Psychosocial Studies with Principles of Psychodynamic Counselling

This BA Psychosocial Studies with Principles of Psychodynamic Counselling is a unique course that brings together psychoanalytic theory, psychodynamic practice and psychosocial thinking around issues of equality and social justice.

Why choose this course?

• Taught by experienced practising therapists and organisational consultants, this course provides an opportunity for you to explore key ideas of psychodynamic therapy and the social determinants of distress.

• It is ideal if you wish to train as a therapist or are interested in understanding the unconscious dynamics within helping relationships, group situations and organisational life.

• It emphasises personal and social change with a focus on practical exercises to develop your therapeutic listening skills and opportunities to participate in experiential, work discussion and thinking space groups.

What you will learn

On this course you will investigate the complex interplay between the psychological and the social. You will learn about the principles that underpin psychodynamic counselling and investigate the exclusions, inequalities and ideologies that shape social environments.

These psychoanalytic insights about unconscious process and psychosocial understanding of the operation of power will enable you to deepen your professional helping practice and will support you if you decide to progress to clinical therapeutic training.

How you will learn

This course is available to study full- or part-time. It has classes in the evening; some of these may be lectures that are also offered online.

You will also take part in seminars where you can discuss your ideas in one-to-one, small- and whole-class situations. You will be provided with a digitised reading list and audiovisual material to support you, but this course particularly values learning from the sharing of lived experience. The listening skills exercises and reflective practice approaches learned on this course will equip you for future work within the caring and helping professions.

Foundation Year

If you opt for the Foundation Year route, this will fully prepare you for undergraduate study. It is ideal if you are returning to study after a gap, or if you have not previously studied the relevant subjects, or if you didn't achieve the grades you need for a place on your chosen undergraduate degree.

Highlights

• Birkbeck has 50 years' experience of teaching psychodynamic counselling and practice and an excellent reputation with employers.

• We have a keen interest in the development of new and innovative psychosocial methods, as well as forging new theoretical trajectories across a range of critical fields of enquiry.

• Our psychosocial studies team is genuinely interdisciplinary, with academics coming from backgrounds in anthropology, cultural and postcolonial studies, education studies, gender and sexuality studies, literary studies, critical psychology, psychoanalytic studies and sociology.

Careers and employability

On successfully graduating from this BA Psychosocial Studies with Principles of Psychodynamic Counselling you will have gained an array of important transferable skills, including:

• therapeutic listening skills

• critical and analytic skills

• self-reflective skills

• emotional sensibility.

Graduates can pursue career paths in social research, education, psychotherapy or the media and creative arts. It prepares you for roles in a range of fields and professions including:

• mental health and wellbeing

• social justice and advocacy

• community development

• conflict resolution.

Graduates from this course have gone on to be employed in the social care system, secondary and primary education system, health care system and the charity sector.

Course modules

For information about course structure and the modules you will be studying, please visit Birkbeck’s online prospectus.