Gestalt Counselling

Do you have a background in counselling or psychology and want to gain the practical knowledge and interpersonal skills you need to pursue a career as a gestalt counsellor?

On this Gestalt Counselling DipHE, you'll learn how to help people reflect on their current thoughts, feelings and behaviours so they can better understand their current situation. This can help them deal with relationship problems and mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and stress.

In year 1, you'll develop foundational counselling skills and explore all the counselling approaches available to practitioners, including humanistic counselling and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT).

In your second year, you'll focus on developing the practical skills you need as a gestalt counsellor, putting what you learn into practice by conducting 100 hours of supervised counselling. You'll also learn about mental health issues and develop skills you need to work with different types of clients.

When you complete the course, you could top up your diploma to a Bachelor's degree. You could also work as a gestalt counsellor in areas such as education, the police service, the prison service and the voluntary sector.

Alternative courses
This course shares the same 1st year modules as our DipHE Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and DipHE Humanistic Counselling.

It's simple to switch courses at the end of year 1 if you change your mind about which counselling specialism to study.

Location
This course takes place at South Hampshire College Group - Southampton College Campus. While studying here, you can access the University's student support services and community including study support, the Students’ Union and our library's online resources.

What you'll experience
On this course you'll:

• Learn from experienced, industry-trained staff who've worked in organisations or run their own private practices

• Study modules that give you a strong foundation for your studies and future career, covering topics including counselling skills, ethics, counselling theory and professional skills and development

• Focus on developing specialist gestalt counselling skills and knowledge in year 2

• Apply your knowledge and skills with at least 100 hours of supervised counselling on a placement in the community

• Build a foundation to help work towards a further professional accreditation with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) following completion of the course

• Learn research skills, which you can apply in your career and in degree-level study after the course

• Develop transferable skills you can apply in all aspects of your life and career in areas such as problem solving, communication, group working, planning, effective feedback and IT

• Study at Southampton College Campus with access to University of Portsmouth support and services

• Apply for membership of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and get access to member resources including journal subscriptions, free courses and job boards

Careers and opportunities
Gestalt counselling is a tool for helping people deal with difficulties including anxiety, depression, stress, self-confidence issues, bereavement, relationship difficulties or family problems.

Public, private and charity sector settings you could work in after the course include:

• Education

• Alcohol and drug services

• Eating disorder services

• Mental health services

• GPs

• Police and prison services

You could also top-up your diploma to a Bachelor's degree on our BSc (Hons) Gestalt Counselling top-up course.

When you complete the course successfully, you can sit the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Certificate of Proficiency to become a registered member of the BACP.

Course Modules

The University of Portsmouth is passionate about creating career-focused modules that do more than support your studies, they empower your academic journey and prepare you for what comes next.

We design modules that have:

• Clear themes and skills development as you progress through each year

• Assessments that feel meaningful, often based on real-world tasks rather than isolated exams

• Career-enhancing opportunities such as placements, live projects, enterprise and volunteering

For a full list of the modules you will study on this course, please visit the link to the course page.

https://www.port.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduate/diphe-gestalt-counselling#modules