Psychological Studies with Counselling

Our new BA Psychological Studies with Counselling is ideal if you are interested in exploring psychology and counselling from both an academic and applied perspective. It will equip you with a comprehensive view of mental functioning, integrating key theories and practices from both disciplines to prepare you for a career related to psychology and counselling.

Why choose this course?

• In psychology, you will be taught by research-active academics and in counselling by qualified and practising counsellors and psychotherapists.

• This course can open the door to many opportunities beyond the traditional pathways where an understanding of human behaviour is key, such as careers in human resources, marketing, social services, education, user experience and health care.

• You will develop essential critical-thinking and analytical skills and emotional intelligence that prepare you for leadership and management positions.

What you will learn

You will gain a strong foundation in psychology as we cover topics such as learning, memory, decision-making, human interaction, and the relationship between the brain and behaviour. Counselling modules then introduce you to core counselling approaches and the psychodynamic understanding of group and organisational processes.

You can choose from specialist modules on developmental psychology, individual differences, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, social psychology as well as a wide range of applied psychology modules.

How you will learn

You can study this course either full- or part-time with classes taking place in the evening, and occasional classes on Saturdays in your first year.

You will be taught via a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops where you will engage actively in discussions and presentations, group and project work. In your final year you write a dissertation on a counselling-related topic.

Highlights

• Birkbeck has been teaching counselling and psychotherapy programmes successfully for over 50 years.

• You will study in our School of Psychological Sciences, a world-leading centre of research excellence, and in the Birkbeck Centre for Counselling, which holds our flagship counselling and psychotherapy master's courses offering professional qualifications in counselling.

• We are regarded as one of the top institutions teaching psychological sciences in the UK. In the most recent 2021 Research Excellence Framework, and for the third time, we were ranked in the top ten universities in the UK.

• We are home to the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues, the Birkbeck-UCL Centre for Neuroimaging and the Centre for Cognition, Computation and Modelling. We are also members of the Bloomsbury Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Statistics.

• Our Centre for Counselling is staffed by professional counsellors and has close links with counselling and psychotherapy organisations such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and the British Psychoanalytic Council.

Careers and employability

On successfully completing this course you will have gained transferable skills such as:

• the ability to critically analyse and evaluate material

• effective oral and written communication skills

• problem analysis and solving skills

• active listening skills

• research skills

• the ability to work independently and as part of a team.

You will be equipped with essential knowledge and skills should you later decide to apply for professional training in counselling, such as on our MSc Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Psychology graduates can be found across a range of sectors and roles, including in:

• human health and social work

• education

• public administration

• the leisure and communications industries

• the arts and entertainment industries

• counselling-related roles and further professional training.