Advanced Counselling Level 4

About this course

Counselling is a complex skill requiring a sound knowledge base and excellent communication and interpersonal skills. As a counsellor you will meet clients presenting with a wide range of problems and of varying severity.

Course Description

• Counselling is a complex skill requiring a sound knowledge base and excellent communication and interpersonal skills. As a counsellor you will meet clients presenting with a wide range of problems and of varying severity; it is vital therefore that you understand not only how to work with these issues, but also the factors that lead to these issues developing.
• Advanced Counselling provides an in-depth look into the different models and types of therapy, and the skills you will need in order to help you work with clients effectively. The course explores development and attachment theories, communication skills (such as empathy, clarification and challenge, goal setting, and listening) as well as values and anti-oppressive practice. The course also addresses the current issues surrounding regulation of the profession and how this will affect trainee and qualified counsellors, as well as information regarding setting up your own practice.

Course Content

• Models of Therapy
• Analytic Psychology - Carl Jung
• Psychoanalytic psychology
• Behaviourism
• Humanistic psychology
• Carl Rogers
• Erikson
• Cognitive Approach: Albert Ellis
• Attachment
• Types of Therapy
• Gestalt
• Person centred therapy
• Cognitive behaviour therapy
• What is involved in CBT?
• Schema therapy
• Acceptance and commitment therapy
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
• The ABCs of Irrational Beliefs
• Core beliefs
• Working as a counsellor
• Working in various settings
• Regulation
• Communication
• Listening
• Validation
• Barriers to communication
• Effective Communication
• Communicating with children
• Clarification and challenge
• Goal setting
• Being assertive
• Good practice
• Safety within therapy sessions
• Empathy
• Values and Anti-oppressive practice
• Anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice
• Assessment
• Monitoring progress
• Promoting compliance with homework tasks
• Group work
• Reflection
• Ethics and Dilemmas
• Good practice
• Setting up a private practice
• Professional Witness / Expert in Court
• Accountability
• Crisis work
• Self harm
• Suicide
• Timelines
• Working with specific issues
• Conditions
• Resources

Qualification Information

At the end of this course successful learners will receive a Certificate of Achievement from ABC Awards and a Learner Unit Summary (which lists the details of all the units the learner has completed as part of the course).

The course has been endorsed under the ABC Awards' Quality Licence Scheme. This means that UK Distance Learning & Publishing has undergone an external quality check to ensure that the organisation and the courses it offers, meet certain quality criteria. The completion of this course alone does not lead to an Ofqual regulated qualification but may be used as evidence of knowledge and skills towards regulated qualifications in the future. The unit summary can be used as evidence towards Recognition of Prior Learning if you wish to progress your studies in this sector. To this end the learning outcomes of the course have been benchmarked at Level 4 against level descriptors published by Ofqual, to indicate the depth of study and level of demand/complexity involved in successful completion by the learner.

The course itself has been designed by UK Distance Learning & Publishing to meet specific learners' and/or employers' requirements which cannot be satisfied through current regulated qualifications. ABC Awards' endorsement involves robust and rigorous quality audits by external auditors to ensure quality is continually met. A review of courses is carried out as part of the endorsement process.

ABC Awards is a leading national Awarding Organisation, regulated by Ofqual, and the Welsh Government[1]. It has a long-established reputation for developing and awarding high quality vocational qualifications across a wide range of industries. As a registered charity, ABC Awards combines 180 years of expertise but also implements a responsive, flexible and innovative approach to the needs of our customers.

Renowned for excellent customer service, and quality standards, ABC Awards also offers Ofqual regulated qualifications for all ages and abilities post-14; all are developed with the support of relevant stakeholders to ensure that they meet the needs and standards of employers across the UK.

[1] Regulators for exams and assessments in England and Wales

Method of Study

Online Version

Our online A-Level courses are fully digitised versions of the paper-courses, so you can study on any PC or smart device when connected to the internet.

As with the paper course, your online learning programme is completely flexible, so you can study at a pace that suits you.

All of our online course content is broken down into bite size chunks to make your learning more manageable and effective.

Method of Assessment

The course contains a number of assignments which your tutor will mark and give you valuable feedback on. We call these Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs). You need only send the TMAs to your tutor for comment, not the self-assessment exercises which are also part of the course to help you gauge your progress.

Tutor Support

You will have access to a tutor via email who will mark your work, guide you through the course and assist you with any problems you may have. In addition you will be supplied with a comprehensive Study Guide which will help you through the study and assessment process.

Currently there are no Q&As for this course. Be the first to ask a question.