Philosophy:

The Humanistic tradition is underpinned by the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology. Humanistic theories emerged in America in the 1950s as a means of offering an alternative perspective to Psychoanalysis and Behaviourism. Humanistic practitioners believe in the dignity of every human being. They acknowledge a person's responsibility for their actions and for their failure to act. They work from the premise that we have within ourselves a tendency for a movement towards growth and healing which is supported by the presence or absence of certain environmental factors.

Humanistic practitioners acknowledge and respect their ability to use reason, science, intuition, and creativity as tools for self-discovery and the achievement of goals. They believe that wellness and health are best achieved by combining personal growth with the service for the greater good of humanity. Values that underpin the humanistic approach are: searching for meaning, focus on feelings, the importance of spirituality, development of relationships with self and other, self–actualisation, creativity, holism, intuition and responsibility to self and other. 

This humanistic counselling training incorporates therapeutic theory, skills and knowledge from three modalities: Person-Centred, Gestalt and Transactional Analysis. The course provides an opportunity to explore the ways in which these three humanistic traditions interact and understand human nature, the development of psychological difficulties, therapeutic change, the therapeutic relationship and the function of therapeutic interventions. The student will also be introduced to a range of integrative theories in order to develop their own humanistic integrative stance by the end of the therapeutic training. Integral to the humanistic approach is the importance of developing a relational way of working with clients. This relational stance follows contemporary research findings, which emphasise the establishment of a therapeutic relationship as the fundamental factor in achieving therapeutic outcomes. In addition, throughout the programme there is a strong focus on developing self-awareness and self-realisation and acknowledging and exploring difference.

Course Aims:

The programme aims to: 

• Develop a supportive and challenging learning climate in which personal professional development can take place.

• Create an environment in which differences – for example race, age, sexuality and gender – can be recognised and accounted for.

• Provide students with a thorough grounding in Humanistic Counselling theory and practice. • Provide students with a thorough grounding in Reflective Practice.

• Enable students to develop the skills and attitudes of effective counselling.

• Enable students to make and maintain an effective counselling relationship.

• Promote high standards of ethical and professional practice.